Stopping at my favourite garden centre

It's the ideal time, here on the West Coast, to plant garlic in the garden, and so I popped over to Southlands, one of my most favourite garden centres, to get a few bulbs.There's nothing quite like fresh, homegrown garlic. Anyone growing it? This year I harvested a few bulbs, (it was a trial year and I only planted a very small amount), but the flavour of my homegrown garlic has been amazing. This year I went to three different kinds, including a Mexican variety which promises to be potent.I guess I just have to make sure everyone eats it along with me, or there'll be no talking to me face to face...lol.I got my garlic bulbs and had a stroll around the nursery.Look at these amazing vintage pink flamingos! I'd say they're right past kitsch and out the other side into the chic area of garden decoration. :D I love them.One trend I've been noticing lately here in the North West is a huge import of all sorts of semi tropical succulents. They're becoming the easy, must have of the garden.I love them.I've always loved them, even before they were "fashionable".I tend to do really naughty things, like import a little leaf or piece of branch or tiny rosette from San Francisco, my friend Catherine's plant in Oxfordshire, a random front garden in Mexico. No succulent is safe...lol.But can you blame me? They really are so very lovely.Clove thinks they look like land-bound sea anemones.I was absolutely stopped in my tracks by this one reaching its flower up to the sun. How spectacular is the geen pinkness of it?It's part of this spectacular arrangement.But it's normal for the wonderfully artistic team at Southlands, and what would you expect from a nursery who find and bring in land-bound sea anemones.