Garden

[cpn2jxp]

Yes, buy locally. I bought both from Cottage Farms and they died. Roberta's also. Same problem. If your not supposed to get flowers or fruit until the next year by that time the warranty is up. AND so expensive.

Here is something I never gave thought to either. My neighbor had shrubs in the front of his house. They were ALWAYS dying. He went to a locally owned nursery one day and was telling the owner about his experience. She made him bring in a sample of his soil. He had a mineral in the soil that was killing the shrubs. She gave him a specific food for the soil and he never had a problem again. Most of you probably know that , but me NOT having a green thumb, had no clue. To me dirt was dirt. I knew you had to use food for certain flowers but shrubs? No idea.

[SundayMonday]

If you will go to "davesgarden.com" and scroll down to Garden Watchdog, it will give you the opinions of 500,000 members of most of the nurseries in the USA and several in other countries, probably 200 overseas. Then scroll down to the alphabet and find Robertas Garden and Cottage Farm. It is one of the most comprensive gardening sites on the web.

They have 249 different forums for gardening questions, birds, bug files, tropical plants files , etc. I have no affiliation except to be a member, and I checked out Robertas and Cottage Farm several years ago.

I would not buy anything from them based on the comments on Daves Garden.

[JustJazzmom]

Buy locally and be sure to bear in mind the various amounts of sun vs shade the area gets. Remember 'the right plant in the right place'.

Mix perennials with shrubs and do not overplant or have someone overplant. Remember plants grow and you do not want to be removing plants 5 years after planting due to overcrowding. The most important question to ask at a nursery besides sun vs shade loving is how high and how wide does the plant grow?

Try not to have too many specimen plants in your landscape-- it gets to be like a museum in your garden so to speak with too many plants for your eyes to focus on. Limit it to one or two.

If planting trees again-- take into account how tall and wide their leaf canopy gets. That cute little cherry tree will grow to about 20' wide and tall someday. Try not to plant trees 5' away from your roofline.

And plant your shrubs at least 2-3' away from your foundation. You want good air circulation around the entire plant.

[horses1]

Hello - I recommend you get your plants from local nurseries in your area and do not by from the big box stores. I use several mail order plant sources and not Roberta's or Cottage Farms - they do not sell using botanical names so it is hard to know what you are getting. Are you looking for evergreen shrubs, perennials or and what part of the country are you ? I can send some of the mail order sources I use - they all have online catalogs to help you.

[FLGators]

Tiny, dead or barely alive upon arrival. They only look good on TV. Like many have said, safe to buy from the local nursery.

[tototwo]

I also say to buy locally when you can. But here the local nurseries are scarce and I have to drive at least 60 miles to find one with any variety. I order some plants from catalogs and online for this reason. I also refer to Garden Watchdog from time to time, but I've had really good luck with Bluestone Perennials, so I order from them every spring.

I've ordered from Cottage Farms in years passed and had bad luck with everything except for the Rose of Sharon trees. These are winners! I have 4 of them and they grew quickly and are more beautiful every year. My blue one is now 8 years old and about 10 ft tall and wide. The hummingbirds love it!

[JustJazzmom]

tototwo, Bluestone Perennials is a great company -- its one of the Watchdog 30 that Garden Watchdog feels meets their criteria for excellence in mail order catalogs.

That company sells very small or decent potted plants. The small plants are in a coir pot (which is wise to remove rather than plant into the ground in my experience).

Their plants are small but viable-- I guess you could say that the plants are in better condition than what Roberta's sells and sends to customers.

[mousiegirl]

I have had just an okay experience from Bluestone, so do not order from that company. Quite a few of the plants I ordered died, whereas plants that I have ordered from Wayside, White Flower Farm, and just about every other on line company, are thriving years later, always strong healthy plants upon arrival.

[tototwo]

It's all personal experience, ladies. I've had terrible luck with White Flower Farms, Wayside, High Country Gardens, Cottage Farms.... etc. One spring I ordered from Bluestone and their plants arrived healthy and thrived in my gardens. The next year, same thing - healthy plants that are still growing in my garden now. And the 3rd year, etc. So you can see why I like Bluestone. If they ever send me a bad batch, I'll be done with them.

[mousiegirl]

I received the Cottage Farms set of three Hydrangeas today, and they look great. They will have to bloom before I know if the colors are correct.