To quote the immortal words of MRS. Nathan Hale, I have not yet BEGUN to shop!

Well, actually I have.

I have a big order in to Bluestone Perennials. The 20% off Early Bird Specials and lots of coupons sealed my fate to the tune of about $250.

I sent in my Brent and Becky's Bulbs order to take advantage of the 10% off pre-pay sale. That was only about $70 for a couple of Cannas, a Bletilla, a Eucomis, some Crocosmia, a pretty species Gladiolus variety and some Galtonia candicans.

I was bored one night so I ordered Cannas from Horn Canna Farm. I think I spent about $35.00 there because they are so inexpensive and I ordered a bunch for the old guy down the street who grows them every year. He doesn't know I ordered them, and he doesn't know I'm bringing him a gift of Cannas, but I had to make that minimum order somehow...

I was inspired after reading Christopher Lloyd's last book on tropical gardening so I ordered 10 Dahlias from Dan's Dahlias. That's another $54.00.

I still "need" to order:

Begonias and fuchsias from Antonelli's Begonias (probably about $100)

Mostly annuals and some perennials from Green Mountain Transplants (about $250)

Half a dozen plants or so from High Country Gardens, including Salvia chamaedryoides and Salvia pachyphylla (probably about $40)

Edgeworthia, Kerria, Cotoneaster and Epipactis from Forestfarm (about $75, guessing)

Epimedium and Calanthe, probably from Plant Delights (counting the other stuff I won't be able to resist, about $100)

Clematis 'Harlow Carr' from Joy Creek Nursery, plus "enough" other plants to make the order "worthwhile".

Some Oriental Poppies and Heucheras and Baptisia 'Twilite Prairie Blues' from Garden Crossings. Probably about $100.

I justify all this because I will be out of commission for a while after surgery in late May/early June, and because I won't be able to garden for TWO full YEARS starting in August because I'm going away to get a new degree. I'll only be home on holidays and school breaks, and they don't coincide with prime planting times.

Oh--and what I'm NOT buying: Rosa 'James Mason' because I want to wait for Rosa 'Harlow Carr' to become available as an own-root rose and that won't be for a few years yet. Like I have room for either rose...and like that has EVER stopped me from buying more plants...

I'm also not buying dwarf conifers because I haven't had time to thoroughly investigate them and decide just what plants I want and where I want to shoehorn them in to my densely planted garden. Same with boxwood--I have a vague idea, but it's going to stay vague until the new degree is done.

See? I AM exercising SOME restraint. Okay, not much.

:::giggle:::

Lisa

You two gave me such a good laugh! One man's trash is truly another man's treasure! I planted EE Illustris about four years ago for the first time...gorgeous! I worried about it all winter long for fear I would lose it. Come spring I had about 30 million of those things! Several years later, I am still digging them out of my bed each spring....We need to make some kind of deal! :) Here is one possible idea for you to overwinter them, though. Try putting some into large pots this summer and let them get established. Then drag the pots into your garage on an interior wall and see if they'll overwinter there.

I planted 3 canna tubers this past spring and harvested 3 5 gallon buckets full this fall! I guess the nurseries stay in business because so many of us stubbornly want what is difficult to grow in our own back yard! :)
You two want tropicals...I lust for English garden beauties like peonies, delphiniums, and campanulas. Oh, well!

"...I was bored one night..."

Ooh, that's dangerous, lol! Boredom plus nursery websites = spending big bucks, lol!

I have only placed some seed orders, and ordered a few dahlias. I had (finally) pretty good luck with overwintering my dahlias last year, so I'm hoping for similar results this winter, and just ordered about half a dozen tubers.

I do still have to peruse my Bluestone catalog, but for the most part I am trying not to order much because I have approximately 200 potted perennials in my garage that still need to be planted.

Last year I did pretty good at restraining myself.

I don't know though, if I will have the self-restraint shown by Lisa. ;)

Dee

Hmmm. What's wrong with me this year? I have not ordered a thing. I'll have to go look at what's new in clematis at my mail order place....

