Follow up to $50 gift card question

16 years ago

I love all the suggestions on the other thread, thank you! I hope you don't mind a follow up question. I'd like to make my order by February, but I am still figuring out what I want. I still have the limit of $50, and I am definitely going to spend it on plants from one source (save on charges), but I've convinced my benefactor that it doesn't HAVE to be White Flower Farm. Sooooo, if you had $50 to spend on plants from any mail order source which would you choose? Again, my goal is to find something a little unusual to compliment my sun border along my driveway or my new shade garden in front of my house.

Thanks!

Lisa

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (13)

hostasz6a
16 years ago
One of my favorite mail order places is Bluestone Perennials. Your money will go a lot further there. I have ordered from both places.

The plants suggested are great ideas. I did not look to see if Bluestone carried them, but they do carry many of the same plants as White Flower Farm.

Take a look at their website. I received their print catalog before New Year's.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bluestone Perennials
prairiemoon2 z6b MA
16 years ago
Hi Lisa...

Isn't that nice that you can choose where to go? :-)

Well...I can second the suggestion for Bluestone Perennials. If you have the time to wait for them to grow, you can really stretch your money with them. I wouldn't say they have the most unusual material but they do have more than just the usual. Prices aren't as good as they used to be but they do have good sales. As far as perennials, their prices for the size that you are getting are less attractive than they once were. Their shrubs are still good prices because they are selling you a small size and there aren't that many places that offer that size.

As for full sun perennials, I rarely am in that position to shop for those. I start a lot from seed and I have very little full sun. I did notice that Prairemoon Nursery sells plants as well as seed now and I am pretty sure they are a good company. They offer native plants. I guess you can tell by my name that I am partial to prairie plants that you can grow in full sun. [g] I have never ordered from them. NEWFS also offers lots of full sun perennials.

I am also looking for plant material for my shade garden and if someone offered me a gift certificate, I would like one to Garden Vision owned by Darrell Probst, who specializes in epimediums. I have dry shade/part shade and I have found epimediums to be a great performer under those conditions. He has some nice varieties that you don't find locally. The second place I would probably look would be NEWFS. I would just love some of their expensive native shade plants. Maybe some trilliums, among others. They also have less expensive shade plants in the $9. range, as well.

I am looking for hostas and have no idea where to go that there is a good selection without paying really high prices.

If I wanted shrubs or trees, I would go to Broken Arrow Nursery in CT. I love their prices, the selection, the tendency toward offering natives and the health of the plant material. I haven't bought something there in quite awhile, but that was how it was the last time I did.

If I wanted Rhododendrons, I would go to Weston Nurseries and try to buy the smallest size because they are expensive.

If I had full sun, I would love to order roses from Pickering Roses!

I just read an article in Horticulture magazine not too long ago and they were talking up a nursery in CT called Variegated Foliage, which I had never heard of. I have also noticed that they have mentioned most of those I mentioned at one time or another, except Pickering Roses which I hadn't noticed whether they have or not. A number of experienced gardeners here on the forums have recommended Pickering in the past.

You could also do a search for a specific type of nursery and the ratings of them on Garden Watchdog. I use them a lot.

