I love growing my own plants, so I will knock on doors and ask people for seeds and cuttings. I've made some great garden friends in the process, one elderly lady who nearly landscaped my whole yard because I offered to help her clear out overgrown yard for the plants. She had some seriously gorgeous large bromeliads that sold for $50 each at the one place you could buy them in the area. I must have gotten $1,000 worth or bromeliads and other plants from her for 8 hours of work. We remained friends and I got even more plants from her in years to come. I also trade plants and seeds with people online and off, and dig up, get seeds from, or take cuttings from beautiful blooming natives from the side of the road. I have no pride when it comes to my garden. LOL Of course, I buy half-dead perennials from Lowe's and WalMart markdown racks and bring them back to live. I also live in an apartment complex and have gotten some plants people left behind or gave to me when they moved. I also used to belong to a community garden and got quite a few free plants and seeds from there. I was just figuring how much I've spent over the past 3 years since I"ve lived in this apartment on plants, and it came out to less than $50 and most of that was fertilizer and potting soil. Speaking of potting soil, Lowe's will sometimes mark down broken bags, because they can't sell them for full price. I got 5 bags of nice, organic soil for 50% off by offering to take the broken bags off their hands for a discount. Same for plants with broken pots. I got a beautiful peach tree once for 1/2 price because the pot had split down the side and wouldn't hold water, so it was drying out and dying. But the best and most treasured seeds and plants I get are from GWers. I have such good friends here who regularly send me plants and seeds for no reason at all except they know I love growing from seed and don't have much of a budget. I always pass the favor forward or send them something I know they are looking for.

Greenthumbz, those are gorgeous pics! I've heard that there are a couple of trees that are not native to North America but are used by significant numbers of native insects. 1) Malus/Crabapples - native, hybrid, or exotic, Douglas Tallamy's book stated that the leaf chemistry is so similar that North american insects will use all species. This certainly bears true in my experience. I've got lots of crabs, a few specimens and a crazy wild thicket full of them in back,and they are bird magnets, not just for the fruits in the fall but for the nectar and insects in spring and summer. 2) Picea abies/Norway spruce - don't have any personal experience, but was told this by an ornithology student at Cornell who was doing a study on the subject

As a general rule, I would agree that there is significant risk at buying from any box store. I have purchased an Alma tree that produced lousy tasting "purple" figs from Home Depot that originated from a nursery in Texas. Also, purchased a wannabe Celeste that had figs with big open eyes that were the size of large chicken eggs. Neither of these were true to type. However, in my area we have several very reputable wholesale nurseries that do have some of their trees being sold in these box stores. Any tree, in any box store with a yellow identification that indicates that it came from Saxon Becnel and Sons......is as good and reliable as it gets. Also, those tagged as coming from Star Nursery (in Belle Chase, La.), or Bracy's Nursery (in Amite,La.). I would not hesitate purchasing a citrus or fig tree from a box store that has one of those listed nursery identification tags on it. Nice trees that are true to type from these sources are readily available at the box stores in my area. Dan

I remember thinking Idaho's nativity set was attractive but cannot remember exactly what it looked like. I bought this one at Costco last year and saw that they brought it back again this year. Not sure if this is your taste. Here is a link that might be useful: nativity scene