Rarely order online. Once I ordered daffodil bulbs and I did order Green Giants due to there was none in my area to buy. Everyone only was carrying Emeralds. We bought a camp in the summer and when the weather turns I need to do some low maintenance landscaping. I plan to just separate some of my excising plants i have at home to use and start some others rooting soon. My BIL has some small pine starts in his woods so I am going to dig up some of them.

Each year seems to bring another closure of a "walk in" brick and mortar nursery and so mail order is sometimes the only way to go to get quickly what one wants.

(Did a quick order of aconitum "Eleanor", Buddleia "Pugster Blue" and Agastache "Blue Boa")

functionthenlook - Love your screen name. I have a number of seasons tried to concentrate on just increasing what I have and I usually get side tracked somehow. Last year I managed to do some of that, divided my favorite Hostas and replanted the divisions and then the rabbits descended. *sigh* It felt a little like a waste. My fingers are crossed that this year they will come back and that we find effective ways to keep the rabbits out. I hope you have better luck than that! [g]

PM2 I have been eyeing the New Jersey Tea myself. I think we have similar garden conditions so please keep us updated on your new plants!

:)
Dee

Dee, I have wanted that for the longest time. I bought a 3 pack of potted plants so we'll see. I can place them in different locations to see how they do. Definitely will report back.

I ordered nine clematis, six roses, a blue baptisia, some New Zealand delphiniums, Blue Boa agastache, and a Purrsian Blue nepeta. We used to have some good nurseries around here but three of my favorites went out of business.

shaxhome I want that Acacia!!!!!! I have many Acacia (A. riceana prob my favorite) but never seen one with red flowers! Oh my. I don't think available in this country.

Yeah just when you think you know a genus!

Sara the only Aloe PDN seems to be carrying this year is Aloe (Aristaloe) aristata. With all the Aloes you can grow in Sonoma Co. I'm surprised you want that demure little thing...

Prairiemoon2, I haven't had problems with rabbits eating the hostas... yet, my problem is the deer. If I keep them against the house they don't bother them. Anywhere else they mow them down. The majority of my plants are deer resistant. No plant is deer proof unfortunately.

I finally made a significant order of native plants. I'm really looking forward to a couple of them.... Delphinium exaltatum

D. exaltatum was also in my native-plant order. Most of the plants I ordered are reported as native, if rare, in my county; it isn't, although it occurs in the wild not terribly far away.

Several of the plants are for a tiny patch of pseudo-woodland garden. Pseudo in the sense that it's not in a woodland at all, but is sufficiently enclosed to mimic one. Most of my garden is fully exposed to sun and wind; there is not a single tree on the place.

Ceanothus americanus is under consideration, but the planting site won't be ready this spring.

David I misspoke. It's agaves and mangaves. My aloes I generally buy locally. I was surprised that Plant Delights didn't have any aloes to speak of. They are all in full bloom here right now and I can't get enough of them!

Davidrt28, did you edit your intro? I could swear you mentioned growing and breeding Rhododendrons, but I don't see it anymore?

Prairiemoon, beautiful plants and photos. I only have 1 Camassia scilloides plant myself, and definitely want more. I winter sowed seeds for Buttonbush, but I might get a plant also if I should see one at a native plant sale, if there are any native plant sales this year, I hope.

Maackia, Possibility Place is the nearest native nursery here, but still about 50 miles away. They also provide most of the plants for our local park district native plant sale. I travel out there to pick up my orders. It's a nice relaxing drive out in the countryside. I forgot they carried native chestnut trees. I'm tempted, although I don't really have any room for more trees lol. I've tried sowing seeds for Delphinium exaltatum twice now with no luck. I may have to order a couple plants after seeing your picture Prairiemoon. I have ordered plants of Clematis viorna, Clematis crispa, Clematis occidentalis, and Matelea obliqua. I'm considering the native Lonicera dioica which Possibility Place also offers.

functionthenlook - and we have no deer here. We have a fenced in yard but we had one side of the lot replaced last year and they set it higher than it was previously and now everything can get under the fence at multiple places. Trying to decide if I have the patience to attempt to install wire into the ground under the whole length of fence about 60 ft. I guess that's easier than keeping deer out. [g]

Paul, I don't have a woodland either, but I have a small lot surrounded by the neighbor's trees. Silver Maples, Spruce and a Sycamore. So many trees that my soil is always dry in a lot of areas. And the Silver Maples live up to their reputation for the roots traveling to get moisture and nutrition. I put in raised vegetable beds and in the space of one year, the roots will half fill one of the beds and I have to dig them out in the spring.

