Field Trip to Annie's Annuals

Last Sunday my real life and online life collided in a beautiful mash-up that was a trip to Annie's Annuals in Richmond. This nursery is so much fun and was totally worth the trip, even though I was sort of hungover. Guess that means I'm perpetuating the stereotype! Haha.

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Tweeps! (L-R)
@gardenpunk (Me!), @betweenthelimes (Carri), @back40feet (Chuck), @anniesannuals (THE Annie herself), @bayareatendrils (Alice), and @TMTenterprises (Matt)

Because Annie's Annuals tweets, has a Facebook page, and is on Flickr, they knew we were coming and had some goodies ready for us, thanks to @patfitzgerald and Pacific Plug & Liner.

The coolest thing is that we got a behind the scenes tour of their propagation and new planting areas and got to meet Anni Jensen and Claire Woods. It was like being in the presence of royalty.

I'll be honest. I only bought one plant while we were there. A Ceanothus 'Tuxedo' - a black variety of Ceanothus! I planted it in the back corner of my lot that I have stuggled with for a couple years because it's barren. It's supposed to get 8' x 8' and is evergreen, so hopefully it blocks out the unwanted view of the neighbor's dining room window.




When we first moved in here 3 years ago, I had received a bunch of plants from a not-so-great mail order nursery which I proceeded to stick in the clay (you can't even call it soil) and every last plant died. That sort of shell-shocked me and I haven't really bought that many plants since then. Couple this with the outrageous sticker price of what I thought was the nearest nursery, I just didn't really buy any plants, just mainly started vegetables from seed.

Now we have a landscape plan being drawn up so I didn't want to go crazy and buy stuff that might not work. (At least, that's what I told myself). Annie's is a great resource for getting a lot of healthy plants for not a lot of money. Cheaper in person than mail order, or so I hear! The plants are very robust, albeit in mostly 4" pots. For those of you who can't make it to Richmond, or don't want to get off the freeway given Richmond's reputation (it's not THAT bad during the day) - I hear folks rave about the quality of their packaging when shipping items.

We made off with some pre-release Kniphofia (look, a Latin word on Gardenpunks!), which I potted up tonight as they were rootbound in their individual 6/9-packs.




(Don't be jealous.)


A huge thanks to Annie's for treating us like VIPs and making for a wonderful experience!