Guess my purchases of a few plants & seed last week will be the extent of my spree this year, as we are still prohibited from outdoor watering and since the bureaucrats at the EPD are a gaggle of "nervous nellies", I don't expect any relief during this entire year!
I ordered 2 trays of Helleborus TC's, placed my order for seed with NARGS, found a rare Daphne odora 'Albomarginata' at a local Gardening Symposium and it was a "must have".
A local vendor there, gave me 3 of his unnamed Native Azalea hybrids to try in my garden. Made him aware of the total outdoor watering ban and told him that it may be a year or more before I could plant them. All have tight flower buds and should bloom this year, so will have an opportunity to observe the blooms, but not how they would acclimate to this environment.
Yawl have fun! (Southern colloquialism) :Q))

Completed:

High Country Gardens: Baptisia 'Twilite Prairie Blues', Salvia daghestanica, S. pachyphylla 'Blue Flame' S. 'Ultra Violet', S. 'Raspberry Delight', Callirhoe involucrata v. tenuissima and Stachys inflata. Oops! I forgot to get Pelargonium endlicherianum. I think I'll just wait on that one, because it's a bit fussy.

Garden Crossings: Papaver 'Manhattan', Echinacea 'Tiki Torch, E.'Raspberry Tart', Heuchera 'Miracle', H. 'Sashay', H. 'Georgia Peach'.

Plant Delights: Calanthe tricarinata, Epimedium brachyrrhizum, Adiantum capillis-veneris Michigan Form, Helianthus 'Lemon Queen' and Salvia chamaedryoides.

I forgot to add an order to Honker Flats Greenhouses for Gladiolus bulbs (Really. I need Gladioli. Honest.), and Kartuz Greenhouses' Begonia selections are calling to me through the internet. I confess: if it photosynthesizes and it isn't algae, chances are I've grown it, ordered it and will grow it, or want to grow it. :-)

Lisa

Pheeww, I am not alone in my addiction...LOL Each fall the solemn serious promise to myself, not more additions, use the plants I have and make beautiful orderly borders. Winter arrives, lack of color, cold, and than the catalogs...oh well, a treasure here or there won't hurt... sound familiar? :-) I succumbed and ordered from High Country Gardens: Hardy white agapanthus, allium 'Blue Twister', Gaillardia 'Amber Wheels', Penstemon 'Elfin Pink', echinacea 'Sunrise' and lavender 'Sharon Roberts" (supposedly re-blooms if promptly dead-headed). Damage below $60, but hey it's still a ong winter ahead...

My 'curse' is edibles. I just ordered another $150 of fruit producing plants from 2 of my favorite sources.

2008 Burnt Ridge Nursery Order

Atreano fig (already have 10+ figs)
Hinnonmaki Gold Gooseberry (already have 3 other gooseberries)
Minaj Smyriou Black Currant (Killed another b. Currant)
Goumi (1 other already)
Poncirus Trifoliate (Got seedlings want a bigger one)
Legacy Blueberry (got 4 other bb's)
Honeycrisp Apple Semi-dwarf (3 other apples)
King Edward VII Flowering Currant (12 red currants and 2 clove currants and pink and white currants already)
Einset Grape (my first grape, imagine that)
Kreibich Nectarine

St. Lawrence Nursery Order
Carmine Jewel Cherry
Crimson Passion Cherry

Altogether I've got more than 60 kinds of fruiting plants already, but the catalogs are a calling.

I still want that blue meconopsis poppy (even though its not an edible) and I'm looking at both seeds and plants...

Not to mention that I'm preparing an order through a drip irrigation supply catalog so I can replace my soaker hoses with drip irrigation. I think I'm going to order enough 1/2 inch hose for my whole project even though I will probably only get half of the yard laid out this spring/summer. Do irrigation supplies count?

thank goodness the two clematis varieties I seem to be unable to do without are currently unavailable anywhere it seems or I would have ordered them as well by now.

~Chills

Chills, OF COURSE irrigation supplies don't count, just the way bags of organic fertilizer to be bought during my spring plant-buying run to California don't count! If it doesn't photosynthesize, it doesn't count against your total :-) What a totally cool edible garden you must (or will) have, Chills!

