Sommer Gardens / Wednesday, February 22, 2012 / Categories: Ramblings, Garden Plants California dreaming I'm just wrapping up a week long stay in the San Diego area. The primary reason for the trip was to attend the Triathlon America Conference, a conference geared for the business of triathlon. Seeing how I was going to be so close to California's nursery region, I had to tack on a few extra days to my trip to do some plant collecting. I only made a few acquisitions the first day, but by late morning on the second day, I already had the back seat of my rental car full.After day two I decided I needed to stop because I had also filled up the front passenger seat. I knew I was somehow going to have to pack all my newly collected plants up in my luggage to bring back to Florida. At the conference hotel I was fortunate to have a ground floor room with a nice patio. This allowed me to easily store my collection of plants outside in the shade during the entire conference.In preparation for my departure tomorrow morning, this afternoon I removed as much soil as possible from all the plants and made sure all the plants were labeled with long-lasting aluminum plant tags. Below you will see most of the plants lined up and waiting to be packed into suitcases. I plan to leave them out like this in the cool moist air tonight, and then pack them up for travel first thing in the morning.Once I return to Florida they will be re-potted and held for a few weeks to make sure they acclimate and survive. Then most will get planted in their new permanent home in my yard. A few will stay in containers in my shade house for me to play with later this summer.I'm sure you are wondering why I'm going to all this trouble to brig plants back with me all the way from California. Unfortunately in Florida most garden centers and big box retailers carry the same old common plants. Many of the plants I'm bringing back are Australian and African plants that you will never find in Florida. They all will take the heat and I think most should have a good chance of surviving in our climate. The only unknown is what impact our extreme humidity in late summer will have on them. Wow, from snow white to golden orange in one day This Angel Trumpet is a mess, but I like it anyways... Print Rate this article: No rating 12414 Tags:australlian plantscaliforniafloridaplants