Along one lot line, the neighbor has 8 spruce trees in a row, planted about 5 ft away from our fence, along only a 70ft lot line. And the Sycamore and a White Pine are also in that line up. So the area on my side of the fence, partly under the drip line of their spruce trees hanging over the fence, is very dry. I've tried soaker hoses and I routinely use the sprinkler there, but lots of things haven't grown well.

Right now Ascelpias seems to be doing the best, oh and Lunaria does very well there. Some aquilegia, nepeta along about 8ft away from the lot line. This year, I hope to dig it all out and add more organic matter, then plant it with natives. I'll keep some of everything that is doing well. It's in about 4 or 5 hrs of sun facing South but the Silver Maple tree line is to the West of it. If the native plants don't survive, I may have to get aggressive spreaders. [g] One thing that has done well, is Arctostaphylos. It took right off and spread in one area there. And that is native here, even if not everything takes, I'd be surprised if I don't get a few that do well.

My planting area won't be ready this spring, but I'm hoping I can prioritize that.

Jay, those are just google photos. [g] We have the NEWFS here in MA. They usually keep a pretty good selection available and I can drive there in about 40mins.

I saw a garden on Gardener's World they visited when they had a contest for smallest gardens. The woman had a walled garden in London and she had grown two horse chestnut trees in pots.

When you sowed Delphinium exaltatum, did you try winter sowing them?

I like the Clematis viorna the best with the pink. Do you have a lot of vertical space to put them or do they grow low?

I'm ordering Cirsium pumilum, Oenothera fruticosa (more), and hopefully Scutellaria elliptica if it comes back in stock in the spring.

Jay, maybe you are remembering my recent comment on this thread: https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6056181/your-garden-plans-for-2021#26507897

Yes I am almost surely the only person under 50 in North America (I would hopefully be speaking too soon for Europe and the Commonwealth...) who breeds rhododendrons as a hobby!

Sara, yeah, PDN has a good selection of all the mangaves coming on the market now. Too bad most of them are tender...but it's great you are able to plant them in your garden with aloes and other succulents. I'll assume you weren't at your current property during the 1990 freeze but you probably know how cold it got since you've been gardening there? I'm guessing around 20F? Polo at Sonoma Hort. humorously quipped to me that there was a nursery trying to focus on Proteas or Proteaceae near him - the name didn't ring a bell like Western Hills - and that after 1990, "That was the end of proteas in Sonoma County". I could ask you a million questions about your garden probably - but really wonder if you have tried either Doryanthes? In 2016 during my visit to Ruth Bancroft I got to see their first flowering ever of D. palmeri. I'm assuming both are pretty uncommon in the Bay Area. I'm raising some D. excelsa from seed as (very large, heavy) pot plants. Check back with me when I'm well over 50!

Skip - I knew there were native Cirsiums. They are hopefully less invasive than the weeds but as someone who gardens on the edge of agricultural lands I've done enough battles with thistles I've told myself I will never plant even a distant relative. I recently bent the rules a little bit with a single plant of Centaurea nigra raised from Jelitto seed. Fingers crossed it stays relatively put!

Not maybe. Yep I jumbled them up in my mind. It can happen. Thanks!😆

Oh man that Centauria is a bad one around here, but possibly by virtue of being disliked by deer. The county park bought an old farm and tried to turn it into a meadow, but it's full of aggressive plants now including that Centauria. There's some kind of vetch, mugwort, and stuff like common milkweed and Canada goldenrod too.

