In your plant shopping of the recent past, have you bought a perennial labeled Jeeper Creepers, Happily Ever Appster daylilies, or Trophytaker daylilies? Then you’ve bought a plant that originally came from Heritage Perennials. So what? you say. Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but there are very few plant wholesalers that have such a full-featured website for the general public. I first decided to check them out because of a comment here posted by Sandy. It took me a while to realize they don’t sell to the general public, because they provide a list of gardening blogs, a newsletter, a searchable perennial encyclopedia, a question-and-answer column, and a links-and-resources section that brought a new cold-climate site to my attention. (How did Northern Garden stay out of my radar all this time?) There’s more, too, but it’s easier for you to just go see for yourself, and remember–they sell to the middleman, not to you. That’s quite a service to the gardening community considering it will only benefit them indirectly, when you buy their plants from a nursery. Especially at this time of year when our garden plants are still dormant and the weather keeps us indoors, Heritage Perennials and Northern Garden both deserve a closer look.
About Kathy Purdy
Kathy Purdy discovered the joys of writing in fourth grade, when she started corresponding with a former classmate. She's been writing letters ever since, first on looseleaf, then electronically, and now as weblog entries. That makes you, the blog reader, her pen pal. Her first independent (though frustrating) attempts at gardening were made in high school, though the gardening bug didn't bite hard until her mid-thirties, when she found herself mistress of a rural home on 15 acres. • USDA Hardiness Zone:4 • AHS Heat Zone: 3 • Location: rural; Southern Tier of NY • Geographic type: foothills of Appalachian Mountains • Soil Type: acid clay • Experience level: intermediate • Particular interests: colchicums, narcissus, cottage gardening, NY native plants, gardening with/for children
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Here is the URL I couldn’t find when I posted my original comment.
Specialty Growers
Small, but cozy. And good people.
Specialty Growers might even carry some of the plants that Heritage Perennials developed and markets. I buy a lot of plants mail order mostly because I find it hard to get out of the house and spend the time roaming from one nursery to another. But I agree: finding a local, knowledgable source for almost anything is better than going further afield, and especially so with plants, where an understanding of local conditions is vital to success.
And I would recommend that folks find a small home ground nursery/ retailer to call their home base…
Mine is Specialty Growers, right around the corner from me. The owner, Karen Bovio, is open to suggestions for new plants to carry, and will warn me away from plants that might not be hardy for our particular area.
Very valuable. And they’ll appreciate your business in a way that the larger retailers can’t.
Thanks, Kathy. I have bookmarked both for later reading. Looks like a lot of good articles on N. Garden.