That Was It

   The Kickstarter campaign was my last ditch effort to fulfill my life long dream of a small plant nursery growing fuchsias and a few other favorite plants.  If it had been successful, even with the tragic turn of events for Michael Breneman, I would have been able to finally focus my time on making cuttings and caring for them at a crucial time of year when it is still possible to make and grow cuttings without the support of a heated greenhouse.

   But do to the fact that Gustavo Beyer of Alladin Nursery and Gift Shop's decision to disregard the verbal agreements between Michael and I (we have been friends for over 35 years going all the way back to the Antonelli Begonia Gardens where we both worked for many years) and then shut me out of the nursery when I did the unthinkable.  I took an inventory of Michael's remaining plants after the retirement sale was supposed to have ended.  It will not be possible for me to continue to try and restart my plant nursery.

   I took an inventory for two reasons.  The primary reason being that Michael had told me that Gustavo was considering purchasing his remaining inventory after the sale ended on the 17th of September.  One of the reasons why Michael and I had not cemented our agreement was that until he knew how well the sale would go, he didn't know if he wanted to go with Gustavo's offer to purchase the remaining inventory.  Michael felt it would be too much money for Gustavo to have to pay all at once.  So Michael was thinking that I would instead get a percentage of his percentage as I took care of his plants and helped sell them as time went along.
   In order for Gustavo to have any idea of how much the remaining inventory was worth, it had to be counted.  In in order for the count to be fair, I first took the time to go through the entire greenhouse, cleaning it as I went and documenting this in Kickstarter updates to my campaign, and threw away all of the dead plants and emptied out all of the 2" and 4" pots which had no live plants in them.  In all, I emptied over 1200 2" bands and stacked them in their flats by the back wall.
   When Gustavo, Michael's life partner (who had a right to know the value of Michael's remaining inventory), and I had dinner after a meeting with Michael's doctors, I brought out the sheet with the tally of the inventory.  And I brought a sheet detailing all of the work I had done since the 15th of September.  I didn't even include the month of work I put in prior to Michael's original official retirement date.  Which tragically also turned out to be the day he had a massive heart attack.

   Gustavo was not at all happy that I had taken and inventory and he was especially upset that I would share this information with Michael's partner.  He declared that I was to get out of the greenhouse immediately and that he was only going to pay me $500 for my work.  But after I had removed all but the plants Michael had agreed to give me in return for his continued use of 100 square feet of the greenhouse for as long as he needed it, Gustavo declared that he wasn't going to pay me a dime and that I could not have any of my plants.  The last thing in the world he wanted in that greenhouse was someone who could count and keep records.

   Only Gustavo knows what has become of all the plants in Michael's extensive collection that he had packed into the 100 square foot area and the others he had intended to take home.  And only Gustavo knows what has become of Michael's entire inventory.  Because Michael has yet to receive payment for any of the sales made from the first of September and on to now.

   This was a financial blow I was not in a position to endure and therefore have been working several jobs since.  One full time.  Which means that there is not only no time to make cuttings, there is no time to care for them if I did.  I barely have time to keep the stock plants alive.

   That was it.  After six years of trying to recover from moving the nursery and having it freeze and then mowed down by deer, having to dig it all back up and build a deer proof enclosure, and meanwhile work many jobs, I give up.  It just makes me to sad to even water the fuchsias now.  And the jobs I have do not make anywhere near what I need to be making.

   When I started the Kickstarter campaign, I was so full of hope!  I didn't ask anyone I knew to make a pledge, I just asked them to please share the links, leave a comment, read the updates, etc.  Because Kickstarter watches the traffic a campaign is getting, very closely.  They even count how many times the video is watched and how many times it is watched to the end.
   Campaigns that capture a lot of interest, are almost always chosen as one of their "Projects We Love."  And if a campaign is tagged as a Project We Love, it is almost always a guaranteed success.  Some of them obtain ten times the amount of funding requested.
   But only a couple people could be bothered to share, some shared the wrong page, and only one person could be bothered to leave a comment.
   So it failed.  Thanks, thanks so much.
   Yes, I am a bit angry about it all.  The jobs I have are not sit down jobs, they are not good jobs.  They are what I could find on short notice.  Time has run out.

