I thought that might be the case. Brilliant was a great cultivar, and like you said had good shade performance (of course that's a relative term, as other grass types are better than the most shade tolerant KBG). This current NTEP left out the shade tolerance test, but it has run in the past two trials. You can also check the pdf brochures that the seed producers release, most of them will mention shade tolerance if it is an applicable quality. Shade tolerant KBG has been an interest of mine for a while, and I have composed somewhat of an informal list. Here is my list with the growers pdf sheet in parentheses: America, this is a cultivar that has been around for a while but still tests well in the NTEP and has dark green, fine textured blades (http://www.pickseed.com/usa/Products/PDF/america_ts.pdf). Nuglade, an improved version of the older Glade, which was a good shade KBG (http://techsheets.simplot.com/Jacklin/nuglade.pdf). Liberator, another relative of Glade (http://www.mountainviewturf.com/our-products/pdf/seed/kentucky-bluegrass/Liberator.pdf). Alpine, this one is probably better suited to cooler climates (http://www.sroseed.com/Products/PDF/alpine_TS.pdf). Orfeo, an aggressive grass that germinates quickly, this one is medium green in color (http://www.sroseed.com/Products/PDF/Orfeo_ts.pdf) A-34 or Bensun, an older medium green cultivar (http://www.gardnerturf.com/UserFiles/A-34%20Kentucky%20Bluegrass%20Spec%20Sheet%2008.pdf). There are a few others that have some shade tolerance, Nugget, Touchdown, Bristol, Eclipse, but I don't have pdfs on those. The shade trials don't agree with this list however. You can check those out at www.ntep.org. For the 2001 trials they did two shade studies, and they don't really agree with each other. For some reason NTEP doesn't really tell how much sun the grass plots receive, and the cultivars I listed don't really fall near the top of the lists, except Brilliant of course. The dense shade trial of the 1995 NTEP is one that I actually investigated and emailed to the professor who conducted it. It agrees more with the producers claims of shade tolerance. This one was " in full shade under a mature stand of primarily oak trees. Filtered light in the morning with small patches for short periods of direct light; very little direct light in the afternoon; and no direct light in the evening. The woods were much thicker to the west of the plots than to the east. There were also large trees intermixed throughout the plot area. Of course, they did get direct light from mid November through mid April when there were no leaves." This was quoted from the email from Dr. Tom Turner, who conducted the trial. Probably your best strategy is to pick three cultivars that test well in the trials and blend those in equal amounts.

I'm out for this year due to the drought here in the Southeast. I am just a small backyard grower that sells at a tiny farmers market in a neighboring city. I mostly grow stuff that does well for me in my yard, a lot of ornamentals, some herbs, veggie starts, a pretty big mix because the customer's tastes change throughout the season. The drought and high heat really did a number on me last summer and this summer is predicted to be worse, much worse. Now they have very tight watering restrictions in place to save as much water as possible for drinking ($1000 fine the first time you're caught using public water to water your garden, water shut off the second time!!!!!). They now measure the amount of available water in days rather than months. Needless to say, most people are not buying plants. Many local nurseries and growers have gone out of business. Some of them lost everything including their land and homes in the process. It is a sad sad situation. I can keep the stock I have now alive by hauling water up from a creek til it goes dry. I can spend the year making adjustments to my display and building more birdhouses (reliable sellers). In other words, get my act together. But selling doesn't look good until it rains enough to lift these restrictions. With gas getting more expensive, the economy tanking, it does look like a tough ride this next summer but I believe I will be perfectly situated to jump in once things turn around - I may have no competition when that day comes.

I started my nursery business off in 2010 while I was still working a full time job. Slow, slow start, but having the acreage I do (see prior post) it was easy to just plant plants and take cuttings to sell. Really love doing this; still doing this, but not making a lot of money and could not do this if I was the only one working. I retired a few years ago, with the hopes of this taking off. A lot of work later, and I saw things slowly starting to work. I am state inspected yearly, grow only organically (not certified), and use no pesticides. So there is that yearly fee for the inspection. Remember there are pots to purchase, tags, signs, advertising, etc. etc. etc. etc........ However, life happens. My granddaughter happened. Babysitting happened and two to three days a week was taken up with this precious baby. I still have a home to keep up, supper to make, yard to care for etc....while my husband works 6 days a week at his job. I change plants that I sell periodically, if things are not selling. I sell daylily and hostas (easiest to raise and sell), perennials and shrubs. I love my gardens, but don't get enough time to do what I want to do. I'm actually thinking of cutting back and doing more online selling. It's really what you make of it, but really, the big box stores still get you, no matter what. Their prices are competitive (I had to raise my prices finally as I was actually LOSING money one year. I love the concept. I love the plants. But I'm already getting tired. All the work put into the greenhouses, area for the nursery, walkways, shelving etc. I don't want to go to waste. I do grow 99% of what I sell. That really helps. No overhead. Our property is paid for. Just note: nurseries are suffering the last few years. We've had three major nurseries close in our area alone. It's not easy. But please note. I might sound negative, but I'm still doing this! I love it but I'm only really open the warm months of the year here. I really wish anyone starting this all the luck and self fullfillment you can get. Good luck!

