Roof Garden

We got the car out yesterday so we could go on the outskirts of San Miguel looking for plants for the new terrace. This terrace garden definitely needs to be "landscaped" because we love sitting up there and taking friends up for cocktails. It is time to get this space organized.

Most of the viveros (plant nurseries) are very small and most of them do not have much of a selection of trees. We have one large pot that is about 30 inches tall and 27 inches across. I need a nice size ficus tree for it. We also have a couple of other pots that are empty as well as some that need replanting.

I think we made about 4 vivero stops. I still don't have a ficus tree but I did buy a hydrangea and a pepto bismol pink mandevilla vine. My friend Sharon had several hydrangeas on her covered terrace and I couldn't believe how they grew. They were very, very happy and bloomed prolifically. I'll see how they do for me here because in Houston, I have only had moderate success with hydrangeas.

I don't know anything about the mandevilla vine except I loved the color of the flower and I thought it was some type of a clematis although the woman at the nursery told me it was mandevilla. I just thought that was the Mexican name for the plant. But I have looked it up on the internet and it seems to be a different plant. It is from around Rio de Janeiro and is tender in freezing weather. Mmm...I was planning to have it growing on one of the columns of the new tejado on the terrace and we can get some frosty nights here in San Miguel. So I don't know how long it will last but it sure is pretty now.