Sorry ozlifter that I did not check the OK forum this month at all before today. I know June 18 is long past now on this very early wee hours of the June 21 morning.

But for any of your future visits to Tulsa, I wanted to give you a list of three nurseries which I like the best in Tulsa.

Directly in Tulsa, my favorite one is Stringer Nursery on south 41st street. Address: 7203 E. 41st Street. That is not far from the 41st street exit off of I44 in midtown Tulsa. their selection and service is very good.

My most favorite nursery; due to the very best service I have found, is Colebrooks nursery in Berryhill; which is a small town in west Tulsa. Their address is 5915 W. 31st Street. The easiest way to that nursery is to take the West 51st street exit off I44 which is west of the Arkansas River in Tulsa. At the end of the exit ramp go straight through the light. The road will wind and twist until you get to the next light which is West 41st street. At that light you will turn left and you will immediately see another stoplight. At this almost immediate next light turn right onto what I believe is 57 West Ave. (Not certain of that street number, but you will be on the correct street if you turned right almost immediately after turning left onto West 41st street.) At that point, you should be driving north, so keep going for about a mile to the first stop sign. At that stop sign turn left and the nursery's entrance is the second turn-in on your right. They are building a new entrance on the corner at the first turn on the right, but as of this month it is not yet ready for them to move there.

I am amazed at how well Colebrooks has maintained their Nursery; since last winter ice storms brought down several of their large greenhouses, early this Spring around Easter they sustained a lot of loss from the weather getting too warm a few weeks earlier, and then several nights of hard freeze occured over the Easter week following the time when so many of their trees and shrubs had already broken dormancy due to the earlier unseasonable warm-up. In the last couple of weeks, the owners have been out of the country due to a family health crisis. Even with all that they have done a good job keeping their nursery staffed and stocked. It has been much better cared for than could be expected considering all the struggle they have encountered, along with trying to get the new building finished; which they earlier had desired to be moved into by this spring.

The third nursery in the area which I like is in Southeast Broken Arrow. It is Sanders Nursery. This nursery has a huge selection, sells to the public and even supplies some of the larger Tulsa nurseries that I have not mentioned, due what I considered either bad or difficult to obtain service and also due to my general lack of interest in their selections.

Sanders Nursery that I mentioned in southeast Broken Arrow is located at 20705 E 161st Street. I usually spend more for what I get there. There also have been times when I got some potted plants from them and found the same plant, better developed, in a nicer form, better price, and sometimes in larger pot size at Colebrooks.

For me, the drive to Sanders nursery seems to be quite long. Because of that I usually only go there if they happen to have an item I am looking for; which Stringer Nursery does not have, and which I would otherwise have to wait for Colebrook to order for me.

The easiest way to get to the Sander's nursery from Tulsa is to access S 131st street in Broken Arrow and drive East on South 131st street all the way to 193 East Ave. You would then make a right onto 193 East Ave. Continue driving on 193 East Ave. until you see the entrance for Sander's nursery. 193rd East Ave twists and turns enough that by the time you see the entrance for Sanders Nursery the address you will be at is what I listed above (20705 E. 161 Street, Broken Arrow, OK.)

Depending on what direction you would be coming from; it might be best if you pulled up a Rand Mcnally website and got driving directions to the Sanders Nursery, because there might be a faster and easier route you could take: a route of which I am currently not aware.

I know this response has already gotten way too long, but It would be bad, if I did not also tell you about our best rose nursery in the area. All the nurseries I listed above sell some very nice roses, but if you want great service and the opportunity to order hard to find and unusual rose cultivars in the fall, which the owner will bring in bare root and pot up in February for them to grow in his greenhouses and for him to harden off the new growth and get them ready for you to purchase and pick-up in the following April, I need to tell you about Roses Inc Tulsa LLC. This business is located behind the owner's residence at 12323 E 132 South in Broken Arrow, OK.