Cirsium pumilum still has the spines but hopefully that will prevent the deer from eating it. It is a short tap-rooted biennial that needs full sun and well drained soil, its an uncommon plant and I don't expect it to spread too much. I'm planting it among things like Anaphalis margaritacea, Solidago odora, Schizachyrium scoparium, and Asclepias verticillata. The other native pasture thistle Cirsium discolor can grow over 6ft tall and is not as picky about where it grows, I'd be a little hesitant to plant that one without deadheading. Bull thistle and Canada thistle are the types I've heard are bad weeds.

I was also thinking about finding 3 Daylilies, which I don't normally use. I found one cultivar that I like and can't find a supplier. Also wanted to try to find similar cultivars. What I like about this cultivar is the shape of the bloom and it's tall. I'd rather some other colors in the pinks/whites range. If anyone who is normally buying Daylilies could point me in a direction, I'd appreciate it.

'Selma Longlegs'

David do not have Doryanthes but see that Annie's has them for sale. The winter of 1990-91 was, indeed, the coldest winter that I have experienced in my 41 years here. At the time, I was living/gardening about 2 miles from Western HIlls, and I was in a more protected spot than they were. Still, it was ugly all around. Sonoma Hort sits very low and I can't even imagine how cold it got there, although most of what Polo had was not tender. I seem to recall it being in the teens at my place and single digits at WH. The coldest it's been since then here (which is a bit colder than WH) has been high 20s, and that was seven years ago.

I will check out the Doryanthes!

If memory serves me correctly, Polo said it was 14F at Sonoma Hort that winter...lowest ever since he lived there.

A place closer to the water, in Marin County, hit an astonishing 4F. I think it was Fairfax, CA. According to an article I found in google years ago but cannot find today, that's the coldest ever recorded in a populated part of the "Bay Area". Of course that was a radiative freeze so still not as bad as 4F would be around here, in terms of damage to most plants! And to be fair, that was the worst freeze in recorded history out there. The equivalent to our 1899 when, for example, north Florida went below 0F. (update, read about the 1990 freeze and it actually had an advective component which was very unusual for California and added to the damage)

But these low temps not far from the water are all the explanation needed as to why at least a few redwoods have survived in the zn 7 parts of the mid-Atlantic. Contrast with Victoria, AU...record low for the entire state, in a high valley at 2000' in elevation and almost 100 miles from the Southern Ocean...is only 10.9F!

I want to add more natives this year. I really need to clear out invasives in our backyard though. There is a steep hill which makes it difficult for me to work in the steep parts and we have a running river it seems when we get heavy rains nowadays, so I need to terrace that hill first to slow down the water and hold the soil. Sigh, I did, however, just order two non-native Osmanthus Yinbi-Shuanghui.

Haha! I spotted that one too...at Nurcar!? Love that we have another source up here for those zone 7 plants that are hard to find in local nurseries. Collectible trees and shrubs have a lower profit margin than collectible perennials...

I bought this one 3 years ago IIRC...so far so good but nothing to really test it yet: https://nurcar.com/collections/woodies-o/products/osmanthus-fragrans-thunbergii-clemson-hardy

Cyn, I admire your goal of removing invasive plants and replacing with natives. I have been doing the same here on our five acre plot. There are several invasive shrubs & small trees I'm dealing with, which I've mostly succeeded in removing, but I sometimes wonder at what cost. Oh, and we also have extensive black knot on P. serotina, which grows abundantly in sunny woodland openings, which are plenty due to oak wilt taking out rings of majestic Northern Pin Oak. I know I've painted a bleak picture, but I still think it's a worthy goal. I wish you luck and hope you'll keep us updated on how this progresses.

Osmanthus almost looks like a Buddleia flower but with different foliage. Very attractive.\

I also admire any effort to try to remove invasive, such a big job. The one success I had was getting rid of witch grass. I had it in my vegetable bed and didn't know any better and used the rototiller on it, which only made it exponentially worse. So I had an old 3ml thick large piece of plastic left over from an ice rink that I covered the area with for a whole year. That did the trick. Haven't seen it since. But, I'm sure that is not a technique every situation can use.

