Greenhouse!

Well I finally got a greenhouse! Now my tender little tropicals can safely shelter from the cold and dry winds. It's not huge - only about 24 square feet - but it's big enough to walk into and should accommodate quite a few plants.
And today I made my last foray of the year to Annie's. I was there primarily to grab some native annuals before it's too late. Now John and I had bought along a friend of ours who has a minor case of plant obsession (compared to my severe form) and she and I went examining the pots and plantings around the nursery perimeter. Suddenly we were struck by the presence of a magnificently tall plant with brilliantly reddish/magenta-esque flowers. It was soon clear that it was a specimen of Cantua buxifolia. I had always known that at some point I would end up with one of these plants - I just didn't know when. But as I stared up at the flowers glowing under the sun, just after the fog had cleared, I knew this was the moment. So I ended up making my way over to grab one (after some confusion wherein we realized that we had lost our wagon somewhere in the midst of 2 1/2 acres of plants - we remembered eventually where it was and found it.) After this plant adventure we made our way to the U.C. Botanical Garden in the lovely Berkeley Hills. We enjoyed the tropical atmosphere of the fern greenhouse until an odd noise that may've been a frog and was moving from place to place convinced my friend we should exit the greenhouse. From there we walked to the Asian area of the garden, which was incandescent with Fall color. The seasonal hues ringed the pond on Strawberry Creek and continued up the hill. A particularly spectacular highlight was a pink-blooming Luculia that saturated a pathway with fragrance - sweet yet floral. Then I was lured to the plant deck by a Modiolastrum lateritium (another Mallow!) with salmon flowers and a Senecio (mis-labeled S. mandraliscae - I think it's still a Senecio, but then again I'm not entirely sure) After these two purchases our party made its' way back to the parking lot. By this point I was overstimulated by all the plants and downing elderberry coughdrops for my dry throat (from talking about plants all day while recovering from a cold)!
I hope to post some photographs from this exciting escapade tommorrow!