Spending spree #9

Nice to do business with someone like that...

Sounds like a nice color palette....

Thanks. I definitely want to spread the word about Classic Viburnums, and will review once the plants arrive.

They have been top notch for many years.

I saw your postings in plantfiles, too, Victor! Your viburnum plants are extraordinary!

Thanks. I really need to start adding more pics to PF. Have lots of new ones to add. I will try to post my complete viburnum list and rate each. I always go for multi-season interest.

You can be sure I'll be interested, Victor!

Our viburnums are the arrowood type that we here when we bought the property in 1972. We like them, however.

I'm sure those are very nice too--V. dentatum. You're lucky someone cared to plant them. Guaranteed fruit for the birds and a structural element for the iris plants. When I was a kid, I enjoyed imagining things like how the Indians cut the branches for arrows, and then must have climbed the ancient elm tree to watch the area.

I think that the v planted themselves. Not arrows but bird droppings from others as this was overgrown pasture land. All sorts of plants colonized although as you say someone planted shrubs at sometime. A lot of old stone walls around.

Sounds very pretty and natural.

We have a view of an old ruin from the barn that was once part of this land. It's about a 15' high fieldstone wall in some places. We hope they don't tear it down, but it's one of few undeveloped spots left in town. The agency that owns the property wants to build a giant disability housing complex there, but they haven't gone to the town just yet. Nothing wrong with that purpose, we just don't like to see unfinished building projects wrecking the view.

Wish folks would think about how important 'green' space is!

We wish we could buy a piece of this land to add to our backyard garden (visions of the ruin garden at Winterthur), but now we know they have a parking lot in mind for the spot (grrr!) They claim they're going to plant around it, but we'll lose our panoramic view-- if they can get financial backing and town development approval. And yes, currently we get lots of wildlife in the neighborhood to enjoy, and don't really have to work that hard to attract birds to our feeder.

It sounds like a perfect spot...hope they don't get planning approval!

Thanks, Robin. We felt lucky when we bought this much open space for a low price, so it's been a good run in any event. So far, when the bulldozers came elsewhere to the neighborhood, it meant more sun in our garden, so we're trying to roll with whatever happens.

OK. Just made the last purchase I promise-- at Forest Farm-- for next spring. They had Magnolia 'Southern Charm' (I've been wanting this one because it's dwarf, AKA Teddy Bear); Ilex serrata X vert. 'Bonfire,' a five gallon 'Accolade' flowering cherry to replace the smaller one that rhodents attacked, and four tubes of seedlings, such as Cornus Mas 'variegata.' Finally feels like enough plants. to play with, and grow in pots if they don't all get planted.

rosemary glad you found what you wanted!

Nice! Still have never ordered from FF.

i have been happy with everything i have ordered from them - they are expensive both plants and shipping

Yes, I think the shipping cost always turned me off.

The only limitation with Forest Farm is that it's on the other coast. Shipping costs a lot, and it's not the company's fault because their prices are reasonable. They have cultivars you can't find almost anywhere else, and I like the health of their plants a lot. So, I grow some very tiny shrubs in pots.Once they grow, I'll be happy to share cuttings.

check out Greer Gardens also on the west coast - they do not normally jump to the top of a google search and have slightly better pricing and shipping costs - of course any cuttings would be nice:)

Used to get paper catalogs from Greer Gardens. Good to know they're still around. No money left to spend for now, only elbow grease. Lots of these plants ought to be able to spare some cuttings if Bill or anyone wants any in particular.

Sure - always interested in cuttings. I really need to start doing that myself.

You can drop some of the deodar cedar into my yard..:>)

I just ordered Coonara Pygmy, Red Spider Web and Sharps Pygmy JMs from Topiary Gardens, so hard to choose! Plus a few dwarf conifers, all with a little help from Wha (thanks, Bill!)

I have to give TG an order.

you are welcome Wynne - just added a moonrise jm to my order with Diana less than 60 seconds ago:)

so which conifers did you decide on?

Picea abides Pusch. Diana is looking to see if she has any Concolor firs. I have wanted one of those for a long time. Really tempted by Chamaecyparis obtusa Verdon. Anyone have experience with that?

you went with the Pusch nice:) No experince with Cham O Verdon here - if you are that tempted...................

i picked up some starter Concolor firs last year - Archers Dwarf and Charming Cub, both are still very small.

rosemary - i went to order something from forestfarm today that was $69 the shipping was $59 - just crazy - went to greer gardens for the same and the shipping was $25.20 - something does not calculate

It's called RIPOFF.

Wow! I'll be looking at Greer Gardens. Still, I think the prize for ripoff prices goes to many local nurseries when they sell the less common plants.

The hard part is that until you see the plant, you can't tell if it is equivalent to what the other guy sells. The pot size only tells you so much. It is frustrating for sure. At least at the local nursery, you can see before you buy.

I did some ebay damage

http://davesgarden.com/community/journals/vbc/onewish1/98314/

Never saw those foliage plants.....are they annuals?

yes.. I consider them coleus for the sun.. figured I would baby these then maybe local co-op em.. lots of swaps this spring

Good idea....

OK, so I took a look at Greer. I've always admired them, but Forest Farm has varieties that are sold nowhere else in the country.

My thinking was like this: Accodade cherry is Mike Dirr's choice of the longest living and perhaps most cold hardy flowering cherry; Ilex Bonfire was the top choice when I read a book about hollies because it is a hybrid of Serrata and Verticillata, and therefore considered the very best, most fruited, and thus improved; Teddy Bear Magnolia is a hard to find dwarf hardy to -10F that I haven't found anywhere else in two years of looking, except it's mentioned in the magnolia references repeatedly. Last year I ordered a Snow apple from Forest Farm to remember my great grandmother who prized her tree, and when I was a little girl, I was convinced that a Snow Apple was definitely the one the witch gave to Snow White. I had previously given up looking because it's not used in current orchard sources (It's a parent plant of the Mac), but the growers at the Farmer's markets all said their grandparents kept one for the family apples, too.

We do other things to save money, such as doing our work ourselves, and waiting for the tiny plants to grow bigger.

if you can't find it anywhere else and you have to have it then i completely understand.