Today's excuse: It's my birthday and I have a kind of sore throat. So I ordered from Joy Creek Nursery: Clematis 'Harlow Carr', Epipactis gigantea, Salix purpurea 'Canyon Blue', Dianthus 'Rose de Mai', Vancouveria hexandra and Acanthus mollis 'Hollard's Gold'.

Happy Belated Birthday, Ljrmiller!

Well, you guys made me feel MUCH better. Compared to you guys, I don't even have an addiction, LOL!

Actually, I may have spent as much as you guys, but mostly on seeds instead of plants. I placed seed orders with at least half a dozen different seed companies. Why is it that you can never get everything on your wish list at one place?

The only plants I have ordered are:

from Stark Bro's
Honeycrisp Apple Semi-Dwarf
Starkspur Golden Delicious Apple Semi-Dwarf

from Bluestone:
Sedum 'Lynda Windsor'
Hibiscus syriacus Purpureus Variegatus

Less than $100 on plants, but close to that much on seeds.

Happy shopping everyone!
Bonnie

Well I have ordered some wholesale plants for bulk planting but so far have held off on the specialty items. I did get a catalog from Asiatica which has lots of great looking plants (at ASTRONOMICAL prices). I think their median plant price must be $50! (for a 3.5" pot...). I have been looking for Jeffersonia dubia since I first fell in love with it at a local garden and they have it. But I think I will buy it from Hillside Nursery where it is cheaper. They have some awesome looking ladyslippers at Hillside -- heck why not throw in a few of those at $50 a piece......

Then there is the usual temptation of Fairweather Gardens. No doubt I will succumb to at least one viburnum (Molly Schroeder, Mary Milton, one or more of the pink jobs) and a magnolia or two.

For the OP-

If you'll be ordering more from Joy Creek, might I suggest you try out some of their border penstemons? I think mine may actually come back this spring even though it says they are only hardy down to zone 7. Even if they don't, the show that my 'Port Wine' Penstemon put on all through the fall was unbelievable. Huge, deep wine colored flowers that looked amazing next to the oranges of the Kniphofia (second part started with a 'g' but I don't see it listed in their catalog now). Anyway, the combination of the two was electric. I'd highly recommend you add some of those to your order. Their penstemons are not like any you'll find anywhere else.

Bindersbee, I love Penstemons, but I'm still trying to figure out how to grow the hybrid Penstemons well. So far I've been successful with species (especially Penstemon palmeri, which borders on thuggish in some spots in my garden) Penstemons, but the hybrids tend to die on me. Perhaps they need more water.

I do have one Penstemon that appears to be a spontaneous, bird-distributed interspecies cross (P. palmeri x P. eatonii, perhaps?) that is doing well--it's "small" like P. eatonii, has flowers sort of intermediate to the two putative parents, has foliage more like P. palmeri as well as the extreme drought tolerance of P. palmeri. I'm assuming it's a spontaneous hybrid because it turned up in a path where I KNOW I didn't plant anything.

I think I'll wait on more Penstemons, especially those requiring "experimentation" until 2010, when I can devote a little time to them (will be away getting a new degree for two years).

I did place an order for hybrid tuberous begonias (salmon ruffled basket ones), species begonias (B. luxurians, B. venosa and B. fuchsioides) and Fuchsias (triphyllas and "regular" ones) from Antonelli's Begonias today--hey, they ARE perennials in climates warmer than mine :-) If I'm going to be laid up after surgery in mid-to-late May, then by yiminy, I want to be laid up in a gorgeous garden with hanging baskets, lavish container plantings, perennials gone mad and the whole place just chock full of bees, butterflies and birds.

Lisa

You guys arnt going to believe this, but ive NEVER ordered plants before. Ive just boughten my plants at local nurserys. I think I may have to break down and order some things this year. There are several rare things I want that the local places just dont have. This seems like the ideal place to ask, so would you guys mind ansewering a few questions? Ive done some research, but am unable to deside what places to order from. Id like to order from some place that has sells some good sized plants, and has a good refund policy if possible. An old neighbor used to order from Wayside, and I was shocked at the scrawney sticks they were passing as plants. How big is a normal sized mail order plant? I dont expect to be sent a four foot Helenium in full bloom, like what youd find at the nurserys, but I do hope to find a place that sells plants that look like something other than unidentifiable seedlings. Ive heard good things about Lazy S'S Farm; how do you like them? Do you have any other suggestions? Thanks SO much for any advice!
CMK

CMK,

I haven't ordered from Lazy S'S Farm before, but they certainly have a nice selection, and some unique things too. The shipping to my area was a bit on the high side if I remember correctly. If you want good sized plants, another place to consider is Garden Crossings, though their prices tend toward the high side. Forest Farm offers gallon sized containers on a lot of things, but the shipping on those might be more than you are willing to spend. Worth checking out though, as they have a really nice selection.

