You can get the following cheaper locally, so why mailorder at all? Baptisia australis - definitely worth growing, but requires patience. Twilite Prairie Blues is much faster growing, but darker flowered. Brunnera Jack Frost is in my opinion better than looking glass. I also highly recommend Emerald Mist. Calamintha nepeta Montrose White is on the top of my list for long season color in a compact plant and is highly underused. Euphorbia polychroma is a much stronger grower than First Blush (a side note- First Blush was selected in Germantown, WI) First Blush needs well drained soil to thrive, straight polychroma is more forgiving. Interesting that Bluestone lists polychroma and epithymoides seperately, they're synonymous. Liatris Kobold. Do try to find 'Kobold Original' as it will be dwarf clonal material, not a tall seed grown strain like regular 'Kobold'. Penstemon Dark Towers is (believe it or not) stronger growing than Husker's Red and has much better dark color to the foliage and seed heads. Like Husker's Red, no problem with clay soil. Scabiosa Butterfly Blue has rarely overwintered for me. Alpine plant that blooms its head off. Needs great drainage. Ultraviolet and Vivid Violet have overwintered more reliably, but steel need excellent drainage. Sedum Purple Emperor is one of the better purple-foliaged sedums available. Chocolate Drop is even better for habit and color. Sub. varieties locally available to consider: Agastache Heatwave or Pule Pygmy- A. rupestris 30" tall hardy in well drained soils. Solid performer with orangey-coral flowers. Anemone Alice or Price Henry- Pamina or September Charm are both nice pinks. Almost All fall-blooming Anemone are colony formers and need some management to stay in bounds. Boltonia Pink- Jim Crockett is a nice dwarf lavender Boltonia. Campanula Portenschlagiana- C. posharskyana Blue Waterfall is well behaved groundcover campanula. My fav. campanula next to C. summertime blues. Coreopsis Sweet Dreams- all coreopsis need great drainage to get through our winters. Sweet Dreams has been difficult here and quite a bit leggy. I think the only one on your list I would truly skip. Dianthu Raspberry Surprise or First Love- all Dianthus do fairly well here as long as they aren't too wet in winter and early spring. Firewitch is similar to First love. Geranium Karmina- Nice variety will do well. Dwarf Monarda Pink Supreme - Had this once, seemed nice enough. Very similar to Grand Marshall which has been a solid performer with virtually no mildew. Skip the new pink Grand Mum. Worst mildew in my monardas this year. Worse even than M. fistulosa. Nepta Snowflake- somewhat weaker growing than other nepetas, but when sited well that isn't a negative in my opinion. Personally I would just plant another Calaminta nepeta montrose white. The Plant Geek www.confessionsofaplantgeek.blogspot.com

link below to girards.. lots of juniper listed ... but note the weird way to change pages near the bottom of the juniper pages.. there are 5 pages total .... i have gotten good stock from them ... also.. try here: http://www.musserforests.com/results.asp?s=juniper but ... WHY MORE JUNIPERS???? why do they HAVE TO BE junipers... i have some green giants near a 200 foot line of 30 year old grey owl look alikes.. and frankly .. the difference in texture is very pleasing ... i understand the upright part.. just not the monoculture of junipers ... if you move away from the requirement of juniper.. there are a lot of really cool upright plants .. the sky is the limit ... and bluer.. and more resistant to the plagues of junipers .... but hey.. its your garden.. knock yourself out ... good luck ken Here is a link that might be useful: lots of junipers

After doing some work in the garden I realized the roses are really in stunning bloom right now, so I grabbed the camera this morning (11/03) and took some shots. The best of them, though, I couldn't photograph: the white Margaret Merrill is 6' tall and at least that much around, full of blooms - but without just the right light, it looks like a bush full of big white blobs, LOL. Being from the Midwest, it still amazes me that I can have roses almost year-round, and especially around Thanksgiving. The nights are cool but the days are still warm, so my (sadly, few) roses love it. I took some photos this morning and am posting them below. This is Double Delight, in a wider angle than the photo taken in mid-October above: This is Double Delight again, with Delany Sisters right next to it: This is my Intrigue standard: This is the JosephÂs Coat climber: This is a shrub rose, J&PÂs Ladies in Waiting. ItÂs fragrant and quite lovely, but only flops if you try to cut it for the vase: HereÂs a closeup of Delany Sisters: This is looking alongside the house, back up towards the street. As you can see this is a very narrow bed, just 12" deep! It faces south so the roses are very happy here. That's Intrigue in front with Ladies at its feet, with Delany, then Double Delight furthest away. Here's a photo of my prized variegated pink dwarf canna. It doesn't bloom very much, but it has managed to survive our three very dry summers with minimal watering, so I count it a success: And here's my real surprise - the freesias are coming up! The early October rain was hard enough to awaken them, so I've continued to sprinkle them once a week. Looks like I'll have blooms at least a month early this season:

Well any bush or small tree that is spiny (if this is not an issue with young children around) is sure to attract desirable nesting birds such as the Song sparrow. Check if the one or two Berberis species (commonly nammed barberries) that are native to the USA are now clear with your local laws. (They used to be banned because they transmitted wheat rust disease to crops.) An Hawthorne also makes an excellent nesting bush for small birds, but they are slow-growers. Song sparrows and Red cardinals also love any dense thicket of Red cedar (which the waxwings and robins will also devour the fruits from) or arborvitae (White cedar) to nest inside and get cover for sleeping during those nasty winter weather spells... We have two large Sambucus canadensis, fruiting heavily in the sun, two other ones that strive under dense shade(Sort of as an experiment... last year they had sprung from the ground just like a perennial, seemingly dying to the ground in the fall... But this spring the buds are forming higher on the old fall branches, so maybe these two will recover and become full-fledged shady spot shrubs... we'll see). Then we have a specimen of Sambucus pubens, and this other native species indeed grows fast (gotta be careful about root competition at first though) in the shade, flowers in its first couple of years, then fruits almost as soon as it flowers! Fruits are shining bright red in the shade and are a very pretty sight in early summer, but these do disappear fast with the birds!! I am surprised that you seem to have problems finding those plant species at the nurseries. Here in the Montreal area and suburbs, at some points in the season they come almost a dime a dozen! I suggest you shop around a little more. And don't forget that if you buy small potted plants from Internet dealers (search here in the archives to find those reliable dealers), in the case of Sambucus, they grow so fast and easy that this should not be an issue for you.