In addition to being able to order roses like I described above, the owner also keeps hundreds of rose cultivars stocked for sale in his multiple green houses and also ones which are displayed well and growing in pots outside. The owner gives great personal service, but it's best to go during his weekday open hours, because his weekend business is usually so heavy there can often be times when customers have to wait their turn to speak with the owner; for better advice than what his student helpers might be able to provide.

Also, you can often find the owner along with the Tulsa Rose society offering mini Weekend events at his business. This Spring they featured a well known guest speaker who offered English rose information, and presented some of the newest and best English rose cultivar introductions; offering them for sell in Tulsa exclusively at that event.

Thanks for the information Katrina. I'll file it away for the next time I travel to Tulsa. I'm sure it will come in quite handy.

I ended up only going to Home Depot. They didn't have much of a selection, but I bought some coreopsis.

How are your coreopis doing? I hope they are proving to be as good as you expected.

From Colebrooks nursery, Last week I purchased four coneflowers for the first time ever. They are doing great planted on top of my berm in an area where they have shaded feet and the tops get full morning and late afternoon sun. It was the same place where last year I had tried to grow some 'Miss Kim' lilacs, but had to move the 'Miss Kims' since that location's midday shade almost killed them.

I do not find much at the local HDs. Sometimes I find a few things at Lowes, like the 6 inch tall sky Pencil holly for only about $5.99 per small one gallon pot sizes. These hollies appeared very full, but that was only because two had been potted up together in each pot.

When I got them home I found that the two pots I purchased both were filled with the hollies' nice and full root systems, but which were not root bound. Because of that I was able to divide them and repot them. Now I have 4 growing in 3 gallon sized pots and I did not have to spend very much for them. They do not have any berries on them though, so they most likely are males. Since I already had some small females potted up which do have berries on them, I will not mind if these do prove to be males.

I usually find better grades of shrubs at the local nurseries I mentioned in my earlier response, than what I find at HD and Lowe's. Most times the nurseries I purchase from do not charge me more than what I would have to pay at HD and Lowe's. My biggest complaint though is that often I see shrubs at both HD and Lowe's which are not labeled with the exact cultivar names, so I have no idea, if I can trust the tag information or not.

Like some elephant ears they were selling which had two tags in the pots. One tag said they needed shade. But the oher tag listed them as being part shade cultivars.

Hi again, here it is the first of July and the weather seems to be more like Fall in my northeastern part of the state. The clouds must have my mood a little down today, because I was not able to motivate myself to get ready for church, today. My DH was faithful to show up, though. It probably helped him to stay motivated to go, since he runs the power-point video feed for them.

Cloudy skies, with periods of rain. I know that much of of the state is struggling with too much rain, but ours here seems to come in spells which are just right to regenerate deep moisture and water tables in the soil, which was depleted the previous two years from both winter and summer droughts.

I still have not dared to continue planting my arborvitae 'Golden Globe' hedge. I am afraid that sure as I start that again the summer heat will come charging in like a bull, and end up killing my new transplants. Maybe, I am thinking that way, because for the last week and a half our weather reporters have kept predicting that this rain pattern was coming to an end. Of course, they always say that will happen the following week. Then the following week arrives and we're still cloudy with short periods of rain throughout the day and evening.

Well at least my coneflowers are happy, still. My planting them on the top of my berm has prevented their roots from drowning with all this rain.

This coneflower is an Echinacea hybrid. It is the 'Blue Sky - Summer Sky.' It is a fairly new on the market cultivar, is reported to bloom from Spring to frost, and has larger cones; along with fragrant, soft peach colored flower petals that have a rose halo. Their stems are tall and stout. My four are still only about 18 inches tall, but they are reported to grow from 3 to almost 4 feet tall. They look good as a back drop for my currently only 6 inch tall Dwarf Burford Holly, and the 2 feet tall, but growing lower down on the East side of the berm, currently blooming lillies that I planted this spring under those baby holly shrubs.