Hope that helps and enjoy your shopping! :-)
Related Discussions
Question About Newbies ~ Follow-up
Q
Comments (14)
My Okie father, who was born in 1910, composted his whole life, as had both his dustbowl farmer parents before him, so I figure that my family has been composting continually for well over a century. (When someone was in college or in WWII, some other family member was running a pile somewhere.) In almost 56 years, I have only lived in one home that didn't have a compost pile---during a nine month stint I spent in Boston once. In the summer when we went to our camp, we put our compostables into a bottom-less trash can that my father sank into the ground. That was in operation for fifty years until an overenthusiastic snowplow guy plowed well into our back yard and drove it out of the ground. The lid was unscathed and I still have it. For some reason, my father or someone stamped a neat "1945" into it. The bin in our backyard at home was a three-sided, wooden box about 5 feet x 10. We dropped our household debris into the bin from the garden crib above it. When my father (the gardener) died, my brother, mother and I continued to add to what my family called the "mulch pile", but we never harvested from it. It was just the way we managed waste. For years and years. I moved out and began to compost at my new apartment. When my mother moved in the 80s I moved the contents of the bin along with her other household items. I planted a garden with some of my father's plants---Blue Flag and Solomon's Seal and bluebells---and used all of the compost in the new garden. Someone gave me a huge wooden box from Lockheed and I set it up at the new place for my mother's new bin. My stepfather later built another bin 5' x 8. Over time we added three mobile, wire bins. I have five bins going now here at our former cottage, plus an area about 7'x 20' that is under three feet of packed leaves and grass clippings, an area that will be planted someday. I covered an area about 15'x20 last year under about 50 bags of leaves, about, I can't really remember, I think over 50 pumpkins, six contractor's bag of seaweed, four bales of rotten hay, and a few bags of pine needles. It's shocking how much that shrank by summer's end. It's good looking stuff, though, so I thought that I should head to another area. I'm going to heavily mulch that area with chicken house litter this spring and plant something there.
...See More
Gift Card Shopping and Strategy!
Q
Comments (20)
I think gift giving divides into what I call order takers and dream fillers. Order takers want to provide something that the recipient specifically wants or needs, and that completes the 'transaction'. A subset of order takers just need to check off a gift from the list, and as long as it is an object or GC, check it done. For an order taker, gift cards are a godsend. No more running hither and yon trying to find X or Y, just pick up the card, load it and boom, mission accomplished. Dream fillers want to provide a gift that, as the saying goes, the recipient didn't know s/he wanted until it appeared. For dream fillers, the downside is trying to get into the minds of people to suss out just the perfect item. Not an easy task! For a dream filler, gift cards or cash completely negate the goal, and to boot they kill the dream by making it crystal clear just how much was spent on fulfilling the 'dream'. I used to be a dream filler--it was my perpetual goal to get the PERFECT gift for those on my list. However, as I've gotten older I have come to realize that as with much else in life you can't control or force anyone to feel, do or enjoy gifts no matter how carefully you try to pick something special. And of course gift cards as a product have exploded; you can literally give them for every and any product or service. What I do now is try to combine order taking and dream filling. So, for Christmas I paired a package of sugar free chocolate bars I special ordered for my diabetic dad with a GC for a movie theater. He and my stepmother will be facing an extended period of medical treatment out of town and my 'dream' is that they can have a night out at the movies as a respite, where he can snack on treats that aren't bad for him. I gave my sisters, all of whom like me are avid readers, each a pair of book-themed novelty socks packaged with an Amazon GC. Dream: they can order something they enjoy reading and peruse it wearing snazzy socks. Okay, that one is pretty light hearted dream filling but still, it's at least a start! And that's how I try to combine the practicality of gift cards with at least some attempt at creativity and personalization. Ann
...See More
Organizing Gift Cards/Reward/Membership Cards
Q
Comments (10)
Concerning gift cards, be sure to check to see if they have an expiration date (many of them actually do!). If you have a daily-reminder wall calendar, mark the expiration dates down. I'd put a note on, say, 6 months in advance and other sporadic dates saying "You have a $50 Borders card to use up!" so that they remind you that you've got them tucked away and need to redeem them. There's nothing worse than realizing too late that you've lost out on $50 of shopping power. For all those store "preferred customer cards," here's what I do. Most of them I put on a keyring. For cards I use frequently that didn't offer a keyring version, I punch a hole in the corner (away from the bar code or swipey strip). In my purse, I also carry a small rectangular zip pouch that I carry coupons, receipts, paint chips, etc. in, and I tuck in most of the other cards I have and the Bed Bath & Beyond 20%-off coupons (I never shop there without one!). Sometimes I'm tempted to just leave that pouch in the glove compartment (as long as none of those receipts have my full credit card number on them!), so it's there if I need it. Always happens that if I leave the pouch at home, that'll be the time that I need something in it.
...See More
Gift Card Scams
Q
Comments (48)
Hopefully for the last time, a Power of Attorney is a piece of paper. It's not a person, a legal capacity, or a status. . I've been away from home but I have a copy of some forms in my digital possession with the following effect. The first, a durable and mostly limitless General Power of Attorney, says: "I, XXX, a resident of YYY County, State, appoint as my attorney in fact: My name". It's a 19 page document. As a result of which, I am that person's "attorney in fact". The document is a Power of Attorney Another document for that same person is a durable power of attorney for health care that names me as "agent". My title under that document is "agent". The document is a healthcare power of attorney. I also have that person's will that names me as Executor. As a result, when acting under that document, I am "Executor". The document is a will. This is an area I worked in, in my professional career, for which I had a state license and plenty enough training. Not much, it isn't that complicated, irrespective of what people think they know based only on what they've heard used or misused.
...See More
asarum
16 years ago
The one downside of Pickering's for roses is that you have to order 3 roses as a minimum. It doesn't suit everyone's circumstances.
sedum37
16 years ago
All the suggestions are great so far! If you are looking for something unusual, why not try Old House Gardens? They specialize in heirloom plants for planting in both spring and fall. Many of their plants can't be gotten other places. They have fabulous customer support and offer high quality. Check them out...

Here is a link that might be useful: Old House Gardens - Spring Planting
prairiemoon2 z6b MA
16 years ago
Thanks for reminding me about bulbs! :-) I agree with sedum that Old House offers some nice heirloom varieties of Dahlias that would be great in a full sun bed. I like that company and I also like Brent and Becky's for more recent introductions. I ordered from them last year.

Here is a link that might be useful: Brent and Becky's Bulbs
flwrs4ever
16 years ago
I would also say bluestone...I ordered from them last year, and was so happy...I even had one plant that came not looking good, and mentioned that i was going to plant it and see if it perked up, they sent me another one anyways...Everything grew well, and many bloomed the first season !

Has anyone had an experince with high country gardens ? I love their catalog, and selection !