Michael Breneman of Michael's Fuchsias Galore and Exotic Begonias

There has been a tragic turn of events for Michael Breneman and I have posted an update regarding Michael on the Kickstarter campaign, which can be read by using this link, I hope you don't mind using a link instead of having me repost it all here, thank-you.  Last Kickstarter Update

Have You Even Heard Of A Favicon?

You know how when you go to a lot of websites, especially for well known services or businesses, next to their web address, there is a tiny little logo?  For example, Blogger has a B with an orange background.  And when you save that website to your bookmarks, that same tiny logo shows up next to their web address.

Well, I was wondering how they did that!  And as you might imagine, since I didn't know what that was called, it was not simple to just google it.

But I eventually not only found out what they are called, but how to add one to the Pedricks.Corner.com website.

Now I need to decide what that tiny logo should  be!  I would like a fuchsia flower with enough color definition to show up as a fuchsia.  And I'd rather use one of my photos than use an drawing.  So I have come up with four possibilities and I am wondering which one you would choose if you could.  If you would like to help me decide, you can leave me a message on the facebook page for PedricksCorner here:  facebook.com/PedricksCorner

Here are the four I am considering so far.  The finished image can only be 32x32 pixels, so I have already made these pretty small and they are going to be even smaller.

I am kind of partial to the first one, which is 'Party Frock' because it is the fuchsia on my websites banner.  But the third one, 'Duchess of Albany' has very nice contrast that will show up in an itty bitty favicon.  What do you think?

Hey, Did You Know?

   Did you know that if you visit my Kickstarter campaign, that you can not only read all about what I am trying to do, you can read the updates I post along with photographs?
   I even posted a short video of a hummingbird visiting my Fuchsia boliviana!
   Without funds from a Kickstarter campaign, I am not going to be able to do this.

   And did you know that you don't have to fulfill your pledge until the 30 days are up on October the 6th?  If I don't get all $15,000 in pledges (I have a budget listed there to detail what I need) then NO ONE has to fulfill any of their pledges.

  Please!  Even if you cannot even pledge $5 or $10 yourself, can you help me by spreading the word?
  Here is a link to the Kickstarter campaign:  Kickstarter Pedricks Corner Project

  And here are two little California Arboreal Salamanders who shall be encouraged to stay because they will eat snail and slug eggs!

Working On The Greenhouse

     Although I have begun making cuttings here, I can't begin making cuttings at the new location until I get it cleaned up a bit.  Michael had a great deal of inventory and I needed to wait while enough of it sold so he could begin making room for me in the greenhouse.
     And as you can see, first I need to clean!

   So I got a shovel and a metal rake and got to work!

     This is one of four areas I was able to clean up!
     The next photo is to show you why I need tables, this is not the conditions I would want to grow cuttings in, or sow seed, and especially not fern spore.  Opps!  Did I say fern spore??  Yes, that was what I grew when I first got into horticulture.  I had an acre of fern greenhouses and I would like start a few native varieties.  But to do ferns, you need a clean area because everything else, such as moss and algae, grows faster than fern spore do!
 

     I moved a lot of boards outside today!

     And then I brought in two shelves I got out of storage and was thrilled to see that my trays fit into them with room to spare.  Imagine these full of new cuttings and then these shelves wrapped in a breathable cloth while they root.  

     Now I am thinking that I need to buy about twenty of these shelves and reduce the number of wooden tables to build.

     What do you think?

Kickstarter Campaign - Let Me Know What You Think!

Tonight I launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for the restart of the nursery and to purchase Michaels inventory before all of his varieties are gone.  Even if you are not interested in a purchase yourself, I am sincerely hoping you will share so other people will see it.

Kickstarter is sort of like GoFundMe, but you get something in return for your contribution, I've added 6 rewards for people to choose from.

And I really would like to know what you think!  Please use the link and see what you think of it all.
Thank-you!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/377279709/pedricks-corner-growing-heirloom-fuchsias-and-lave

Loading Up The Website With Photos

It has been a very hot few days here!  The internet has been down often or very slow.  But my heart goes out to Texas and all they have been enduring.  I was born in mid Texas and would love to see it again someday.

