littlejo- I'm glad to hear you had no problems with eBay. In my experience, most of the sellers on eBay are not nursery folks, but simply people who have some bamboo out in the back 40 and want to make money off of it. They often don't know how to dig and stabilize it, and I've known plenty of people who got rhizomes only, or got a topped culm with dirt removed from the rhizome to save on shipping. Frequently, these plants are so abused that they die after receipt. I'm not saying all sellers on eBay are like that, but buyer beware...

Yes, Priapi is wonderful. In Delaware, there are several east on RT40 [the town of North East is at the intersection of 40 & 272, if you come in on I95 you cross 40 to get to Sandy Cove] Richardson's and Countryside Gardens. They are approximately the same distance from North East as Priapi, and all three easily doable in a few hours. Well, maybe... If you must- go to Priapi first then Countryside then Richardson's... Have fun at them. Jan

There's more places to choose from then those living in the city but agree that many of them, while high quality, are high end. If he's still there try Frankie's Garden Center at the interesection of Dempster and Dodge in Evanston. He was where the old Frank's Nursery and Crafts was. To be honest, I haven't stopped by in a couple of seasons so not sure if he's still there but the prices and plants were good. But Anton's (on Fowler I got it right this time) is just down the street from that intersection. Their prices are fair and the plants are huge. Lurvery's is your next closest bet or maybe a garden club sale. All these private garden centers are having a hard time competing again the box stores so there's (I think) less of them then there used to be and the ones that have survived offer superior plants and customer service but at premium prices typically.

Seems like a difficult business to be in some days. :-) I did a quick search on amazon and came up with this link and another at the bottom of my post. http://www.amazon.com/Operate-Financially-Successful-Landscaping-Business/dp/1601382286/ref=sr_1_fkmr2_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1279400638&sr=1-1-fkmr2 I would say find a business that is successful and see if you can pick their brain. We seem to be seeing a lot of nurseries going out of business, isn't that true? I would think it's expensive especially if you have to keep greenhouses going. I know Lexington Gardens went out of business a few years ago, and you could see it coming for quite a few years. I was told by someone in management that the cost of fuel to run the greenhouse became outrageous. I know the owner was older and started to have health issues too. As a potential customer, I like that you are inclined toward natives and would love an organic direction as well. I travel a distance to make purchases that are in line with those two basic ideas. I drive 50mins to the NEWFS to buy native, mostly organically grown plant material. I drive the same distance to purchase organic vegetable starts in the spring, in years I don't start my own. I travel to Maine and combine a day trip to justify doing it, to purchase popular perennial and annual 'plugs' once a year in early spring, because so many nurseries that are close to me don't offer a plug size and have just about stopped offering the old '6 pack' size. I buy tiny shrubs from Bluestone Perennials because no one local offers that size and it makes it really affordable. I think a lot of people buy from them because of that and their frequent sales and great customer service. I was going to suggest that if you could model your business on one that didn't need heated greenhouses, you might be ahead of the game. Don't know if that is possible. It would certainly cut your costs, but limit what you offer. Anyway, maybe others can offer their own reasons why they shop at one place or another and what they are looking for in a nursery. Here is a link that might be useful: So you want to start a plant nursery