I used to love going to the Tangletown neighborhood garage sale, it was always one of my favorites.  Unfortunately, it’s one that bit the dust during Covid.  The last one was held in 2019, and they haven’t brought it back.  Such a bummer.

But last weekend I found myself in Tangletown once again, this time at Tangletown Gardens.

If you are local, and looking for some garden inspiration, this is a spot you should check out.  It would be better if you’ve recently won the lottery, because I’m not going to sugar coat it, their prices can be high.

That may be partly because they have a lot of unique offerings that you won’t find at your typical garden center, like this Tibouchina grandiflora, or Princess Flower.

They have this one planted in what I’m going to call their boulevard (a.k.a. verge, tree-belt, the section between the sidewalk and the street, what do you call it?) border.

More on those borders in a minute, but as for that Princess Flower, it was $24.99.  I did a bit of googling and found that it is grown as a shrub in tropical climates, it’s hardy in zones 9 to 11.  So clearly not here in Minnesota, meaning that we would grow it as an annual.  That’s certainly a pricey annual!

But really, despite the high prices, Tangletown Gardens provides a wealth of inspiration starting with the various planters scattered around.

You definitely aren’t going to find your traditional petunias here.  I like the use of Scotch moss in the planter above, at least I think that’s what that is.

I also like that they used birch logs in this next planter.

Of course, we’ve all seen birch used for winter arrangements, but turns out it looks pretty good in summer too.

I also like how they’ve carried over the plants in this next trio of planters to the ground surrounding them, it’s as though they’ve spilled out of the planters and onto the ground.

Let’s take a closer look at the plants themselves.

I believe that bright yellow grass is Hakonechloa, or Japanese forest grass.  The front center plant seems to be a coleus, and there is a cala lily behind it.  In the upper right of the photo is an upright fuchsia.  Have you seen these?  I actually bought one by mistake earlier this year.  I was rather annoyed when I got it home and read the tag because I wanted the trailing version for my front window box.  I ended up putting the upright version in the Gregory’s Catalogue bed planter and now, a couple of months later, I’m realizing that I really like it.  I may buy some on purpose next year.

As you can see, it’s holding its own height-wise amongst coleus and ferns.

Although the planters at Tangletown were fantastic, the star of the show for me was those boulevard borders that I mentioned earlier.

They were nothing short of spectacular.

Isn’t this a fun little plant …

I should have paid attention to what that was called, but unfortunately I did not.

They used a wide variety of plants in these borders, both annuals and perennials, ranging from your typical things like zinnias, gomphrena, celosia, grasses, and coleus.  But they also had some more unusual things like that Princess Flower I shared earlier.

They also used a plant that I’m finding is super trendy right now, Angel Wings, or Senecio candicans.  It’s the plant below with the big, silvery wings … I mean leaves.

Isn’t that gorgeous?  As I mentioned last week, I’m not typically a fan of silvery foliage because it looks like powdery mildew to me, but I might make an exception for this one.

They also used one of my new favorites, Verbena bonariensis.  It’s the tall, wispy plant with purple flowers …

I’d been seeing a lot of this plant on my favorite British gardening show, Gardener’s World, and although I looked all over for it at my usual nurseries I couldn’t find it at any of them.  I did end up finding it at the Abrahamson’s in St. Croix Falls, but I now know that I can also get it at Tangletown Gardens.

The main reason I was visiting Tangletown Gardens this time around was to look for scented geraniums.  My friend Jackie, who loves to grow plants for their scent, told me that this was the place to find them.  And she was right.

They had quite a number of different varieties.

I know it’s weirdly confusing, but the flowers most of us call geraniums aren’t true perennial geraniums at all, they are pelargoniums.  Basically geraniums are perennial plants like this one (also called Cranesbill) …

or this one (Geranium macrorrhizum, or Bigroot Geranium) …

Pelargoniums are annuals usually grown for their flowers, or in this case, their scent.

In my opinion, most scented geraniums are not grown for their looks.  They tend to look a bit spindly, and their flowers aren’t usually very impressive.  So keeping that in mind, I chose both of the ones I purchased strictly by smelling them.  Scented geraniums come in lots of different scents like apricot, chocolate mint, rose, peppermint and nutmeg, but I chose two that both have a lemon scent.

First up is Pelargonium ‘Mabel Grey’.

And the 2nd one I chose is Pelargonium ‘Prince Rupert’ variegated.

I’ve placed these on the tiered plant stand that I found at the Fridley garage sales (after giving it a quick coat of black spray paint).

It’s sitting in between my newspaper roller planter of succulents and my galvanized tub herb garden.  You may remember that I mentioned having chosen a couple of the herbs for their scent as well; lemon verbena and lavender.

Our outdoor dining table is right next to this, and this is often where I sit to have coffee in the morning.  Mr. Q and I frequently eat dinner out here too.  These scented plants are best enjoyed up close and personal.  I find that you have to brush against them to release their fragrance, so this is the perfect spot for them.

Although they were priced just a little higher than what I would normally pay for an annual at $7.99 each, I plan to over-winter them as houseplants.  I hope to get many years out of them.

So tell me locals, have you been to Tangletown Gardens?  Or have any of you grown scented geraniums?  Leave a comment and let me know.