Nursery Visit: Little Prince of Oregon

Now that winter is officially over, we can all breathe a sigh of relief. No more cold weather! (We hope.) 

For we who love gardening it's the happiest time of the year. In addition to all the garden digging, we get to visit our favorite nurseries and buy new plants. Last Saturday I met up with garden pal Heather and drove up to Little Prince of Oregon, a wholesale nursery outside of Aurora that opens once a year for those of us privileged enough to be invited.

Little Prince has hundreds of cool plants for sale at, well, pretty much everywhere. The graphic below gives you an idea of the number of retail outlets along the I-5 corridor. This page will give you more specific information.

Little Prince is not little. Every year they add new plants to their long list of goodies. Hundreds of succulents, perennials, ferns, grasses and shrubs grow in multiple hoop houses.

One of the "It" plants for next year will be 'Gold Nugget' Sempervivum. Check out that gold color!

Sempervivum 'Gold Nugget'

Aren't they something?

Another cool item were these sedum table wreaths. They were already sold. Wouldn't they be fun on a picnic table with a hurricane lamp in the center?

Lemon Fizz Santolina is an amazing plant. Aren't these the cutest?

Santolina rosmarinfolia 'Lemon Fizz'

So what did I buy? Here are some of the tags:

And here are the plants:

 And the rest:

They're small now but will grow quickly as most plants do here in western Oregon. Have you purchased any new plants yet this spring?

Nursery Jaunt: Little Prince of Oregon

Finally, I was able to make it to what has become the annual  Little Prince of Oregon Garden Bloggers' Plant Sale! It was nice to see old friends and meet new ones. Because I was so busy chatting and hunting for plants I didn't get many photos. 

Little Prince of Oregon is a wholesale plant nursery located here in Oregon. They deliver their fine wares in this pretty green truck to retail nurseries from Portland down to Eugene. Their website lists them specifically. 

In fact, last year when I was at one of the participating nurseries, guess what I spied. Their telltale green frog tag, with a green frog hiding in the pot!  

How cute is that?

These containers with sedge and ferns were really eye catching, a clever, year-round-interest container ensemble.

The place is HUGE. We traversed the seventy-some hoop houses, delighting in row after row of interesting plants.

Here are the plants I purchased.

Check out the leaves on this hellebore. I don't care if it ever blooms.

Helleborus argutifolius 'Janet Starnes'

One of my current fascinations is the genus Erodium.

Erodium reichardii 'Flore Pleno'

Check out this cool Sedum.

Sedum 'Lime Twister'

Another Sedum.

Sedum anacampseros

I was really smitten with the burgundy midrib on this fern. 

Athyrium otophorum

A fuzzy little Sempervivum.

Happy trees are making for increased shade in my garden. I knew I needed this Toad Lily to add to the mix of woodland wonders.

Toad Lily, Tricyrtis hirta 'Blue Wonder'

Here is a Little Prince photo of its fall-blooming flowers.

Tricytris hirta 'Blue Wonder' flowers (Little Prince of Oregon photo)

This tiny Crassula was too cute to pass up.

Crassula socialis

After we finished plant shopping, Heather, Laura drove over to nearby Aurora. We had just enough time to visit one antiques store. Because it requires millionaire status to do any shopping here and I am no where near qualifying, I was a little more free with the camera.

Sedum in rusty things always appeals to me.

Clever use of an old bathroom sink.

There were two of them.

I really wanted this metal chair but can you see the price tag?

I'm not a huge fan of blue but I love old mailboxes.

Lots of cute ideas here.

So, are you shopping for new plants? It is spring now, after all.