joanne - Welcome to Florida. We moved here almost 11 years ago from Clinton Township, NJ; originally from West Orange. From Hallandale Beach, go west (unless you want to go swimming) and then either south to Homestead (about 1/2 an hour) where you will find dozens of retail nurseries or go north to Davie where you have Jesse Durkos, Trinity Churchside Gardens (see the thread I've posted about it) and others. If you continue west to Flamingo Road and then north, you'll find Alexanders and a bunch of other ones just before you hit 595. 595 East will take you back to 95 and Hallandale Beach Blvd.

Kaufell Gardens in New Hope, PA always has an interesting selection though I didn't go this year - if you like antique roses, climbers and austins. They are only open from April through June and have a nice display of roses. Also perennials, herbs. Reasonable though they go up a little each year. I try to go close to opening to get the best stuff. She use to buy from Pickering but now I notice a lot is from Star. Let's see, some roses I bought from her in the past: Variegata di Bologna Madame Pierre Oger Yesterday Ambridge Rose Pink perpetue to name some. If you check the website in March or April, sometimes they list what they will carry. Otherwise you can email. Here is a link that might be useful: Kaufell Gardens

We used to frequent this nursery often. It was run by an old gent who I believe died of cancer 2 years ago. His wife tried to run the business the next year but decided it was too much work and closed the nursery. It was open to the public. He had a tremendous selection of hundreds of different kinds of prennials sold very cheaply in small 1 - 1 1/2" pots. When we first went 8-10 years ago they sold for about 59 cents and toward the end it was 99 cents or more for the littlest pots. Of course the bigger pots 4" were about 4.99 -5.99 and up. Still a bargain for unusual plants. Apparently he grew all the prennials from seed but later as his health must have been failing he bought them from a wholesale grower. He took a liking to us and showed his propagating greenhouses with thousands of tiny plants. He also sold annuals and veggies. He had a great selection of unusual hot peppers and tomatoes. We bought many unusual plants from him, not the usual run of the mill plants everyone sells. He will be missed. We couldn't wait for them to open in the Spring. I hope you do buy or lease the operation and offer the great selection of plants he offered. Best of luck to you.

runktrun and DtD would have better information on Martha's Vineyard (and Falmouth which is on the Cape side of the MV ferry), but in general after Labor Day and up to Columbus Day is considered by many (including me) to be the finest weather in this area. A lot of the tourists have gone home with the kids back in school so the beaches are less crowded and cooler. The days are still warm and clear without the August humidity (nights are getting cooler) and traffic is much lighter. Shops and nurseries are still open to cater to the tourists that know to come at that time. I know some New Yorkers who for years have made an annual trip to the Cape in mid-September. Of course, this is also hurricane season, but that's not usually a problem and the advance hurricane forecasts are reliable (they track the storms starting when they're just a mere breeze off the coast of Africa). Claire