I ran into some people selling a couple of pots of the hedychium
ginger they'd
relocated in their garden yesterday ("garage sale day".) My God was it a
gorgeous color: a deep, deep pink with a little orange in it--and those
tall
spikes ! I THINK it's a cultivar called Walt Disney that a nursery
wanted to
sell me for about $30. These people wanted $5 fo a foot-high, foot-wide
plastic pot of the stuff. I can't wait to see the plants next summer--they
were already mature, so they ought to bloom like crazy.

Lucky you!!!

IMHO there's more fun and pleasure from that kind of unexpected
treasure trove in a jumble sale or charity stall, than any other way of
acquiring plants. Some of my best finds have been a small cutting rooted
in a faded old yoghurt pot, or a chunk of root wrapped in wet newspaper;
often without a label. Sometimes the seller has cut a flower from the
mother-plant and laid it on the stall to show what's promised; sometimes
the only name they know for the plant is a local nickname. Like a plant
I bought for 50 pence, labelled "Stormin' Norman"; which is better known
as aeonium schwartzkopf.

:-)

Janet


I used to have one of those aeoniums - beautiful plants!

I bought a pregnant onion (Ornithogalum longibracteatum) for a buck at a garage
sale over 15 years ago. I've given its babies to many people, and the plant
puts up a tall flower stalk several times a year.
When the little green and white flowers are done with, the stalk makes a good
toy for the cats to chase.