It sounds like you bought some great plants!

Tagawa has a sale through 8/16.

50% off perennials and roses

25% off ornamental grasses, outdoor trees and shrubs, house plants and "nearly everything else in stock".

I bought several things that are new for me:

Red Birds in a Tree, 2 Santolina chamaecyparissus - Cotton lavender, Hummingbird Trumpet Mint (they had both red and orange), Stokesia laevis- Stokes' aster 'Purple Parasols', Scutellaria scordiifolia 'Pat Hayward', Salvia greggii Furman's Red Sage and an Arizona Red Shades Gaillardia

Added to things that have worked well for me

Agastache 'Blue Boa' I bought one in the spring that has been amazing for its long bloom time

I hope I managed to spell everything correctly or at least close to reality.

Thanks, Maribeth! I have family that work at Tagawa. I may have to check it out although it's a bit of a distance for me.

Redbirds in a tree is a huge favorite of the hummingbirds.

Thanks popmama for the heads up. I'm leaning toward leaving the Love Song rose where it is so aren't going to venture into the world of hostas unless I pick one up at the swap to trial in my salvia bed. My salvia used to be fantastic but as my tree has gotten quite large and shades a larger portion of the bed they have been less spectacular. I may trial a hosta in there either from the fall or spring swap as an experiment. As an aside, all the new iris are planted. They are in the sunnier side of the purple salvia bed. Will be interested to watch them fight it out with the salvia. We put the pink yarrow in the lawn area where we dug out the purple salvia this year as no grass was growing there. Hope it takes.

Huh. Did that just start? I went and bought shrubs and trees 40% off on Sunday but they barely had any perennials on sale. Maybe I’ll see if I can make a quick run over tomorrow. O’Tooles. I bought a stash a few weeks ago from Tagawa 50% off.

That's so weird, rossnagl. I was there on Saturday and the perennials were 50% off but shrubs were not on sale at all. I wonder if someone gave me incorrect information. I need a hydrangea!

Which location? I was at the Lakewood one.

I was at Westminster. But their sales should all be the same. That's so bizarre. I guess I might have to go check to see what they have in Lakewood.

Dang Aloha, I just ordered Jackmani Superba from Garden Crossing.

I have one trellis with JS and Huldine and another with Ville de Leon and Ramona. The JS/Hudline trellis far outperforms the other, so I putting those on both.

At least Garden Crossing is not too expensive and is reliable.

Thanks to rossnagl, I went to O'Toole's Lakewood store today. The trees and shrubs were 40% off. Not all of their perennials were on sale though and that was a bit confusing. But I did ask him why the other store didn't have the trees and shrubs on sale. He said it was because the Lakewood store just has a larger inventory they want to reduce.

I got three hydrangeas. Two Quick Fires and one Zinfin Doll. All 40% off. I also bought a couple of sedums that sadly were not on sale. But I had to have them. I love sedums and these two are real lookers! So well...that happened. :-)

Etchers was 20% off my perenn todaY. Selection was ok but not great.

I was at Echter's a few weeks ago when I bought my tree. I thought their stock was already very low.

I stopped by the Westminster O'Tooles yesterday mainly looking for asclepias tuberosa/butterfly weed, but they were sold out. :( Maybe next year! Then I saw a dwarf Rose of Sharon, which really interested me. Not on special yet, though, and the guy I talked with wasn't sure when shrubs would get marked down. If anyone goes to that store and sees there's a special on shrubs, please post here!

mstywoods, they had some butterfly weed at the Lakewood location. They also had many Rose of Sharons that were 40% off. I have lots of seed from the butterfly weed that I will bring to the swap provided the pods are dry enough by then..

Popmama—-did you buy or do you have Autumn sedum? The bees adore that one and it’s easy to separate and plant pieces of it.

Hi djacobz, looks like you followed me here from hosta forum! Yes, I have several types of tall sedums, including "Autumn Joy". I also have a variegated green/yellow variety and a purple foliage variety. I probably have at least 25 other types of sedums. I'm a bit of a fanatic. These are the two I bought yesterday:

I already split the one on the left in half. I will give half to my uncle. We share plants a lot.

