Thanks for all the comments on this issue. I'm surprised and pleased by the response. Debate is healthy. One disclaimer - I think Valley View is generally the best local nursery - very pricey but excellent generally. Let me respond to a few: 1) Valley View is in Hunt Valley north of Towson but on the same road. The climate in that area, north of Baltimore, will certainly kill any tomatoes and peppers prior to May 15 or so. I live there and we were 38 degrees 2 nights ago. Along with a touch of wind the plants will be dead. It does not have to go below 32 to kill those warm weather plants. 2) The argument that "affluent people" live there so it's ok to sell them a doomed plant is ludicrous and the person making it should check into the Richard Pryor rehab center immediately. 3) The concept of buyer beware is certainly stronger but ethical businesses try to inform consumers about "known" problems with a product that they sell. If there was a chart posted visibly warning consumers to check the acceptable planting dates in their area I would have no objection. They do have an information sheet about planting all vegetables but few consumers will notice it. I personally watched dozens of folks buy the plants and not see the info sheet. Home Depot, etc have no information at all. Many of the buyers appeared to be novices who thought planting tomatoes would be great. Several were with kids who picked the plants and may be very disappointed. 4) I do understand the problems of businesses. I run one. I am careful to manage the expectations of folks kind enough to give me their money. That maintains trust. 5) I would encourage folks to simply and pleasantly say something to the manager of the store or department on the issue.

Avoid Moon Valley - they will sell you lots of things that will not survive here. Their sales staff is rude and knows very little about planting. The reason the stock is depleted is that fall is our prime planting time for trees. Spring is coming, so make your plans and place your orders. Baker's in Central Phoenix is excellent. They will place orders for you from those wholesale growers. I'm not familiar with the nurseries in that part of the valley, but I've had good plants from Summer Winds.

This thread has to be some sort of serendipity. Yesterday I went down to our local nursery, Yard by Yard Lawn and Garden, where I happened to spy a Bottlebrush buried deep among other plants. As these are native to my home and shouldn't even really grow in this area, I waded through spiky holly leaves to have a closer look, pulled it out of the row, saw it was an amazing well-established plant that would survive the winter here. However, there was no price, so I went to find someone. I came across this large middle-aged woman who said their pricing machine was broken, but she followed me to the plant and gave me a price. I thanked her and went to collect the other plants I had seen - and when I got back, the bottlebrush was gone. I asked her what had happened to it and she said a woman had come in and gotten it. This was laughable, as I had only been gone a few minutes and there were just two other customers on the property, and I said as much. She then said a woman had come in the day before, but she had forgotten to put it aside, and that she owned Yard by Yard Lawn and Garden, and made pots for people. Hello! She was going to pot up a tree????! She didn't even know what it was. If she didn't want to sell the plant, all she needed to do was say she had made a mistake. This happened in front of her Mexican labourer, who was laughing his head off. Then, to top it all, the owner of Yard by Yard Lawn and Garden asks if she can get me another one of those plants! The nerve. I've spent today telling everyone who has the patience to listen about my experience at Yard by Yard Lawn and Garden (and this now includes you, and thank you for letting me rant). Meanwhile, I'm betting the bottlebrush is repotted into a much larger pot and selling at double or triple the price at Yard by Yard Lawn and Garden.

I have both Blue Bird and Blue Billow. They were both purchased last year and I did winter protect them. The Blue Bird is also against the house, so I assume a bit warmer. I'm not sure if I am in Zone 5 or 6 - everything I see online seems to have me in Zone 6 though idabean has us a Zone 5A and she's in the same town. When I unwrapped my Blue Bird in the spring, there were just some dead looking twigs. I thought it was a goner. But slowly it got leaves from the base and then developed a ton of buds also from the base. The twigs never revived. I had beautiful lacecaps this year and the sterile flowers were mostly white, with the centers bluish. I have acidic soil (pH about 6.0) but a number of my other new hydrangeas (Purple Tiers and Twist and Shout) were very pinkish. I thought it was because they were along the foundation of the house or along a fairly new wall. But we checked the pH and it's about 6. So I'm thinking it's from the soil from the pot. So maybe your "Blue Lace" is a Blue Bird that was grown in more neutral or basic soil? My Blue Billow was definitely all blue. I'm planning to post some pictures of my new collection of hydrangeas (I'm totally smitten) but have to finish weeding and mulching (really late) and get over the new computer (MacBook Pro)/picture posting anxiety.