purchase-

went to two of my favorite local nurseries today. Might visit the third tomorrow. Most glad to find an 'Alba' rosemary- different variety than those I've bought- and failed to bring thru the winter- before.

Also got several peppers, one stevia, one tarragon, 'wicked witch' coleus, and then I succumbed to the charm of some geraniums. They're not scented. But I got five kinds, ha.

Also got two new blanket flower plants (found out they only live two or three years, so no surprise mine didn't come up again), two persian shield plants (which I read about in a book on using tropicals in the landscape), and two pink salvias. Seen here on the floor in front. That's my crowd brought in from the cold at night.

Feels like a bigger crowd now, because I also did a lot of repotting when I got home- the plantman gave me some discarded four-inch pots. I pricked out of trays nasturtiums, fenugreek, basils, sesame (benne), thyme, and summer savory. But it still wasn't enough pots. A bunch of my marigolds looked stunted, the tomatoes and alyssum yellowish foliage. I think not so much due to crammed roots in the smaller paper pots, but poor soil- earlier in the season I bought some bagged potting soil from Target that was a brand I used to like. But it wasn't as I remembered- this stuff was very dry, smelled and felt like shredded wood. No hummus. I tried using it anyway but I think some of the plants have done poorly since. So I repotted the marigolds into plastic pots with new soil (better quality!) from today's nursery, and moved up the smaller, less-needy herbs into the vacated paper pots. Never done that before. 

The yellow-ish tomatoes just got a top dressing of the new soil. Should be the darker green color of the marigold far left (in my opinion). I think they'll do much better once in the ground- a few weeks to go still.