Again, thanks for all the interesting and helpful comments. My friend does has a lot of room to play around with. She has twelve acres enclosed with deer proof fencing with trails and special vignettes with seating and memorial plantings throughout. She is a very experienced gardener with many years experience and has done quite a bit of research on trees. As mentioned above she has one Chinese pistache and likes it. She wants to play around with silver maples just for fun. Incidentally, she planted some Mexican White Oaks which she got from a special source and she feels they are the 'real thing' and not mixed. The original question remains: CAN ANYONE POINT TO A RELIABLE SOURCE THAT SELLS BARE ROOT CHINESE PISTACHE AND SILVER MAPLE? Or if that's not a possibility then separately. She'd prefer them bare root and shipped together to cut down on costs. She would prefer to have tree nursery recommendations from you all rather than taking a shot in the dark. Many thanks!

I wanted some gaudy (I do mean hot colors) cannas and didn't want to spend $10-20 each, so I picked up a box of mixed hot colors at Sam's Club -- 16 of them for the price of one at a nursery. I'm starting a "Hot Tropics" bed and have been digging it out below grade and filling it up with lots of composted manure and good soil. A vendor is sending me a shampoo ginger and a golden lotus banana as a trial for the quality of their products (a web co-op for a lot of small growers who can't justify the cost of having their own website and had been selling on ebay). They sent me an email about doing this and I decided to go ahead and help out these folks by writing an article after I receive the plants. I'm moving some of my own ginger and colocasia to the area and already have clumping bamboo and pineapple sage there. If I can squeeze it in, I'll add my brug to the space.

I think that before this goes any further and gets any more negative a few things need to be pointed out: 1. Everyone has the ability to shop where they want. If you don't like HD, don't go there. 2. DH, who is an upstanding contractor, and I donate A LOT of time and effort to Habitat for Humanity and hardly ever see local vendors donating. The prevailing attitude seems to be: "let them pay for it themselves like everyone else." DH has severed several local business ties because of this attitude, and from reports up and down the east coast several other contractors involved with HfH have done the same thing. 3. Anyone can write a press release and have it published. Letters to the Editor are the general public's opportunity to do this, and, again, when local charities write their "thank yous" for donations. No big PR Department, there. 4. All charitable giving over $250 needs to be reported individually on taxes, and anyone donating over $5,000 to any 501-3(c) organization gets reported immediately. Check the IRS files to see what local places have donated NEARLY as much as the HD's and Lowes of the world. You'll be in for a shock, believe me. 4. It is very well known that the major manufacturers sell their lower-end lines at HD and Lowes and WalMart and a lot of other "big box" stores. If someone doesn't do their homework when buying a piece of equipment that costs several hundreds or thousands dollars, and doesn't realize that it's not the same thing as at a "dealership", shame on them. This lower-end equipment allows consumers to enjoy the same warrantees and service that higher-end equipment carries, without needing to spend the high-end price. Again, it's a matter of consumer responsibility. 5. THIS FORUM IS FOR THE DISCUSSION OF NEW ENGLAND PLANTS and, even with the format change, I'm really disappointed that the thread was not pulled earlier. Any sort of consumer oriented business (ie., the museum gift shop, mom and pop stores, AND DON'T get me started on "local" hardware stores that market themselves as being "local" but are franchised by conglomerates much larger than HD) has its skeletons, and to single one company out defies the spirit of GardenWeb, iVillage notwithstanding. 6. Yes, many governmental agencies and contractors responded to the several natural disasters. Last I knew, it's what they are there for. I suggest that all of you who feel strongly about HD not go there, and let others make their own decision. Spreading negative information doesn't help anyone. Let's concentrate on the positive, here!! Martie, who really hopes this whole thread gets pulled

I have a couple of peonies under massive pines, they get mostly afternoon sun and do okay, better than hostas under pines!! Peonies don't need or want too damp of a spot so the drier part shade works much better than wet part shade. Your plants probably will be a bit taller and not as full, though. I'm not sure about hydrangeas in that spot, mine require a lot more water than I can get consistently under pines. The only things that seem to not care at all is daylilies! MB does stand behind their plants, if yours don't come back in the spring call them--they'll certainly replace them. Same with Springhill, they're having a sale on Kirinmaru peony right now, with keycode 0442569 they're $19.95 each. I'm tempted but have ordered far too many already! It sure is pretty, though! Google it and see what you think.