Meanwhile, I have been adding photos tonight to the upright fuchsia pages in the D-K section.  I don't have photos for each one yet, but I have most of them.  Here are two of my favorites!

Doctor Mahoney is a huge upright that towers above me with his big dark reddish purple leaves and long dark orange tubular flowers.  This was one of the first uprights I put into the ground here when I first moved the nursery here.  I was so excited because I knew this could be a big one and I wanted to be able to show people how big he could get.  But I almost lost him.  I dug up what looked like nothing and coddled him for a year or two before he suddenly took off.  Now he is in a 15 gallon planter and is headed up into the oaks behind him.

And the other is Iced Champagne.  A beautiful bush with vigorous upright growth.  I would have been so sad if I had lost her.  I think I did lose Alaska, but at least I have her and Annabel!

Great News!

  Everything is moving forward!  In two more weeks I will finally be open to the public.  At first, I will not have much at all because the cuttings I am making will not be plants big enough to sell until next spring.
  But I am also sowing tons of seed so I will have something to sell during the winter.  I have always loved Primrose for winter color.

  The really big news today though, is that a story about Pedricks and Pedicks Corner was published in a well read/followed blog that is a branch of the site Marketplace Pulse
  They began a blog where they look for people who really do make handmade items from all over the world and it is called Handmade Hunt.
  Please share this post!  I put a link below.
  Handmade Hunt - Pedricks

  If I am going to be able to focus on growing instead of getting another job to pay for supplies and the rent of the greenhouse, then I need to move some inventory.  Both my inventory of lavender and Michael's inventory of plants so he can make room for me in the greenhouse prior to me moving in.
  The logistics of the move are dicey because I need to be sowing seed and making cuttings, which will be in too sensitive a state to be transported.  Yet I do not yet have much room in the greenhouse.  So I need to work at both sites at once and monitor all the babies.  And continue to build the website.
 
  Need some inspiration!?  Here is a new member to my inventory, 'Waconda Queen'  :)

RETIREMENT SALE 30% OFF - Michael's Fuchsias Galore and Exotic Begonias

     The signs are up and the sale will begin this Saturday the 19th of August and go until his last day the 15th of September!  Michael will still be around though, I have promised him that he can continue to use a portion of the greenhouse and display grounds.  He has quite an impressive collection and it is going to take a while to move it all. Plus, he should be able to keep his toes in the water so to speak.
     Besides his begonias and fuchsias, Michael also grows a variety of Salvias, Brugmansias, Night Blooming Jasmine, and Bloodleaf aka Iresine herbstii.
     Where, you ask?  Please use the link to my website PedricksCorner and go to the pages I am making for Michael.  You will see a link to Alladins Nursery and Gift Store and it will take you to the page they have with a map!
      Using these links helps the search engines find us, so thank-you!

      Check out the website, I added new photos and more pinterest buttons today.

       Here are a couple of Michaels Salvias.  They are a drought tolerant plant that is very easy to grow.  The butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds love them too.  The first one is often called Mexican Sage and the last one is called Hot Lips.

Pinterest Buttons As Fast As I Can!

Do you Pinterest?  I have for a while now.  Especially since so few people know that lavender wands exist, it was the best way to get the word out. So I search constantly for others who also make lavender wands and I promote them.
And every artist I add to ArtisansOfAmerica :  Artisans Of America  is also added to a Pinterest board I have called ArtisansOfAmerica.  At least once, usually twice.  When I first find them to add them to my list and then again when I finally post about them.
So!  My pinterest boards have been getting a healthy rate of traffic and I decided to start searching for fuchsias.
Well, there are not very many fuchsias listed on Pinterest yet.  Out of almost 15,000 named cultivars, it was hard to find very many and almost none of them have the names of the flower.
Time to change that!
But first I had to learn how to put Pinterest buttons onto my website.  I won't bore you with the details, but it was not as simple as a PayPal button because their instructions didn't jive with how my website is designed.  I figured it out though and TA DA, you can now help me (if you would like to) post named fuchsia varieties to Pinterest.
I haven't added a button for every one yet.  Girl has to make a living.  But I will be trying to do so as I continue to add varieties to the site.