Good luck with your gift card !! I just bought a bunch of bulbs for 50% off from van bournegn ( sp ?) but they have mixed reviews...( they have a sale online..but you have to be careful what you order)
diggingthedirt
16 years ago
I'd get my benefactor to drive me to either WFF (it's a great part of CT, though far away) or to Haskell's (if it's open, never sure, since the owner passed away), or maybe Avant Gardens in Dartmouth MA (small but really nice), Sylvan Nursery in Westport (another great area, stop at the vineyard or the brewery on the way home), or maybe oven out to Rock Spray in Truro (but only if I was interested in heath and heather).

All of these nurseries have things you won't find at Bluestone - although I love Bluestone, don't get me wrong! Your $$ will go further, since you won't have to pay shipping, you'll be able to choose the best of the plants in stock, and you'll have another gardening adventure to think back on next winter.

Presumably, your sugar daddy will cover the cost of gas...
lschibley
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks everyone for all the input. So I made two lists. For just about $60 I can get 12 plants from Bluestone or 4 plants from White Flower Farm. The only thing common to both is a Hellbore. I need to figure which way to go by Feb. Any thoughts?

WWF

Tiarella Neon Lights - Thanks Ellen!
Grass Hakonechloa macra Beni Kaze
Phyllitis scolopendrium
Helleborus niger - Thanks Evon!

Bluestone
HOSTA Patriot
SOLIDAGO sphacelata Golden Fleece (3)
CENTAUREA montana Gold Bullion
HELLEBORUS Orientalis
CAREX hachijoensis Evergold (3)
AGASTACHE Tutti Frutti (3)
evonnestoryteller
16 years ago
12 looks great!

A note on the hosta... I planted over 100 of them one year. I purchased large plants and divided them. ALL OF THEM SURVIVED! It takes awhile for them to grow into those really big clumps though.

My art teacher dug up one of her big clumps for me. I took it in the trunk, home. It was HUGE! It looked like a was carrying a dead body back there with the car listing to the back. I divided that up into so many pieces!

This will be year three of the hostas since I planted them. I am hoping for some bigger ones now. That is the thing with smaller plants. You have to be patient for them to become the show.
NHBabs z4b-5a NH
16 years ago
Last winter I ordered from Lazy S's Farm Nursery, Bluestone, and Garden Crossings (and I always order some fall bulbs from Brent and Becky's,) and I would be happy to order from any of them again. All had some unusual plants and some more common. I think I got the biggest bang for my buck from Lazy S - plants were a bit more expensive than Bluestone, but a lot bigger and incredibly well packed. Garden Crossing was more expensive than Lazy S but they had some things I really wanted and they were lots less expensive than White Flower Farm. (Again, incredibly well packed and much bigger than Bluestone.) Bluestone plants need to be planted pretty much right away because they are in such tiny pots, so you either need to have a bed ready or plan to repot them to bigger sized pots if you plan to keep them for a while before they go into the ground. Mine from Bluestone always arrive looking a bit more battered than plants do from any other nursery I order from, though most of them seem to recover alright.

http://www.lazyssfarm.com/

http://www.gardencrossings.com/

Digging has suggested some great relatively local nurseries - even if you mailorder this year, consider going to at least some of them this summer. You may find things that you'll want to buy, either for this year or when the budget (or a kind benefactor) allows.
diggingthedirt
16 years ago
Like nhbabs, I'm a big fan of Lazy S's Farm - I got some great, unusual plants from them last year, and their service is outstanding.

If the Bluestone hellebores are just plain vanilla h. orientalis, I can give you some seedlings - they DO spread. H. niger is a much better plant, imho, since the flowers turn from pristine white through some lovely shades of pink and sometimes turn a wonderful deep color. The foliage is also nicer and the flowers are earlier than the h. orientalis.

Maybe others have different experience with centaurea, for me it doesn't perform very well, there are few flowers over a relatively short period. Also, the agastache might be iffy for you as far as survival.

I guess if it were me, and these were the only 2 scenarios from which to choose, I'd go with the smaller order from WFF; especially if I were looking for unusual plants.
hostanana
16 years ago
Another mailorder-hallsons.com Great hostas, good perennials, and excellent service.Flat rate ship I think.
Bluestone is also great. Watch for your local garden club
sales(early May, for most), and consider the Tower Hill Bot. Garden sale on May 31st this year. Darrell Probst is there, as well as many societies-New England Hosta Soc. is one, great plant selection. MassHort at Elm Bank in Wellesley should have a sale in May- masshort.org. At least go and look- you can start a wish list for next year!
diggingthedirt
16 years ago
Then there's the NE Spring Flower show - there are lots of vendor there. March 8 Ã¯Â¿Â½" 16.

Here is a link that might be useful: NE Spring Flower Show

Follow up to $50 gift card question

Comments (13)

hostasz6a

prairiemoon2 z6b MA

Related Discussions

asarum

sedum37

prairiemoon2 z6b MA

flwrs4ever

diggingthedirt

lschibley
Original Author

evonnestoryteller

NHBabs z4b-5a NH

diggingthedirt

hostanana

diggingthedirt

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

Follow up to $50 gift card question

Comments (13)

Related Discussions

lschibleyOriginal Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

lschibley
Original Author