I placed my orders in December or earliest January. Things are rolling in now (clematis in transit now), and by end of March, everything currently ordered should be planted.
I'm sure I'll do some local orders too about that time.

Well, I am not quite as laudable as you may think. I have started adding native azaleas, but still have lots of the non-native ones. Lots of hosta too. All trees are natives, though (oops-except for two C. kousa) and most perennials.

The invasives I have to tackle (again and always) are the ivy, vinca, and bamboo coming back into our yard from the woods behind us. When we moved in here, our entire back yard consisted of those. Ugh. I had it pretty well cleared, but the bamboo is coming back and the vinca and ivy never completely disappeared despite rigorous pulling.

I may need to hire help this spring due to a knee problem that keeps me from spending an entire day working in the yard, but I am determined! I will keep you posted. I should get out and take pictures, so I can show progress!

Thanks so much for the words of encouragement.

ETA: Just remembered two crape myrtles-my husband loves them and keeps suggesting more. Sigh. They are pretty here in the summer. There is one right outside his bedroom window and he never looks at it-isn't even aware it is blooming! Sheesh.

David just ordered a Doryanthes from Annie's Annuals! Now, if I could only find that red-flowering wattle...

"I may need to hire help this spring due to a knee problem that keeps me from spending an entire day working in the yard..."

We can commiserate. I blew out my elbow this past November removing buckthorn on the last 25% of property, hurrying to beat the snow & cold. Little did I know that December would be as mild as November, with minimal precipitation. It is healing slowly, but still weak. With bitter cold temps projected the next nine days, no worry of over exertion anytime soon.

BTW, I like the idea of hiring someone. We've talked about it, but nothing more. Our local technical school has a hort program, and that might be the place to look first.

Cyn, I can't believe you had to deal with Bamboo...I think that would be the one plant that would scare me the most.

I am looking to hire someone and as in past years, I've found it very difficult to find. Oh to be 25 again!!

-2 F for Florida:

State Climate Extremes Committee (SCEC) | Extremes | National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) (noaa.gov)

As I have posted before I once saw a coldest ever map online that showed an incredible -33 F for the panhandle but haven't been able to find it since. And other sources such as the one at the preceding link are showing -2 for the whole State.

Prairiemoon, Took me ten years to beat it back. My DH would dig out the massive roots. I have to admit I used some chemicals which I have never done before or since. All for naught. It will never go away. Ugh. I suppose I could look at it as something to keep me busy. Ha.

I've had several species of bamboo in two z7 areas, none has been an issue. If you let it get away and ignore it for years, maybe. Otherwise, it's no worse than many native perennials (goldenrod for one, anemone canadensis for another), it's not a magical curse.

Plant-wise, all I've ordered is larkspur (Delphinium exaltatum) and poke milkweed. I'm still going back and forth about ordering a DA rose "Golden Celebration" -- I want it but reported with blackspot is giving me pause. I really should decide, though, else they may sell out.

mxk3 - I had Golden Celebration for about 5 years. Very pretty rose. Love the round buds. It did well for me, but it did get some kind of foliage issues. I'm an organic grower and I don't use any chemicals and I hated looking at the foliage. What I ended up doing was cutting the plant back to within an inch of it's life when it would develop unhealthy foliage after the first bloom cycle, not caring if it survived such treatment. That would be in the mid summer. It would grow back out fine and come back well the next year. But routinely using that kind of treatment on a rose, eventually it was not a healthy vigorous plant. So I got rid of it.

I've been on a search for no spray roses for quite some time now. I have a few that have worked well for me so far. Julia Child is the healthiest for me and blooms well every year. Prairie Sunrise is a shrub rose with repeat bloom, fragrance, and large blooms. I have 'Aloha' which is also very healthy. I have 3 new ones going into their 2nd year that I am trialing, so the jury is still out.

prairiemoon - do you grow rugosa roses? No disease problems ever, and hardy as a bone with no protection.