Meanwhile, if you live anywhere near the central coast of California, please go see Michael at Alladins Nursery & Gift Shop and purchase all of Michael's Fuchsias Galore so he can retire in style and I can follow in his footsteps.

One of my main goals is going to be to try and find some of the varieties both he and I have managed to lose.  Such as the one he hybridized called Pinto De Blue.  Wouldn't it be an awesome retirement gift if I could give Michael his own fuchsia back!!??  Help!

Michael's Fuchsias Galore & Exotic Begonias

I just added Michael's complete inventory to three new web pages for him onto my main website:
PedricksCorner
Which I have been working on as fast as I can!
Here are Michael's new pages, and I sincerely hope you take a look.  His main page includes a link to the website of the location of his nursery inside Alladins Nursery & Gift Shop on Freedom Blvd in Santa Cruz County.
Michael's Fuchsias Galore

Michael will be retiring in mid September and it is my goal to help him sell his entire inventory!  As well as raise the funds to purchase as much of it myself as I can so I can continue in his foot steps in the same location.

How exciting is that!?  Of course I will be growing hanging basket fuchsias now besides the uprights I love so much.  But if I can buy at least one each of his inventory, then I should have almost 800 varieties available going into 2018.  Most of all though, I will finally have a location which is open to the public!

Today I am going to begin photographing his inventory and if you check the website on a regular basis, you will see the photos of all the varieties as I add them.  Including the begonias.

I confess that I have always wanted to collect and grow the cane begonias.  Many of which can grow much taller than I am and are stunning when they are in bloom.  Wouldn't you like to see those?

Well then, please help us both out and it will indeed happen.  Thank-you so much!!

Here is White Wonder, a vigorous upright fuchsia.  Looking forward to making my dream of showing people again, how big upright fuchsias can be.

New PayPal Button On The Site!

    Yes, finally, after years of working to get back to having fuchsias for sale and keeping the collection of uprights alive for this day, today I put the PayPal button for direct sales from the website back up for F. boliviana.
    How else am I ever going to afford to buy a new ice-cream machine so I can make fuchsia berry ice-cream!?  I have been cooking them into a yummy syrup for weeks now and putting it onto vanilla ice-cream and even pancakes.  But I have been wanting to make ice-cream with the berries since forever.

     I have also noticed that the berries of Fanfare are huge and a beautiful pink color, so I cannot wait to try them.  But first I need to harvest them for seed and grow them, as this vigorous upright fuchsia not only has beautiful long tubular flowers, it appears to be very mite resistant.  A winner in my book!

Here are my pancakes!

And here is Fanfare

Fuchsia boliviana seedlings New Ad ready to go!

I put them onto Etsy first and will be adding them to the website in the next few days.  I wanted to ad the videos of the hummingbirds visiting the flowers, but haven't had time yet to edit them.
Here is a link to the ad: Fuchsia boliviana
FREE SHIPPING!

Because of the time of year, you will be purchasing at your own risk.  They might arrive damaged, depending on where you live.  But upright fuchsias are very hardy and ought to recover even if during the three days or less in transit means they sat on out in the heat somewhere.

Here is a photo of the babies!  Please visit the ad even if you don't plan on purchasing right now.  I have about 600 of them and another batch is up and will be ready by the cooler weather after the heat wave in the fall.  If you live in Zones 9-11, you'll be fine.  Or you can over winter them indoors in a window that gets full on sun.

New Page - Lavender Sock Dolls

   Whew!  Three manuals on Dreamweaver CS3 and I have CS5 and it took hours to relearn how to add a page to my side menu.  Of course, the books assume you already know a great deal more than I do, ha, ha.  And Adobe is no longer supporting the software that my program uses for making the slide out menus, so I couldn't ask them for help.
   So a great deal of time was spent clicking on this to see what happens, and then clicking on that to see what happens.  And being careful NOT to save anything during this process.  In my desperate attempt to figure out where the +/- box on my "property manager" for my "spry asset" was.
   Anyway.  So I finally get the page made and inserted into the menu and uploaded to the server and I go to make my new PayPal buttons for my Lavender Filled SockDolls.  Everything is going fine, but every time I inserted the code, I got a "broken" link message.
   Are you bored to death yet?
   The long and short of it all is that I now know how to make new pages and add them.  Which I truly hope is going to be a necessary talent in the coming months and years as I rebuild my fuchsia nursery and add them back onto the site along with my ceramics and other arts.
   Here is the new page:  Lavender SockDolls

They are back!

