California Gardening: Northern Cal-Annie's Annuals, 0 by spotzim

spotzim wrote:
The two small plants arrived from Annie's Annuals in fine shape. I ordered online on Tuesday, and the package arrived on Thursday. I agree, the shipping cost is high, but it's all relative. From Palo Alto, the drive to anywhere in the east bay is intimidating. I'm delighted with the mail order aspect of Annie's.

My experience with Wayside has been totally wonderful. Example: I ordered a herbaceous peony from them (Strawberries & Cream). After a year, I wrote to ask what I could do to encourage the peony which was not blooming or growing much. Their reply was to send me a check for the $35 I paid for the plant and apologies, saying they should never have shipped it to my zone (not cold enough). Late one autumn night, with a pitchfork and a brown paper bag, I dug up the pips and took them to some friends who live on Skyline, where they occasionally have snow. In the spring, their pips were gone (devoured by gophers), and my peony exploded into bloom and new growth in my garden. (Obviously, I hadn't dug up all the pips.) The peony thrives to this day and impresses the heck out of my friends from the northeast. I keep all my Wayside catalogs as encyclopedias of plants, with photos and detailed planting advice.

I prefer buying plants at my local nurseries, of course, but sometimes they don't have what I want.
--Scottie