No mxk3 - I did once. I had the white Rogosa 'Blanc Double de Coubert' and it was very nice, fragrant, but I have a small lot and not a lot of sun, and that shrub rose, spreads out more every year and it just wasn't working for me. They are great to me if you have a place for them. They are supposed to be very healthy.

I've had several species of bamboo in two z7 areas, none has been an issue

Whether clumpers or runners are being talked about is a key point. Also running kinds vary in behavior with site conditions, with popular ones like black bamboo and golden bamboo sometimes remaining effectively as a clump or tuft for indefinite periods.

In addition since no description of the plant's appearance has been given here it is of course possible that cyn is actually complaining about a patch of knotweed and not an actual bamboo. Large growing, patch forming knotweed species being miscalled "bamboo" happens often enough that for instance I once drove many miles to check out a Bamboo Lane I saw on a map only to find myself in the midst of a bunch of knotweed.

Apropos the previous comment, 'Mexican bamboo' is a common name for Japanese knotweed.

We have plenty of out of control actual bamboo around here (plenty of japanese knotweed too). A nearby town hired contractors to the tune of $40,000 to excavate it out of a park it had completely taken over.

yeah both running bamboos and japanese knotweed can be real pests. I'm amused by accounts I have read of the byzantine-sounding complexity of dealing with the latter in UK real estate transactions.

'gg' wrote:

I may also need to replace my golden full moon maple that got lopped off to less than half its previous size by a tree that fell earlier this winter.

Oh no! This variety is the fave maple of any we have. You must have been shocked to see it unexpectedly "lopped off". By coincidence I had a very large Basswood trimmed up this past Fall just for that reason i.e. hoping to avoid an unexpected accident to our too close GFM.

Yes, I was not well pleased :-( It was one of the oldest containerized maples I have and I was particularly fond of it. While the biggest portion of the damaging tree was chopped up and hauled away, that was the part that was on the lawn. I was left with all the smaller branching parts that still smother part of my planted garden and it's just been too wet and nasty out for me to tend to them. I don't know exactly how much damage it sustained but it's only about half the height it used to be. This season's JM acquisition may be a replacement Aureum instead of the Mayday......which I can't find anyway.

I ended up making the call and ordering for UPS delivery.

Some native species Juniper horizontalis, Acer saccharum, Ilex verticillata and a couple things my son wanted.

3"+ of slow rain over the last few days, should help replenish our depleted sub soil from last season. ;-)

Bill, we’ve needed the rain too! I was having to water the garden. “April rains,”and all that nonsense. Lol.

Prairiemoon, old thread got revived. I saw your request for similar daylilies to Selma Longlegs in the white/pink range. I just planted Heavenly Angel Ice. May be close to what your looking for. Quite tall, holds the flowers well above the foliage.

*photo is from Oakes Daylilies

While this is bumped, will circle back to say my 'Perfume Princess' was planted last weekend. In a raised mini-bed abutting a north facing stone wall. Amusingly enough, after waiting years to get one of these suckers, and finally ordering it from the very reputable Dancing Oaks which was one of the first mail order nurseries to offer it...suddenly Monrovia's website has changed/updated in a way that "allows" it to be sold to an east coast zone 7. But I'd prefer to support Dancing Oaks anyhow - and Monrovia wants 2X as much for it - it's just that for at least the 2 prior springs I had been trying to order it with Monrovia's "order and pickup at a local nursery" which OUGHT to be the wave of the future for large wholesalers, but it wouldn't let me. I don't think the way they are going about implementing it is particularly intelligent. If there is some reason they think it isn't suitable for your area, the website ought to inform you of that.

"We shall see what we shall see"

David, I think the lack of availability on the Monrovia website ordering may have something to do with locations. What Monrovia grows in their east coast nurseries are not necessarily the same plants they grow at their west coast locations (the big growing fields) and I doubt the logistics and costs of shipping plants from coast to coast makes sense. So until the inventory has expanded in your more local Monrovia growing and distribution centers to include it, that plant is going to be unavailable.

And then of course there is always the issue of preorders from the scores of retail nurseries that carry their stock that can just limit what they are able to offer to mail order/pick up customers. The retailers are their bread and butter and they will always come first.