My favorite mailorder places, Bluestone, Big Dipper, and High Country Gardens do tend to send smaller plants, but they have always been healthy, and way less expensive than Wayside.

Just my 2 cents,
Bonnie

CMK: I don't do mail order very often either, like I mentioned, but for the few things that are hard to find locally I do turn to mail order.

Some great on-line vendors I use:

* Forest Farm
* Select Seeds (antique perennials, annuals, and seeds)
* Stokes Seeds (seeds only)
* Swallowtail Seeds (seeds only)

Some places I've heard are great through the boards but have never actually ordered from:

* Bluestone Perennials
* Plant Delights
* Klem's Song Sparrow Perennials
* Lazyssfarm
* Pickering (for roses)

I don't order from Wayside or Park anymore - quality has gone waaaaay downhill over the years. I'll turn to Burpee if there is a seed I can't find anywhere else (which is rare), but not for plants. All these places have small, poor quality plants in my experience. They used to be the places to shop, but not anymore, sadly.

Christinmk: go to the Dave's Garden/Garden Watchdog website (www.gardenwatchdog.com) and use the search feature to look for mail order nurseries in your state and in Oregon. You will find PLENTY of wonderful nurseries to choose from--just check the ratings.

Big Dipper Farm, Forestfarm and Goodwin Creek Gardens are all "close", and shipping is reasonable in-state or from the next state. My favorite of those three is Forestfarm, but I don't have anything bad to say about the other two. You also have places I haven't tried, but want to like Siskiyou Rare Plants, Mt. Tahoma Nursery and Cistus Nursery.

To be honest, if I lived in WA, I'd be on "nursery road trips" every other weekend during the growing season: one weekend to shop, one to plant...

As for other, more-distant nurseries, I like High Country Gardens, Bluestone Perennials, Old House Gardens, Plant Delights, Select Seeds, Annie's Annuals and Klehm's Songsparrow Farm. That's not to say that other nurseries are bad--just those are ones I especially like.

Thanks for all the recs!
-ljmiller, thats so funny! Just last weekend I looked on Big Dipper Farms website to see if their nursery was open to the public. Every year I take a trip to Seattle, and always make it a point to go 'nursery-hopping'. The car is absoltely filled with plants when I get done there! And I was going to visit Heronswood Nursery for the first time, but I learned they had closed just a few months before goign there!!! Thanks again everyone!
CMK

Well, folks, yesterday I had a(diagnostic) pelvic ultrasound (no, I'm not pregnant), and it looks like the surgery won't happen, because there's no structural reason for it. So, because I was a little tense just because it was another procedure, and because now the surgery I'd been hoping for is off (a disappointment to a certain degree), I....

Ordered more plants. Select Seeds this time: Dianthus 'Mrs. Sinkins, D. 'Pheasant Eye', Iris 'Mme Chereau', Iris 'Faustine', Hibiscus acetosella 'Haight Ashbury', Primula 'Candy Pinks', Viola 'Marie Louise'.

If my life's frustrations and disappointments continue at this rate, I'll end up paving my garden with potted plants I ordered . I know. It's just an excuse to feed my addiction. But really. It's only for this Spring, after two barren years of no ordering, and two barren years away at school to come. Really.

