Gardengal, I think you've just hit on a very important aspect of selling plants... the display garden. The helpmeet works for a garden center and they don't have one. It's terribly difficult for him to "convince" someone that, yes! the Baptisia will attain 4' and it will need a lot of room, or that the Epimedium will spread slowly and steadily to create a lovely, bullet-proof groundcover. We too, live in a pretty garden-savvy area and while I have to travel between 20 and 75 miles to visit the places that carry the really "choice" items they ARE available. Moreover, the places I regularly haunt are very receptive to suggestions and actually appreciate them. I watched their stock go from the basics to really very comprehensive and rock solid hardy for our area. Lacy., wish you were closer I could give you a generous shovelful of Epimedium rubrum today... :(

Foof! I always figured you were in Whatcheer... I guess the zone should have clued me in that you weren't. I was in C.F. today helping my sister plant some flowers and could have brought you up some small pieces of epimedium but hadn't been on this website for a few days to see your message. If you're ever in I.C. let me know; the azaleas are starting to bloom, so it's a nice time of the year! in a couple of days i'm going to take some pictures of some of the epimediums to put on my garden blog. Here is a link that might be useful: An Iowa Garden

Yes, it's been a cool spring. I'm almost 2 weeks later than usual with plants here. The vegetable garden is really getting off to a slow start. I planted pea seeds in late March and they just rotted and I had to sow more. They are just starting to show up two weeks later than I'd like. I hope they're not going to get zapped with heat just as they're ready to produce. My garden always does better with a lot of rain in the spring because it is so dry with all the surrounding tree roots, so I'm happy about that. On the positive side, my daffodils are lasting a long time and the lawn isn't even close to needing a hair cut! Your garden sounds like it's liking your weather pattern. :-) Bill, I'm watching two of your Opuntia that you sent me. So far they are still not looking so good. They've been sitting under about 6 ft of snow all winter, so I wonder if that was a good thing or a bad thing. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Look up Garden Visions,Hubbarston, MA, Darrell Probst on the internet. His catalogue will tell you the varities that spread and how much they spread per year. Epiemdium Versicolor is one that spreads 4 to 5 inches per year, but can you find it anywhere around is another question. I have ordered from this catalogue and lost only one out of 17 and that was my fault cause I moved it when it was to hot and dry.