Gardening shows start next week!

I have bought a few over the years but my experience has been negative. Plants usually arrive rather late and every time (Cottage Farms) the poor little things are just hanging on to life. Little branches are dry sticks with no foliage and soil is dead dry. I now watch the Q's flower dance but never buy.

I have not had good luck buying plants from QVC, but LOVE watching the shows. It fuels my gardening desires. lol

Plant season is always a fun time on the boards.

That's great news. I enjoy the shows - if they don't constantly push the same plants - but prefer to buy locally. Looking forward to the Wallein family.

Good, this may keep Carolyn too busy for the food shows! BTW, she is an amateur gardener, NOT "an expert", like David is a "foodie", not a chef, and Jill loves decorating, but is not a professional decorator.

I like to see Jill on more of these gardening shows as she is good at gardening and does down to earth, adult shows. (no screaming and no childishness)

I enjoy watching these shows and try to buy from better companies that sell the same or similar plants to what are shown here on QVC. If you love some plant shown here try to (1) find it locally or (2) get it from another mailorder company. I will post this now but Dave's Garden has garden forums and has a watchdog mailorder gardening company rating system for many if not most of the gardening catalog companies. Please read the reviews on Roberta's Unique Gardens and Cottage Farms.

Try and find out the true name of the plant you are interested in buying. These 2 companies (Roberta's is guilty mostly of this) use alternate names for the true botanical Latin of the plants. Not having the true name makes it more difficult to google for the plant online to purchase elsewhere.

On 1/14/2015 JustJazzmom said:

I enjoy watching these shows and try to buy from better companies that sell the same or similar plants to what are shown here on QVC. If you love some plant shown here try to (1) find it locally or (2) get it from another mailorder company. I will post this now but Dave's Garden has garden forums and has a watchdog mailorder gardening company rating system for many if not most of the gardening catalog companies. Please read the reviews on Roberta's Unique Gardens and Cottage Farms.

Try and find out the true name of the plant you are interested in buying. These 2 companies (Roberta's is guilty mostly of this) use alternate names for the true botanical Latin of the plants. Not having the true name makes it more difficult to google for the plant online to purchase elsewhere.

I have noticed that about the names of the plants the last few years. We have a few nice garden centers here and i sure spend my fair share there LOL.

I will look at that forum too , thanks for that .

On 1/14/2015 JustJazzmom said:

I enjoy watching these shows and try to buy from better companies that sell the same or similar plants to what are shown here on QVC. If you love some plant shown here try to (1) find it locally or (2) get it from another mailorder company. I will post this now but Dave's Garden has garden forums and has a watchdog mailorder gardening company rating system for many if not most of the gardening catalog companies. Please read the reviews on Roberta's Unique Gardens and Cottage Farms.

Try and find out the true name of the plant you are interested in buying. These 2 companies (Roberta's is guilty mostly of this) use alternate names for the true botanical Latin of the plants. Not having the true name makes it more difficult to google for the plant online to purchase elsewhere.

I have been a member of Dave's Garden for years and frequent the forums for gardening, butterflies, birds and a few others. I also have contributed LOTS of pics/info to DG for their plant files...even a few they never had before. I LOVE the site!

I also have started placing orders for plants already from highly recommended nurseries from DG/Garden Watchdog. Many of the varieties I choose usually sell out fast, so I like to get my orders in early.

I don't order plants from Q shows, but I will watch them because I just love gardening. Sometimes I will get annoyed by the sales tactics...when they push sales by making false statements about certain plants attracting hummingbirds (which hummingbirds do not use), I then grab the remote...just too annoying! I have lost count of how many hosts/vendors for example have stated daylilies attract hummingbirds...there is no nectar in those flowers...only pollen!

Those that love gardening and want to attract hummingbirds, please do your homework and be well informed for yourself if you want to buy plants from the Q shows...and want to attract hummingbirds. The Q does sell plants that attract hummmingbirds, but not all the plants that the hosts/venders state do!!!

I agree Susan Louise, just because the flower is trumpet shaped (like daylilies) is not an indicator of attracting hummingbirds. There are numerous websites which list what plants you should plant in your garden to attract hummingbirds and/or butterflies. Both animals' needs are different.

Its also not enough to just attract butterflies either, a person should plant the host plants to attract the butterflies so they can lay their eggs on a plant and let the larvae feed off of them.

Example: planting parsley in your garden will attract the Eastern Swallowtail butterfly to lay its eggs on it and then the caterpillars will eat the parsley before they crawl off to pupate.

One year I had parsley in an herb pot near my front door and a butterfly must have laid eggs on the parsley. We had 9 caterpillars on those leaves. They ate them down to the stems but eventually crawled off to go pupate. I did eventually get parsley as the roots were not destroyed. It was a great experience for my children to see something happening in nature so close to their front door.