You might try checking out Garden Watchdog before you get one

I did...a few years back... very slick, like a thick magazine... if you need a good picture that you can really imagine the plant with, before you buy, it's worth it. If not, then I wouldn't bother. It WAS $5 back then...

I have never bought anything via thier website or catalog. Stokes Tropicals is about 15 miles from my house so I just go there. The nursery is huge and has a monster size greenhouse. There is a lot of staff members there and the plants looked watered and happy ( I always note that if I go to a nursery lol). A lady geeted me when I came in and took me on a little tour. I have mainly bought bananas, and plumeria there but have gotten a few other things as well. Last summer I bought a cerise plumeria and they only charged me for a cutting when this thing was well rooted and had some branches on it. It was 18" I think.

They also had several plumeria that wasn't listed on the website. When I was first starting to grow them a lady in the office (who has a cute little dog) was really nice and knew alot about plumeria and answered my many questions. They had the book by Richard and Mary Helen Eggenberger 'The Handbook on Pulumeria Culture" so I got that too. I don't think they got flooded by the hurricane either like I did in my town. They are closer to Iberia/Jeanerette and I don't believe they got it as bad as we did.
Like I said, I haven't dealt with them through the mail, but they are my favorite nursery around here:)
~SJN

They produce a catalog every few years. They are going to put one out this year. I too live near Stokes and have been buying from them for over 10 years. I have never been disappointed; but I have to say that most of my purchases have been on sight like SJN. I have known them to be a dedicated bunch of people with good knowledge of the plants and the hardiness zones of the plants. I would recommend them without hesitation.

Steve

I wish you guys would STOP BRAGGING! :D Jeez! I wanna go to Stokes! Life's so not FAIR! WHIIIIINE!

Robyn Lacy,

You should see the 18" tall Ae Ae in its container with 6 pups and the variegated fruit.

Steve Lacy

oh be quiet! This is TORTURE! :o)

lol@ lac1361 !!
I knew that's what I saw in their greenhouse! I don't think it had fruit on it when I went. I will have to go back soon(oh darn lol).

SJN

If I'm lucky and we don't have a hard freeze in Feb., I have an Ae Ae in the ground that's about 12' tall that is going to fruit this year. I'm definitely going to take a picture. It's been a mild winter so far here in Lake Charles. I even have 2 heliconia in the ground that are still putting out new leaves that should bloom around May or June. That would be a first for me. Most of my helicona are in pots.

Steve

Steve,
Please post your pic here when it fruits. I wanna see it ;P
How did you and your plants fare in the hurricane? I used to live in Sulfur and still know people over that way. They said they had alot of trees down and that some of the schools had to temporarily relocate. I live 15 miles from the vermilion bay in S. vermilion parish now. It flooded badly here right after Rita. I lost some things to saltwater but alot actually survived and some I had dug up and stuck in pots before the hurricane. I have a night blooming cactus that sat in salt water for five days (in a huge pot) and is still going strong lol. Brugs are also resistant to salt water- who knew!
~SJN

SJN,

I had lots of wind damage to my roof, lost a tree, a greenhouse, and a couple of awnings. No flood damage here in Lake Charles. I turned over all of my potted heliconia, ginger, and tucked them under trees, up against the house, etc. and they were all just fine. I have two stands of Ae Ae and the largest from both stands were blown over but I staked them up and they are fine. The pups were unharmed. All in all, not too bad. My camp on the coast in Cameron Parish was lost. I hope to rebuild and should be able to. My insurance company was good to me, unlike others. I was blessed.

Steve

Wah!!! I wanna live in the tropics, I wanna live in the tropics.....or at least zone 9. Darn!

Anyway, does Stokes sell any aroids that you know of? Those are the kind of tropicals I am into. Mainly because a lot of them are hardier than thought. They die to the ground here, yes, but come back from rootstock. Thanks for any info.

Susan

Stoke Publishing Co has a pretty good book(about the only one on the subject) on bananas called "Bananas you can grow". Lot's of pics, some misidentified(I am told), but overall really nice.
What's up with all the banana nurserys out of Lousiana? Maybe it has something to do with the French importing them into New Orleans? M.Bordelon is definatly one of my favorites from Lousiana. One day I'd like to make a trip to Lousiana for the bananas!

Yes, Stokes does sell a lot of bananas. The whole coastal region from the Texas border to the Mississippi border is solid Zone 9 and many bananas do well here because of that. New Orleans is 9b. South of NO, down that little sliver of land bordering the Mississippi (which by the way was completely wiped out by Katrina), is really almost a marginal Zone 10. Frost free many years. Even where I live, with a frost, or a hard freeze, the bananas Stokes sells come back, albiet, without the possibility of fruit. Nine or ten months of the year, we are hot, humid and wet. It's those two months that do us in from being able to grow really tropical stuff in the ground like heliconia, and tropical gingers. So far this year, our low here in Lake Charles was 30. We are pretty much finished with the possibility of a hard freeze. After Feb. 15, it doesn't happen. Everyone's bananas are up and putting out new leaves. If we are lucky, lots of fruit this year.

Steve

Hey, I got all of you beat. :-) I am 1.8 miles south of Stokes on the same road, Hwy 182 or East Old Spanish Trail as it is known locally. I pass by Stokes on the way to and from work every day. I have purchased many plants from Stokes over the years, originally by mail order when I lived in Baton Rouge. Now I just stop in since I live so close. Never been disappointed. Definitely worth a visit if you are local as they always have things not in the catalog.

Here is a link that might be useful: le Jardins de Thibodeaux