One of the seed sellers' stock was bought out by a third party but the name of the company was not changed. Apparently a lot what has been for sale on that site has been quite old stock. I spent quite a bit on an ounce of Delphinium virescens, Prairie Larkspur, and the seed was old and dead. I also bought a pound of Adonis aestivalis and it was all dead. I don't think I got any results from anything I bought from that company except for Heavenly Blue morning glory, although even those seeds seemed really old. They make a big deal about using mylar packaging but some species, especially those of the Ranunculaceae family, tend to have short lifespan. Really, a responsible company will list the age of each species' seed on its website. So far, the only place I've seen do that is Sheffields. I haven't ordered from that company yet because I just don't have any money at the moment. One knock against them is that they sell some rare seeds for high prices that are so old I can't see how they'll germinate, including seeds from the 1990s. Some species will last a long time, like Moth Mullein, but some others may only last six months (aster, goldenrod). However, at least they make the important effort of disclosing the age of the seed! A Western seed site that sells mainly native seeds sold me a pound of a tall native delphinium and a pound of a shorter native delphinium. I have no plants from either, although it's possible that climate difference is to blame. Nonetheless, the germination rate on the seed for the tall species was said to be around 35%. With storage it may have dropped further. They did warn me before I paid for the order about that, though, which was good business. Seed sellers really should list the approximate lifespan of each species' seed on their website, so people will know to avoid old seed from some species. This kind of transparency will give people an incentive to shop there. Some species are hard to grow so it's not always the fault of the seed seller. But, that first company I mentioned seems to be selling very old stocks, along with perhaps some cheap easily-located annuals in bulk. The issue of old dead seed isn't just a problem in the US. A UK paper published an article where it said there were problems with corn poppy and yellow rattle seed having poor viability or being completely dead. I bought corn poppy (Shirley type) from wildseedfarms and had excellent results. So, far, I can recommend Prairie Moon, Wildseedfarms, Native American Seed (seedsource), and the Irish site Seedaholic. I'm sure there are other good seed sources but I haven't tried all that many. I have had very good results from seed purchased from those four companies although I have also had some duds. The duds were probably the result of trying to grow plants in the wrong conditions, like me trying to grow Astragalus, Dalea, Ipomopsis, and Amorpha (leadplant) in heavy moist clay loam. I had plenty of success, for example, with Ipomopsis in rocky places where water would never pool after a heavy rain. Other gravel areas where water would pool killed the plants after the first year. Any place that didn't have rocky soil... the plants barely grew, if at all. The difference between the plants thriving and not growing at all, depending on the spot/soil was tremendous. It is a fairly picky plant. The ones in front of my house where the soil is full of lava rock got very big, even though it's clay and we had a record amount of rainfall this spring. Not a single plant grew in the meadows proper, even though the soil had been freshly tilled. Too much moisture I suppose. I'm not sure I got any sprouts from the two packets of Poke milkweed (it's hard to know for sure because the seedlings look like Purple milkweed I guess and I planted that as well as Spider milkweed and Sullivant's) but pretty much every other packet I bought from Prairie Moon last winter grew, although some plants were very difficult to keep going (like Turtlehead!). Packets are a good way to figure out which species really should be purchased as small plants or plugs — or which should be sown in situ or into large pots (rather than small peat cups). For instance, I had poor results growing Liatris ligulistylis in peat cups and pots, as well as in spots in the ground I transplanted them to. However, one that I moved to a 6" plastic pot rather late in the season is now thriving. Plants are sometimes very picky. Perhaps I got the right soil mix. It could also be that I used Osmocote in the pots and not with the peat cups/pots. Maybe ligulistylis won't grow without fertilization. I also bought a pound of Adonis aestivalis from the Cactus Store and, unlike the seed from the first company I mentioned, it wasn't all dead. So, I will likely be shopping from them again. I also got some Chinese columbine from them and got some plants. There is another company that was very disappointing. It put out price lists that seemed excellent but the actual prices were much higher and the stock was very poor. I had planned to get a bunch of different species from them but all of the interesting ones turned out to not be in stock. Don't get your hopes up beforehand. Verify that companies actually have things in stock. A Prairie Moon employee, though, told me that they keep their website up-to-date with stock, so for some companies this may be less of an issue. Another site listed some rare species, like Indian paintbrush species, in actual real bulk quantities but when I called them they told me it came mixed with grasses. So, in reality, you might be getting mostly grass seed. Another site has been listing Indian Paintbrush for years but it has been Out of Stock for at least the last three years, since I've been checking. Another site uses heavily doctored (Photoshop collage) photos to sell its seed mixes! I have all of the screenshots and have been planning to post an exposé because that kind of conduct is unacceptable. It's bad enough that Ebay allows so many doctored photos without a company's actual website being full of them.