Mary, It sure sounds like you had a wandering passionvine that wandered right out of its bed. Being that I'm so far north (PA), I don't know if they could even get a chance to wander from one place to another. I'd be lucky to just get them to live outside at all over the winter. I think if I want them, I'll have to dug a few up every fall and bring them inside and then take them back outside the following spring. Btw, I don't blame you for not wanting to try that passionvine again for fear that it might have contaminants on for the cats. If you decide to raise any paw paws, if I were you I'd either start them from seed like I did or buy them as potted plants, but after my experiences of getting bareroot paw paw trees in the mail without them living either time, I would NOT buy a bareroot paw paw. I suspected that I got junk both times, and I was probably right. I mentioned those times to someone who I trust to know about these things and here's what he said: "You are right in what you said about online folks not caring sometimes. But it gets worse. What you probably bought in those big pawpaw trees is just a sucker from the roots that was yanked out of the ground with little care. Pawpaws sucker pretty freely and some people think that selling the stem with little roots is the same as selling a tree. It is not." So, I really would recommend getting a potted paw paw tree and NOT a bareroot one. When I received the paw paw trees in the mail, they didn't even look like they had a root, but I thought maybe that's the way they're supposed to look. I think it's just like that person told me and that they were just yanked out and were suckers off of other trees, not an individual tree. Besides, I have since seen online a pic of a person using a backhoe to dig up a small paw paw tree that was only a few feet high. It was a shock to see just how far a person would have to dig to get all of the root out of the ground. Yes, for fruit you have to have two trees for pollination if you want to get fruit from the trees, which I do. My original reason for wanting the trees was just for the Zebra Swallowtails, but the more I read about paw paws, I thought that they sure do sound good! Anyway, there's my paw paw advice FWIW, and I'm not sure if one tree would bring in the butterflies or not. I plan on having at least half a dozen. That's great that you saw some butterflies. They won't be here for awhile yet. MissSherry, That's great that one of your Zebra Swallowtails emerged! I can hardly wait to see the pictures of it. If you try raising them again, I really hope that you don't have a lot of trouble with them like last year. Hopefully it was just a bad year for them or something and that won't be commonplace whenever you raise them. That's the way it goes with the GSTs with me. It's really frustrating that they drop dead right and left. They can be right on the rue and crawl right off acting like they don't even recognize it as a host plant. I even tried putting them back on, but they crawled off again. If they die, they almost always die when they're very small. I'm looking forward to the day (more like year) when my couple of wafer ash trees will be big enough to support a fair number of cats. I want to see if the plant improves their survival rate. I also started gas plants last year, and it will be interesting to see if the GSTs lay any eggs on them. I don't recall anyone on here saying that they raised any on gas plants. It's supposed to be in the 70's and low 80's here for about 5 days starting on Thursday. Yay!!! Cathy

Most of the things about mail order plants you have learned the hard way. Been there, done that!! In my area of Southern Ontario, I can find most plants that I want either at local nurseries or plant sales such as RBG or the Univ. of Guelph. The companies that I would recomend ordering by mail from, unfortunately no longer do mail order, e.g. Mason-Hogue north of Oshawa, The Perennial Garden in B.C. Another one, Whitehouse Perennials no longer sends regular plants by mail, but they still send hostas and daylilies. These nurseries sent well-grown, mostly potted plants in excellent condition, and very well packed. I was sceptical about ordering from as far away as B.C. but these too arrived in great shape. At present I cannot personally recommend a place to order regular perennials by mail in Canada. I have ordered from Gardenimport in Toronto several years, but it seems every year they were "out of" certain plants that I ordered, so gave me credit to use the following year. Also their prices are definitely on the higher side compared to the equivalent plant bought on site at a nursery or plant sale. If you live near Hamilton/Burlington or Guelph, some of the very best deals are to be found at the RBG Plant sales, 1st Thursday and Saturday in May, and the U. of Guelph Arboretum plant sale, generally the 2nd or 3rd Sat. in September. Great plants, great prices! RBG has a list of their sale plants available on their web site before the sales so one can peruse the list and decide what to buy. If you check the RBG website, I believe they also sell plants once or twice a week throughout the summer, as well as having a wrap-up discount sale in September. The U.of G. Arboretum has a printed catalogue available a couple of weeks before their sale for the same purpose. It usually costs about $3.

I buy almost all of my plant material online and have for about 4 years. I just changed bulb vendors - I used to buy where I got the best $$$ because to me, bulbs tend to be more of an annual than perennial. If I leave them to over winter they either drown in our wet winters or get eaten by furry mammals that don't belong to me. If they don't over winter, I may use them again or I may forget where I left them...didn't say I was bright! Anyway, I have a new attitude since I bought bulbs from easytogrowbulbs.com. They are so supportive! I bought the largest Dahilia tubers I've ever seen last year and you can bet I remembered where I put them! They were healthy and gorgeous and I can't wait to see what I buy this year from them!! Roses, which are my favorite, come primarily from chambleeroses.com or antiqueroseemporium.com and perennials from paradisegarden.com or wayside gardens. I'm also going to try Steambank gardens this year because they are 100% organic. I'm not sure I'm going to continue with Wayside. In the past they've been great but I was pretty disappointed in the sizes offered and the quality of plants rec'd this year.

I don't know what has happened but I am getting no alerts of posts from the Florida Gardening Forum group. Are you on Facebook under a group that I can access there? I wanted to share with all of you that after 2 agonizing months of calling and emailing Burgess Plant and Seed Co. my credit card company is getting me a full refund of the very first order of over $143 I placed with them. What a relief. I bought the garden soil and mulch, planned the garden spots and just been in limbo waiting for plants to arrive any day from them. Glad that nightmare is over and now I can move forward. Thanks everyone for your suggestions and support.