So it started out a pretty nice day today and I wanted to go get some plants for my empty planter boxes.  Being in an apartment has really curbed my gardening, but I do have about five or six of those 3′ plastic planter boxes to try and bring a little bit of greenery into my existence.  My shopping list included quite a few herbs, some showy flowers, and some scented flowers:

• Rosemary
• Thymes (various types)
• Lavenders (various types)
• Mints (various types, esp. chocolate, spearmint, and apple)
• Creeping Verbenas
• Geraniums (pelargoniums, not “true geraniums”)
• Sweet potatoe vines
• Coleus
• Persian Sheild
• and anything else that looked interesting…

I was also looking for some kind of very fragrant annual that I thought was a verbena or a lobelia, but I can’t remember exactly – and web searching makes me think I’m completely off the mark for the appropriate genus. I couldn’t find it while I was out and about today…  I’d recognize it by sight and scent.  It has an almost overpowering sweet scent from clusters of small, purple flowers that almost look like a miniature version of “butterfly bush” flowers. The plant itself isn’t too big, probably less than a foot to 18″ tall max. FOUND IT – Heliotrope!  Yummy!

I was only able to make it out to Watters and Lowe’s.  This is my first foray out to buy plants in the Prescott area since moving here, so first impressions are important.  Watters was good, and actually had a pretty good selection for their size. It was a much smaller garden center than I’m used to, not only coming from Albuquerque, NM, but even from the MUCH smaller and far more rural area of Sevier County, UT – where there were at least 3 nurseries within 5 miles of my house that were bigger than Watters (pop. of Sevier County, UT hovers around 20,000) : Anderson Garden Center, Brooklyn Garden, and Intermountain Nursery – all of which were at least twice the size of Watters.  So considering that the whole Sevier County in Utah has HALF the population of Prescott City, I would hope there are some other offerings around that I just haven’t heard about yet…

Anyways, I was at least able to find most of the generic stuff, but nothing very exciting.  I even had to go to Lowe’s just to get a better selection of Geraniums and Coleus, but that’s about all Lowe’s had. Bleh.  I’ll probably end up having to do what I did in Albuquerque when my favorite nursery there closed, and buy online. I only got enough plants to plant up about 3 of my planters, so if y’all know of any other places I might try for some cool, interesting plants, let me know. 

Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t have a “bad” experience at Watters, it just didn’t meet my high hopes and expectations.  The prices were good, and the selection was OK, it just didn’t offer me any “oh wow” moments or pleasant surprises.

I’m still looking for:  Persian Sheild, “blackie” potato vine, heliotrope, pineapple sage, apple mint, “dragon’s blood” coleus, purple flowered ice plant, scented geraniums (where the leaves smell like roses, lemon, spices, etc, they don’t usually have conspicuous flowers), anything different or unusual that would grow in a window box planter.

Enjoy!