Why We Don't Buy Many Plants
As far as I know, there have only been a few Flower and Garden shows that DH and I have not attended since my daughter started her studies in the university.
Each year, there would be beautiful flowering plants on display. The variety of the available garden plants for sale is impressive. That's why many buyers would keep coming back year after year. Apparently, with brisk sales, plant sellers have been coming back too.
Hydrangeas are a favorite plants on sale. Hydrangeas like the one show below were being sold at the next stall.
They're quite pretty, but DH and I have learned not to bother ourselves anymore with plants like these. Our experience tell us that many plants being sold in these exhibits come from cool places where they were grown, generally at higher elevation.
It is unfortunate that even if they grow in a lowland place such as ours, they may have difficulty flowering. We wait and wait. The plant just grows but hardly ever flowers. So it is better to know which of these beautiful flowering plants would be worth buying.
Non-flowering Ornamental Garden Plants
Foliage plants would be better buys if you're unsure of the plants flowering capability where you live. There are many foliage plants with beautiful leaf colors and shapes. Their flowers, if any, are just an added bonus. With these ornamental foliage garden plants, what you see is what you get and there are not frustrations if these ornamental plants won't flower.
Dithane M-45 Fungicide Key Learning
If there is one thing that was a key takeaway from our visit to this year's Los Banos Flower and Garden Show, it was my purchase of a fungicide.
Now, I have to admit, I haven't used fungicide with much success in the past. So when I inquired about our Bauhinia kockiana dying, the seller, Mrs. Varunee, took a distinct interest.
See, we bought a Bauhinia kockiana plant from her in a previous garden show. She knows it because she grows these plants as well at her nursery. When I described how our Bauhinia kockiana died, she seemed to know immediately what caused it - fungus. And, from how she reacted, she just had the cure for it - for sale, of course.
But still, that widened my eyes and opened up my ears for the possible solution to my predicament. She pointed to packs of fungicide at the front of the stall. She was offering two brands of fungicide. One was Dithane and the other, Amistar. Neither was available in the usual garden section of even the big hardware stores.
Dithane was priced at Php380 at 250grams and the Amistar at Php200. We haggled for the Dithane at Php350. The Dithane apparently has more contents and a better package. On hindsight though, I probably would've bought the Amistar. Amistar, she explained was a systemic fungicide. Later did I learn that "systemic fungicide" means fungicide entering the plant through its roots.
Dithane had brand recall for me and that's what I bought. So, hopeful of what I learned from Mrs. Varunee, we'll see the fungicide treatment on the Bauhinia kockiana will go.
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