:::giggle:::

Lisa

Wow! I'm going to make my husband read all these posts and tell him how lucky he is that compared to you guys I really only have a baby size addiction.(Babies do grow quickly though.) So far I've only ordered Euphorbia Jessie, Heliopsis Prairie Sunset, and Dicentra Candy Hearts. I ordered those from White Flower Farm cause I had a $25.00 gift certificate there. I'm still looking at a couple of new Cannas and EE's and of course a couple new hosta and just a few as yet undecided shade plants. Besides the veggie seeds don't count towards the total cause they give our whole family and half the neighborhood fresh food all summer and canned and frozen goodies through winter. So you see the edibles absolutely don't count towards the total. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

The border penstemons aren't like the regular drought-tolerant varieties. These require regular water and nice, rich garden soil. I have 1 bed right in front of the house where I grow plants with those requirements. My larger borders in the back yard are waterwise- or at least they will be when I can afford to fill them with plants and shrubs!

Your hybrid penstemon sounds facinating. I'd love to play around with trying to 'make' new plants someday. Someday when the kids and life aren't so crazy. The someday that probably won't come! LOL!

The Dirt Season has Officially Begun! Okay, so I went into Lowe's to get ice melt after clearing my walks, sidewalk and driveway of snow, and of course I felt the need to stroll through the garden section. They have their spring bulbs and perennials (the box/bag "dormant" ones) out, and I couldn't dissuade myself. "Just a few", I said.

So--I came home with Hosta 'Guacamole' (two for five bucks, how could I NOT--and yes I know about the risk of Hosta Virus X), Hymenocallis (3 bulbs for five bucks, never tried them before), and a cactus-flowered Dahlia that looks like a pink-and-yellow koosh ball (3 clumps for five bucks). I'll pot everything up tomorrow afternoon.

Last night I slugged my way through the new Forestfarm catalog, coming up with an order of 4 1-gallon plants, and a tube order for about 7 plants. Will I send the order, or just part of it (the gallons)? I don't know yet. I'm letting that one roll around in my brain for a bit.

You guys are shameless!
Enablers, one and all, par excellence!
I had completed my plant orders, for this year. One small order for some TC's and a record(for me) small order of seed.
I carefully disposed of all of the catalogs, studiously avoided the nursery web sites and then I stumbled upon this string!
A new Arrowhead Alpines catalog had just arrived and I had not planned to peruse it, but thought, what the heck, no harm in glancing through it. Wrong! Next thing I realized, I was writing a check and addressing an envelope!
Bob, hope you appreciate the order and you can thank(blame) these joyous plant enthusiasts! And please include water with the order, as I have none! :Rb

My favorite places are Bluestone, Klehms, Papageno's (for scented geraniums), Graceful Gardens (for more common things and delphiniums), and one that I forget that was something like Fragrant Gardens - need to check my records.

For seeds, I like Swallowtail and Pinetree and Gardens North.

I am planning to order from High Country Gardens and Bluestone this year.

Okay, let me confess my sins!

Forestfarm: Ribes odoratum, corylopsis spicata, cornus sanguinea "Winter Flame", Hamamelis Jelena, Magnolia "Heaven Scent", Akebia trifoliata "Deep Purple", Amelanchier "Spring Flurry" (a whopping 5-fallon specimen to the tune of $39 for shipping of that plant alone!!!)

Fairweather Gardens: Magnolia "Woodsman", Lindera erythrocarpa, Fothergilla "Blue Shadow", Acer palmatum "Villa Taranto", Chaenomeles x superba "Fusion", Spirea thunbergii "Ogon".

Fedco Trees: Cercis canadensis,Aronia arbutifolia "Brillantissima", Ilex verticillata "Winter Red", Sambucus nigra "Eva"

Brent and Becky's Bulbs: Dahlia "Classic Giselle", Lycoris springeri.

And to top it all off, I'm wintersowing 50 or so kinds of seeds.

And then I'm waiting patiently for Bluestone's 50% off sale to add to my papaver orientale collection. Oh, and I haven't even received Green Mountain Transplants' catalog yet...

Yes, it promisses to be another busy planting season this year. But I tell myself that there are worse habits than this one (LOL)

Marianne

There. Except for gladiolus bulbs, I'm officially done. I placed my Forestfarm order:

Hydrangea quercifolia 'Little Honey', Kerria japonica 'Kin Kan', Epimedium youngianum Roseum, Heuchera 'Chinook', Bergenia 'Pink Dragonfly', Primula 'Mahogany Sunrise', Spigelia marilandica and Yucca 'Sapphire Skies'.

