Gardenesque

Mail Order Garden Nurseries . . .

Listed here are articles from previous newsletters on some of the mail order nurseries from whom I have ordered plants. If you would like to learn more about one of these nurseries, please click on its link shown below.

Plant Delights         Gossler Nursery       Forest Farm
    High Country Gardens

Plant Delights Nursery, Inc

Some time ago I enjoyed listening to Tony Avent of Plant Delights Nursery, Inc. talk about the plants he sells and about his special style of landscaping which is planting in "drifts of one". Even though this method is usually frowned upon, for him it works very well as shown by the many slides of his gardens at his home and nursery. Actually, he prefers to plant mostly perennials with a few small evergreen and deciduous trees and shrubs as accents. Photo: Physostegia virginiana 'Miss Manners'.

Tony likes variegated plants so his catalog is chock full of them. This nursery is on the list of the nurseries that Chanticleer Garden recommends for buying the many unusual plants they use in their own garden. The nursery also specializes in aroids, epimediums, asarums, and hostas.

The catalog is a concise encyclopedia with a lead-in paragraph on the genus (such as Buddleia) and then separate listings for each cultivar carried. Culture information is given as well as suggestions for use. What more could you want from a catalog! Actually this catalog is two catalogs: a spring catalog and a fall supplement.

The catalog is now available on the web at Plant Delights Nursery www.plantdel.com. The online catalog has lots to offer. It provides a search capability that allows searching for plants that fit specific requirements such as fragrant plants or variegated plants. Complex searches are allowed too. You can order online as well.

If you like to plant unusual plants or just want to learn about them, this is definitely one of the catalogs to have.

Plant Delights Nursery, Inc. - Website:PlantDelights

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Gossler Nursery

At a Horticultural Society of Maryland meeting I picked up a copy of Gossler Farms Nursery's catalog. It turned out to be a real find. Gossler's has nice selections of Hamamelis (witchhazels), Hydrangea, Magnolia (4 pages), and Viburnum. It is the catalog to use if you're looking for something different or rare. Some of the rare or unusual plants listed are:

• Acer tegmentosum 'White Tigress' (striped-bark maple) has white and green vertical stripes on the bark.
• Cercidiphyllum magnificum 'Pendula' (Weeping Katsura Tree) has golden yellow-pink fall color.
• Cytisus Battandieri (pineapple broom) comes from Morocco. I first saw this plant at Chanticleer where it has been hardy for several years now. It's gorgeous in bloom with scented yellow flowers.
• Disanthus cercidifolius (no common name) is growing at Chanticleer and has lovely purple, red, orange fall color. Disanthus (photo at right) is one of Michael Dirr's favorite plants.
• Heptacodium micinoides (seven sons tree) grows near the kitchen door at Ladew Topiary Gardens and is stunning with its white bark.
• Parrotia persica 'Vanessa' (Persian ironwood) is a narrow-growing Parrotia that fits much better into smaller sites than the species.

I purchased a few plants last spring and was pleased with the packing and shipping. As the nursery is located in Springfield, Oregon, and as hardiness zones are not always noted, be careful to make sure that any plants chosen for purchase are hardy in our area.
If you're interested in something new and different or a special Magnolia, this is the nursery to contact.

Gossler Farms Nursery: www.gosslerfarms.com

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Forest Farm

We've been getting the Forest Farm catalog for several years now. Actually, it's not just a catalog but a concise encyclopedia of plants. It comes in two sections: spring and fall.

This past spring as I was surfing the internet, I happened to come across Forest Farm's internet site. I thought I'd take a look and it didn't take long for me to find four plants in their "tube" size that I just had to have. Ordering by the internet is the way to go. I was surprised how fast the plants were delivered to me even though the nursery is in Williams, Oregon. The plants were in perfect condition too.

Forest Farm ships "tubes' and one gallon sizes. They also carry larger sizes for pickup at their nursery. The tubes have better root systems than "liners". I found the tube size adequate for spring planting. They don't recommend tubes for fall planting.

The listings are broken down by the type of plant, such as trees, shrubs, vines, perennials, grasses, sedges, and fruit-bearing plants. As they do sell plants that are not hardy in our hardiness zone, gardeners must be careful to check the hardiness zone for each plant before ordering.

To give you an idea of the scope of the catalog, they sell 57 different dogwood species and cultivars. This includes the shrub dogwoods as well as trees.

I was impressed with the shipping and the quality of the tube plants and I recommend this mail order nursery to other gardeners looking for something different to light up their gardens. The photo above is of my Geranium sanguineum species.

Forest Farm - www.forestfarm.com

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High Country Gardens

Plants for the Western Garden - Your source for Water-Wise Plants. Over 280 Perennials, Shrubs and Grasses.

While surfing the web I came across this website. Since I live in Maryland, why would I be interested in plants for the western states? I looked a little deeper into the website and found an article about plants for dry shade which is an important garden topic for me. I read the article, liked it, and signed up for the quarterly newsletter.

Then I received their catalog in the mail. It was attractive and had a lot of plants I hadn't seen anywhere else. If you are even slightly familiar with the plants from the western states, you will recognize Castilleja or Orange Indian Paint Brush, Zauschneria or Hummingbird Trumpet, Agastache or Hummingbird Mint, Fallugia or Apache Plume, and many others.

Now, how do I figure out what will grow in clay soil in Maryland? Looking carefully through the catalog I noticed a paragraph explaining how to decide which plants will grow well in non-western states. It noted that in the table of contents, the editors have included a "USA" symbol in the comments column for those "plants that perform well in the eastern half of the country". They even note those plants that do well in clay soil.

As the shipping and handling charges were very reasonable for a nursery in the western U.S., I ordered six plants but not all from the "USA" list. In their hillside garden, Longwood Gardens grows Marrubium rotundifolium or Silver Edged Horehound, shown here. It's such a beautiful little plant I thought I'd buy one for planting in a pot since it's hardy in zones 5-9. It wasn't recommended, though, as a "USA" plant because it needs very well drained soil. That's why Longwood Gardens grows it in the gravelly soil of their hillside garden.

The plants arrived in a carefully packed box and looked great after their trip from Santa Fe, New Mexico. I thought I would never have a reason to purchase plants from a catalog for the western states. Now I know better; we never know where our next great plant will come from!

Great web site too with much information on xeriscape gardening. There are also lists of deer resistant and rabbit resistant plants. I took a look at the rabbit resistant plant list and it is accurate for the plants that I grow. Take a look around their website. If you like what you see, sign up for the newsletter. I'm glad I did.

High Country Gardens - www.highcountrygardens.com