I hate to be a wet blanket, but the plants you are naming all require thoroughly warm soil and very hot air temps before they start growing. I live in the deep south, and I can tell you that these three cannot/will not be hurried. However, once the heat arrives, they grow FAST. It has been my experience that I always get larger plants locally than by mail, not to mention for far less money.

OK,, so looks like we all can agree that buying smaller banana trees would be a good option for you. Now that being said,,,, sounds like you're going to need a lot of bananas to fill your garden. If I was in your shoes, I'd think about buying six small trees and set them up where you want them to grow. Get them started and in the mean time, do more research on propogation and division. I'm no banana expert, but I do know that starting with a number like six, and using good techique, within 4 years you could completely fill a yard. Now a yard full of bananas may be a little extreme. But a least multiply them to the extent you want to fill and with the others, you would could trade them online or locally for other plant varietes that might suit you. Either way good luck and have fun with it. I've never spent $55 on any plant. My victory is in doing things the cheap way and making new freinds and trading with them. OH and by the way, if you want a tropical garden, don't forget canna, ginger and elephant ear. I think canna is a must have. I love canna. 6 plant for six bucks just about anywhere. I buy my elephant ear at the grocery store. If it's available, it'll be in the fresh vegetable section under the name of "taro". Yep, the same plant Hawaians make poi out of.

Cannadoit - Dottie wasn't accusing you of anything. The GardenWeb rules forbid mentioning any business by name, for any reason, under any circumstances. But things have relaxed a bit nowadays and no one seems to be monitoring things. Just don't be surprised if this thread gets pulled. They consider mentioning a company name as a form of advertising, regardless of the intent. As for seeds or plants - I used to shop everywhere online and couldn't wait to see that box waiting for me on the porch when I got home from work. But now that I've lived here for 9 years I know my way around better and can find just about anything I want locally. Even the hard to find obscure organic/heirloom vegetable seeds from Baker Creek are now available off the rack at my favorite downtown Raleigh Garden Center (Logan's). For mainstream summer annuals I shop at all the garden centers on the south side since that's where I live, with Bbs down in Sanford and Campbell Road on Tryon being favorites. For truly unique odd ball stuff I hit Plant Delights which is conveniently nearby. I have one favorite place I still shop at back in my home state of Oklahoma (Bustani Plant Farm) but I usually pick stuff up when I am home visiting relatives. I shop differently now than I did in the past. My garden is pretty full so now I seek out the plant online and look for sources. When I see something that I think will work for me (often from a thread here on Garden Web) I google the heck out of it and track down a source. I have splurged and bought seeds from all over the world that way. But I no longer have favorite seed or plant catalogs.

Hi, Michellemarie - We just ordered several lighting fixtures from Arcadianlighting.com and didn't have a good experience. One of the items was not the one we ordered. I called the company yesterday and was told that the item we ordered is no longer available so they sent this one instead. Were they hoping we'd not notice? The one we received is not as nice and has fewer details than the one we paid for. To complicate things, the one we received is not offered on their website (though it matches the style we ordered) and we paid several hundred dollars even though the items were on "clearance" -- but now they're back to full price. Eh???? Arcadian Lighting offered only to send us a return label. I think I'd recommend that you don't use Arcadian Lighting.