I also did an online order with Green Mountain Transplants. I got tired of waiting for a new or mailed list, so we'll see how that turned out. I ordered a lot of annuals (Coleus, Begonias, stuff like that) and some perennials to the tune of one 72-plant flat and two 32-plant flats. I like my patio positively jungly in summer.

Laperouse...

Ribes odoratum: Great plant, make sure its close enough that you can enjoy the scent of its flowers, one of my favorites!

Akebia trifoliata "Deep Purple": Torn on this one as the pictures always make it seem as though the flowers are much larger than they really are. Also I've never seen a fruit on mine (and you need two for fertilization).

Amelanchier "Spring Flurry": Not familiar with the cultivar, but Serviceberries (Amelanchier) is a great shrub/small tree with wonderful fruit. Don't let the fruit go to waste!

LJRMiller: I wanted to add a couple more clematis this year (Omoshiro and vienetta) but they are proving difficult to find. Good luck with C. Harr, though.

I just bought seed for Meconopsis Lingholm (a plant which might be a futile endeavour) and Viola Coreana (Koreana) 'Syletta' (a weedy plant, supposedly, that I have managed to lose twice already....though it was squirrels who killed it both times)

Anyone had luck growing Meconopsis (from seed or otherwise)???

~Chills

Chills, I am certainly planning on planting my ribes close to a bench!!! Not that I get that many free moments between work, taking care of two young children and gardening but sometimes one just has to sit down and smell the currant!

I haven's tried meconopsis yet, but have plans to WS it next year. I already have more plants in the pipe lines than I can handle this year!

Marianne

Ohh, you all are fascinating!
I wish the catalpa 'Aurea' at Forest Farm was much cheaper and I'd place my first order!

I did pick up a ribes odoratum at a garage sale/plant sale last year. It's 4 ft tall and was $2.- Yeah I'm going back to find more values in the spring!

I did take advantage of a co-op again this year with woodthrush (GW) and bought over 50 lilium bulbs for about $70 Orienpets are lovely!If they do the right plants at the co-op for Walter's Gardens I will put in an order for perennials too.

I also placed my first order with Thomson Morgan seed as they had a $10 and NO minimum order offer with the last catalog.
I also purchased seed from Valueseeds? seeds very cheap, and recommended at the Tom Clothier website.

I am hoping to buy unusual aroids from lariann's personal collection this spring(GW)

Jackson and Perkins has a nice metal trellis set I'm eyeing....

And if the stinkin'!! snow clears up by then( 10 more inches today!) I'd like to drive all the way to Madison this weekend for the giant garden expo and see what all the vendors have to offer. Tickets are $6-7 for a day of talks and all.
It would be a nice break to think green instead of white......

Karen

I thought I was done. I promised myself I was done. But then I thought I'd just check out Klehm's Songsparrow Farm's 2008 offerings. Hey. I ONLY bought a tree peony 'Narcissus', Dicentra 'Candy Hearts' and Clematis fremontii. I wonder who/what else will grab my attention...

From the Cistus Nursery (oregon--www.cistus.com) ordering information page: "Although we donÂt have a minimum order policy, we strongly encourage you to be just
like us and have little to no self-control when it comes to indulging your plant lust"

I don't know anyone like that, do you? :::giggling:::

Cistus has lots of lovely perennials too tender for my zone unless I resort to extreme measures, but I've given up on trying to rein in my horticultural habit. I ordered Hostas from HostasDirect, Gladiolus Bulbs from Honker Flats Greenhouses and Siberian Iris from Joe Pye Weed's Garden. In theory, I'm done ordering. In theory.

Lisa

I'm sitting on my hands with the Reath's peony catalog on the bookshelf in the closet, trying my dardnest to resist. I am really lemming the fernleaf peony, I've wanted that for years, and am also lusting over some of the tree peonies. Hopefully the urge will pass and I'll forget about it.

I think I'm going to pick up another no-name cheapie tree peony or two this spring and nurse them on in pots for a few years. I did that with the tree peony I have, and it's turned into a stunner. So that'll be an inexpensive way to satisfy my tree peony lemming.