Hi Sedum ...yes, I was thinking that people who work with plants are probably not usually that interested in computers, I suppose, but what about all of us here on GW? We are all pretty good in that department? Does it take that much to update a website? More than adding an entry to a blog, let's say? I can't imagine that it would be more than an hour job once a week and many of their employees might be capable of doing it. Am I wrong? You are right Mahoney's doesn't update theirs, BUT they do have an email newsletter, in which they send out specials with photos and everything. I get one. Weston Nurseries...not sure if they update theirs, but they have that gardener's club and when you join they send regular email letting you know what is on sale and if they have special seminar weekends, etc. I receive that one too. I can understand that they are below their usual sales. There has not been a lot of planting weather so far. Once I get past a certain period, I sometimes will just forget my plans and make do with what I have. Soon it might be a little hot to be planting or moving anything without having to really babysit them. I will usually wait for the fall to start making any other major additions in the perennial or shrubs category. Thanks for the link...I missed that article yesterday. Well...I am still in a buying mood though, as I have hardly bought a thing! Two NG impatiens, 1 six pack of pansies, 3 tomato plants and one coleus and one abutilon and that is it. I attribute that to winter sowing more than I do the weather though. Actually though, the last time I was at a nursery, a lot of their plants looked worse from the rain than mine did at home. I do have a hankering for some really new and cutting edge annuals...maybe flowerfields or proven winners and some really exotic coleus, but of course those are the most expensive and anyway, I am not seeing anything I really can't live without. And the PRICES!! Wow, I am having sticker shock and so thankful I did winter sowing this year. I really don't think I would feel comfortable buying everything that I would want for the season at the prices of plants. I think I used to buy 6 packs for around $3. Am I remembering right? Now I have to buy one special annual for $5 or $6. If I could buy 6 packs or even 4 packs for around $4. I would be buying a lot more. If nurseries would offer the quart sizes like Lexington Gardens does for perennials, I would buy more. If they would stop using the most popular sought after annuals to make up $40. hanging baskets and not sell them in smaller sizes, I would be buying more of them. That reminds me of something else that Lexington Gardens does that I really appreciate and use. They print up a simple typed list in booklet form of everything they are planning on having in stock for the season. They just leave them at the checkouts, so the first time I visit there in the early spring, or whenever they come out with it, I pick one up and the next time I am looking for something, I can see if they have it. Thanks again Sedum, for the link and the conversation. :-)

Many of you are familiar w/ this great nursery. Along with Katsura Gardens in plymouth, it has the best choices (largest variety of quality plants) of conifers and jap.maples in Ma. Stonegate also has an unusually wonderful selection of rarer perennials, annuals, tropicals and a very handsome collection of glazed pots. This week their pots are 2 for 1!!!!!!! wow!! I particularly love their really large urn/pots for anchoring the corner of a path or a garden entryway. best, mindy www.stonegategardens.com

Now that we've gotten far afield from Wayland/Sudbury, let me suggest the best of the rest: Blanchette Nursery/Gardens in Carlisle. This is a family run business with impeccably grown perennials from the familiar to the almost unknown. You'll see Leo Blanchette out there snipping and moving (you'll sure never see Mr. Mahoney at Mahoney's!) Most of his plants are in the 6.95 to 8.95 range because he does not sell gallons with three plants to a pot. But he raises from division and cuttings every plant there. His selection of shade plants is exceptional. I have a Jack in the Pulpit that has 2 foot leaves; he must have 200 hostas and 30 solomon's seals. To make the visit worthwhile, about 1 mile away is a family run daylily farm that carries 1,000 varities of daylilies, from 6 to 100 dollars. You walk through the field and choose the ones you want, and the young men dig them up in front of your eyes. There is also a book with colored photograhs of most of the stock, and Mr. Seawright himself knows what blooms early,late and in between. To make a day of it, you could stop at Dalyla's for lunch (expensive) or Bedford Farms for ice cream (expensive on the calories) and go to New England Nurseries in Concord, where they have a "good" not amazing selection of trees and shrubs. This itinerary would much more rewarding than putting up with the traffic on Route 20 in Wayland. Hope you'll pass on what you end up doing.

We went on Saturday too. Came home with a small plant at full price. The perennials were looking pretty awful after the summer we had. Not a big surprise and yes, the selection was limited. Lovely ceramic planters but after discussing the chances of breakage over winter and considering having to move those heavy large pots indoors every fall, or buying a metal pot that would rust, we passed on those. I would have liked to find more medium and small ceramic pots that would be a size I wouldn't mind moving in and out. Considered a Japanese Maple but didn't find what I wanted. I may try again in the spring and order what I need. Everyone was friendly.