Kudos to PayPal for saving my buttons and making it so easy to make new ones!  The nerve wracking part was figuring out where exactly to insert their code into the code for my pages.  But I did and they work!
FREE SHIPPING on sets of 10 wands in all four sizes at 50% off of the per each price.
Please help me get this train back on track.  Even if you have no interest in lavender, you can help me get the word out there by visiting the site and clicking on links to my other sites and to my Etsy store.
This strengthens search engine connections and helps me show up in searches!

I would really love to add PayPal buttons for fuchsias again, and if that is going to happen, I need to sell some lavender.
One of the guys from the Shark Tank was on the Harry Connick Show advising entrepreneurs and he said the number one way to reach customers is via Social Media.  So if you are inclined to share, I would be most grateful!

Lavender Wands

Working on the website!

  I have been relearning basic website design as fast as I can!  It is complicated!  I could not figure out why my DreamWeaver program kept uploading files to the wrong folders on the server.  The server is the place that publishes your website, so to speak.  And it has to have all of the necessary files.
  So every time you make changes, you have to upload them to the server.
  And every time I did this, they would wind up in the wrong place.
  Today I relearned why and fixed it.
  Plus, I updated the shipping page, the Species page, the Gift Shop page, and most important for now, the Lavender Wands page.
  I have not yet added PayPal buttons so you can make purchases of lavender wands directly from the website.  But that is next!  It involves inserting code into very specific places.  Makes me nervous!  Because I am not proficient in html code.
 Meanwhile, here is the update page:  LavenderWands.html

Fuchsia boliviana Seedlings!

600 seedlings are doing great!  As soon as they are big enough and if the weather is safe to ship them in, a new PayPal button will be added to the revamped website.  So excited!

New Website Is Up And Running!

I was finally able to relearn enough about Dreamweaver CS5.5 to get the website back up and updated. It wasn't easy because my books are about the CS3 version and my version CS5.5 is already 6 years behind the current version!

I still need to work for a living, so time is still very tight.  So at first, I will be adding my lavender wands and ceramics.  As soon as new fuchsias and other plants are available, I will be adding them as well depending on the weather.  For most parts of the country, it is already going to be to hot to risk shipping small starts.  But if all goes well, I will be able to ship during that sweet spot in the fall when it is no longer too hot and not yet too cold.  This will give the starts more of chance to grow as well.

The seedlings of F. boliviana are doing very well and I will post photos of them again soon!
Here is a link to the website :pedrickscorner.com
What do you think of my new banner?

The Kids Are Doing Great!

I hope to begun transplanting them in about a week.

New Baby Fuchsia boliviana's

These babies are just a week old.  They herald a new beginning for Pedricks Corner this year.  Stay tuned for updates! 

Meanwhile, I am working on a whole new updated website.  You will be the first to know when it is up and running.  Thanks!

Will There Be Fuchsias? I hope so!

I am sincerely hoping that I get to start making fuchsia cuttings again soon this year!  I may not have as many upright varieties as I had hoped, but my main goal of furthering the interest in growing upright fuchsias which have the ability to live over 100 years, goes on!

Right now though, I have to continue to focus on making a living if I am to have any hope at all of doing that.  And I need help.

Please visit this new website and please click through to the stores and to my lavender stores on EBay and Etsy.  Lavender and ceramics is how I hope to finance a new start and even just clicking through helps build traffic.  Like a path, the more it is traveled, the wider and better defined that path is.

And hopefully, I will be able to help those around me as well!
Please click on this link to Artisans Of America!  Like the Facebook page.  Follow it on Pinterest!
ArtisansOfAmerica

These guys down below, are waiting for me to come make cuttings!