One Sauls location is south on Union Hill Road off McFarland about 1 mile west of 400. Another is located at East Nancy Creek Rd. off Peachtree Dunwoody Road south of Northside Hospital. They sell to Trades only at Nancy Creek Location. Cheap large pots are available at Old Time Pottery on Highway 5 (Canton Highway). Just north of Piedmont Road in Marietta. Sauls specializes in perennials but, have some intersting exotic and succulent plants at the Nancy Creek location. Bobby Saul has some nice pots there for ideas and they sell that easy carve stone for planters also.

When I get the Brandy Boy seeds I'll let you know the country of origin. Wal-Mart is well-known for pushing hard to get companies to pack products specifically for them that they can sell at the price they negotiate. During the last several years, the Burpee seed packs on the seed racks in Wal-Mart have had ever-decreasing seed counts. From comments posted on garden forums, it was clear that gardeners were noticing the lower seed counts and were not happy. Gone Fishin' and I both noticed the difference in Burpee tomato seed counts about 3 or 4 years ago. You could buy a packet of Burpee Porterhouse seed on-line for about $4.00 or $4.25 back then and get about 45 to 50 seeds--I don't remember the exact amount. You also could get Burpee Porterhouse on the seed rack at Wal-Mart for $1.37 a pack, but each pack only had 7 to 9 seeds. So, you actually would have spent more at Wal-Mart to get 40-50 seeds of Burpee Porterhouse. Of course, not many people want to plant 40-50 seeds of one variety in a home garden, so you could argue that the Wal-Mart Burpee seed packs were "sized-down" for the convenience of home gardeners. I noticed the same small seed counts with Burpee Highlight Zinnia on the racks at Wal-Mart either last year or the year before. I got 50 seeds in the Burpee mail-order packet for a higher price that was probably $4.00 or $4.50. Then, out of curiousity, I bought the same Burpee Highlight Zinnia (new that year) at Wal-Mart to test my theory about lower seed counts. I bought 4 packs for either $1.07 or 1.37 and each of them had 8 to 11 seeds. So, something is going on and I just wonder if Burpee got tired of selling smaller and smaller seed count packages because, if the consumer got mad about the smaller seed counts, you can bet they blamed Burpee and not Wal-Mart. It could have become a PR issue that Burpee just didn't need. There's also the possibility that F-M did commit to using U.S.-grown seed. I don't know. There's even the possibility that Burpee, which is after all a premier name in the seed industry, negotiated better deals for itself with Lowe's and Home Depot (and we don't have a K-Mart near us, but I know they've had Burpee seeds in recent years too) and that they dumped Wal-Mart. Sound far-fetched? Maybe, but it wouldn't surprise me. I ordered five packets of seeds from Stokes Seeds recently, and they just arrived the other day. Here's what I got and their nation of origin. Note that each variety had a different nation of origin: Tomato--Mountain Fresh Plus VFFN (India) Tomato--Mountain Glory VFFF/TSWV (Thailand) Watermelon--Yellow Doll (Peru) Rudbeckia--Bright Star (Germany) Liatris Spicata--Kobold (Holland) They all were stamped with the "country of origin" but then also were stamped "packed in Canada" (Stokes is a Canadian company, I think, although they have a U.S. sales branch). What does this mean? It tells me the seed companies are probably buying seeds from whichever grower in whichever country gives them the best wholesale price. Who can blame them? Would I prefer to buy only U.S.-grown seed. Of course, I would always prefer to keep jobs in the U.S. But, judging from the meager selection on the F-M racks at Wal-Mart, the number of varieties grown in the U.S for major seed companis is rather small.

Although $10-$20 for a Passiflora plant (rooted cutting) might seem like a lot, it really doesn't add up quickly for a small specialty grower. It's useful to do the math and see how many plants one might have to grow and sell to make a reasonable living. Let's say, hypothetically, one can make a profit of $5 on each plant after paying for greenhouse heating, water, fertilizer, soil, pots, pesticides, permits... To make $50,000 a year works out to 10,000 plants a year. Is there even the demand for this many? And let's say they can ship Monday and Tuesday, 50 weeks a year. That works out to 100 shipping days for those 10,000 plants, or 100 plants per day for that person who tries to make a living doing this. Is that even possible? The small growers who make it possible for us to grow all sorts of interesting plants need our support. They are not getting rich selling plants. Karyn, would such a cutting distribution system even be practical? I'm trying to imagine the botanical gardens matching the right cuttings to the person who wants them. Cuttings, of course, need to be dealt with immediately, and I'm not sure one can assume that most people can successfully root them. Around here, the botanical gardens are pretty good about propagating their plants and selling them for cheap. I attached another photo of $15 Passifloras from Strybing below: P. x exoniensis and P. membranacea (I already posted P. antioquiensis above). Perhaps a system where people have more input as to what gets propagated would be useful? Or if one could more easily request a certain plant (or seeds) that seems to never be available? I think that can already be done to some extent here. I guess we are spoiled locally because the botanical gardens (actually their employees and volunteers) do such a good job propagating and selling us plants for cheap. It's overwhelming in many ways. P. x exoniensis and P. membranacea, $15 plants from Strybing:

Found this on the Silk Hope Mulberry: SILK HOPE MULBERRY (Morus alba x M. rubra) Similar to Illinois Everbearing, but not as precocious, productive, not as long a bearing season. However, the fruit is of excellent quality & is slightly larger than Illinois. Better adapted to humid Southeastern states. North Carolina selection by A. J. Bullard. Zone 5-9. Edible Landscaping offers this description: "Large, black fruit which ripens over a long period. Praised in the South as "a winner." Zones 7-9"