Flowergirl, I understand wanting to see the roses in person before you buy. That's why I take at least one trip per year to Roses Unlimited. For me, it's about 3 1/2 hours away. If it's early, they let me wonder through all their greenhouses. I know the plants are babies but I can still see the bloom on most of them. If I go later, they have many roses planted around. It's fun and I learn alot. If you can ever get to somewhere like Rogue Valley Roses, I would think they would let you visit the nursery. They have been VERY helpful to me on the phone. You could call and ask. PLUS, if you are thinking about a particular rose, post here and you will get great input from folks in your area about how it performs for them. Even though I prefer to see before I buy, I've grown to trust the folks on this forum. Hope you find what you're looking for.

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.

I have to agree. It doesn't look like a 5 year old clematis to me either based on the size of the rootball and the number of stems exiting the crown. On top of that,if it were a 5 year old clematis, I would be surprised if it didn't cost more than $19.95 (of course it could be a clearance item or something you got at a good price). One point I want to note about your planting hole is that it appears you have clay soil (could be wrong but that is what it appears like to me.) If you amend that hole with good topsoil and/or soil conditioner or compost and the clay is not fast draining, your plant is going to end up in a swimming pool when it rains and it will most likely rot. Perhaps your soil drains more freely than mine, but in my garden I do not amend the planting hole with anything other than some pine bark fines to help open up the porosity of the soil somewhat. The plant is then mulched repeated with various organic mulches that break down and the earthworms till the material into the soil. For large beds, I mix in a lot of organic matter, but for planting holes I apply the organic matter to the top and let the worms do the digging in. You know your soil better than I and if you have been successful doing what it appears you are doing, then go for it. Just wanting to bring some info for you to consider. Janet, what clematis will you be digging up. Dig far and wide to get as many of the roots as possible. Those roots can spread far and wide in 5 years.

A new nursery opened this month where the old Cottage Creek Nursery was on Avondale Rd W'ville/Redmond area. It's called The Gardens at Cottage Creek. The old Cottage Creek was well known for it's roses. This one has quite an extensive collection of roses too, but I didn't have time to browse through there. I also noted quite a few dahlias potted up. Another one I like going to is about a mile south of there also on Avondale Rd. It is Classic Nursery, they have a good selection of shade/native plants. If you look at the independent nursery map at the link above for these locations they would be just south of the one marked #60(Bassett). Another good one for trees is Olympic Nursery. This would be located between #59 (Enchanted)& #64 (Molbaks) on the map. Olympic is well respected for their trees & shrubs. The do not carry many perennials, but what they do have is usually cheaper than Molbaks. OK-I spend way too much money around here.