I am NOT an impulse shopper

I am not an impulse shopper.  I can go shopping with a list and come out of the store with only the items on that list. . . . except when I walk into a garden center.   I make lists when I go plant shopping too, but it doesn't help.  I cannot keep myself from strolling down the rows of amazing plants.  Then, suddenly I spy something that I've never seen before or a flower with a unique habit or color and I feel compelled to purchase it.  I just know it is special and that I can find the perfect spot for it in my backyard.  Could this be an addiction?

About three years ago, while shopping for shrubbery at an end-of-season sale at one of my favorite nurseries (you can already tell where this story is going) I came upon a lovely rhododendron.  It was fairly large and had a lovely form. . . and it's name was Maximum roseum.  I know that I live just a little bit too far south for a rhododendron to really thrive but I knew just where I could plant it in my yard and it was half price!  My compulsion to purchase plants had overwhelmed me once again.

I planted my new shrub in the shadow of my southern long leaf pine--they like the same kind of soil--with a generous shovel full of compost.  And I waited.  It didn't die but it didn't thrive either.  It just didn't add any new growth and it certainly didn't bloom.  I began to wonder if I had made a foolish mistake (again).

However, I'm proud to announce that this week, Maximum roseum (now affectionately named Maxi) has begun to live up to her name.  She is producing an abundance of rosy-pink flower clusters and putting on inches of new growth.

I'm headed out to the garden center this morning.  I'm only supposed to purchase some basil and sweet banana pepper plants.  I wonder what else I will find. . .