The one on the right has more of a central stem so it is not a good candidate to split. But I did pluck off a couple of stems and potted them to propagate. But check out the color on this thing.

Thanks for the tip, popmama. I went to the Lakewood O'Tooles today and found a dwarf Rose of Sharon (Lil' Kim)! I also saw the butterfly weed, but they weren't on mark down and were a little pricey so decided to pass - but as I did, I noticed a couple of pods were open on the one I was looking at and the fluff was starting to blow away. Well, of course I grabbed some! lol, so now I have about 25 seeds :) I looked up how to plant them, and will follow these instructions and hopefully get some sprouts in about 3 months:

"Place the butterfly weed seeds in a plastic bag filled with 1 cup of moistened perlite. Store the bag inside the refrigerator for three months. Mist the perlite with water every few days to keep it from drying out completely."

If you come to the fall swap, would love to have a few seeds from yours as well!

Wow that sounds complicated, mstywoods. I don't have that kind of patience. I was hoping you'd just throw them out in the garden in the Fall as if they "fell" from the plant and they'd grow in the Spring. :-)

Just got some great garden Phlox at the Lowes on 88th. $3 each. Both the phlox say they are shorter varieties on-line and the Marine were shorter, but the Pink Eye were taller so the Marine are going in front and the Pink Eye are going in the back. These will be joining Tomatoz purple ones. Thanks Tomatoz! Before you brought these to the swap I had never seen or heard of the tall garden phlox. We love them!

Flame Pink Eye

Flame Marine

They also had a great deal on ice plants. $3 for this, I think, Violet Wheel of Wonder. They were under a shaded area on a hazy day and still in bloom. I thought of getting some just for that reason. Some ice plants close their blooms the minute the sun isn't on them. I have one of the longer types that will hold the blooms open longer and this appears to be one of them.

We put one in the cart, then took it out. Our other one with long stems requires maintenance in the spring to remove the dead stems. They come back fabulous but wasn't sure if I wanted to add the maintenance. The short and compact varieties don't bloom as long and close up faster in the shade but require no maintenance.

The Tree Farm's buy one, get one for a nickel sale started last week. The selection included in the sale is not as large as in year's past, but I managed to pick up a few trees I didn't already have here. I'll link the sale list below:

The Tree Farm Sale

What they don't tell you is if you just want one tree, or 3 trees, or any odd number, you'll still get them at half price.

I just got an email from O'Toole's today. They're having a Labor Day Weekend Sale, called If It Grows, It Goes. Bulbs are not included, but all other plant material is on sale at 50% off. This is for all 3 locations. The email doesn't say if it starts tomorrow, so I'll guess it's Saturday through Monday.

Time to shop!

Barb

Woo hoo! Thanks Barb. I didn't get email from O'Toole's yet. But the half off is good stuff. Last year, I got two tree peonies in that sale. I may try to get out to look this weekend. I can't think of really anything I need but it's hard to resist that kind of sale!

Went to the O'Toole's in westminster today. It felt almost like robbery what I got away with! I got: Hardy hibiscus 'Perfect Storm' in a large pot $20, a Daphne "Carol Macke' $12.50, Georgia Peach heuchera $6, Little Quick Fire hydrangea 3gal pot $17.50, and a Pinky winky hydrangea in the larger pot for only $7. It was on the clearance area, so it was already 50% off and then another 50% off. I picked up a couple of mixed sedum pots as well. I may try to go to the Lakewood one tomorrow if there is time.

I think I bought every pink and purple perennial the Lakewood location had. Got their right at 8 and there were quite a few people already. Bought an entire car full of plants for $170! Crazy.

Nothing like a good plant score!

You are killing me Popmama! I could kick myself for driving right by O'Tooles heading to 88th & Wadsworth. I have been wanting a hardy hibiscus for a couple of years now.

Echters does not have much on sale. I did get some "Undaunted" Ruby grass that was in very large pots for 20 percent off. Lowes has some nice looking plants this year! But their sale rack (Arvada) was looking too dead to purchase. I have never been to O'Tooles, I need to go!

My experience with Lowe's is hit or miss. The best Lowe's for clearance has been the one on 136th and I-25 but last time I was there, it didn't even look so good!