I am amazed at how difficult it is to find the herbs,you want.Its a hobby for me.There are two nurseries in my area.One is about 100 miles away,I make the trip once a year in May.The other is about 20 miles away,I have been there 3 times this year.Between the two,I can get pretty much what I want.Mostly because my herb collection keeps expanding.I gather seeds from my own pants,that are annuals and sow them indoors in March.Take cuttings from perennials.So mostly what I purchase is either new or something that I like,but have not been able to propogate.Still most herbs are pretty cheap to buy.Heres how I know its a hobby.Spending $50.00 on home repair,upsets me.Spending $50.00 at nusery,brings me joy. Is there no place to find herbs in your area? Does it really bother you to spend $3.00 for a plant? AM I wrong here? I am not trying to upset anybody.I am just curious if people agree with me or not.
buying herb plants
For me, it depends on the plant how much I am willing to spend. I am willing to spend more on perennials, a little more on shrubs and more for trees, but when I look at how much I spend on the garden over a summer I get a little queasy. Did I really spend THAT much for dirt, plants, garden art, seeds etc. Then when I look back at how many plants didn't make it and how much I spent on those.... I do have a limit on what I will spend on a plant even if I REALLY want it, mostly because I never know if it's going to stay alive. I do experiment now and again, like trying to grow a few blackberry bushes here (they don't really grow here) but on those I won't spend a lot.
Then I look at my garden- it's worth it because it makes my life so much better.
How much I spend? There are not many places in a 50 mile radius with a broad selection of herbs here. I have no problem buying a unique (to me) herb plant online. The plant price isn't bad ~ but I also have no problem paying exorbitant shipping on that little buddy to get it here. And then, if it dies ~ well, if I really loved it, I will do it all over again... LOL
Started keeping reciepts one year on the "garden gorging" and after a month, threw them away and went happily thru the summer. 8 )) pod
edgeoftheworld, growing and selling herbs is a business for me. Since I grow more 'unusual' herbs than any of the local greenhouses I find people have no problem paying my prices. $2.50/3.5" pot, $3.00/4" pot, $5/gallon. I sell at a local flea/farmers market, this is my first year there, and am amazed at the continuing interest in my herbs in this rural and economically depressed area! Most of Michigan is economically challenged right now - but everyone still gardens! And will still spend money on it. I know I'll buy plants myself before I'll buy anything else without thinking about what it costs too much.
I don't know where Conneaut is, but have you been to Companion Plants in Stewart, OH? I've only made the trip down once. It's a very long drive down to the bottom of OH from MI. But it was worth it. They have a fantastic collection. That was several years ago. I now order seeds from them every spring. But they also mail order plants. In past years I've gone all the way to Mass. and Connecticutt for plants -- now that's obsession.
I agree with y'all, especially Mobi -- gardening gives me such pleasure and adds so much to my life, that, while I try not to get too exhorbitant. . . .like you podster, I avoid adding up my gardening costs and go along quite happily!
LOL... DH *makes* me keep track of my gardening costs! I always try to put some of the garden budget aside, but those fall bulb sales do me in, LOL. At the end of the year, I generally end up chipping into the "garden & landscape" category from my personal funds (the "Jill's stuff category), but DH does cut me some slack... I think my new mantis tiller came out of his overtime pay this spring, which was really sweet! It does help me to keep track of the total, otherwise I would really get out of control -- and I spend a lot on plants etc. as it is. But everyone has their own way of dealing with finances and figuring out what they can afford and how to keep track of it (or not).
My DH has no problem when I need a POWERTOOL! I said, "I think we need a mini-tiller" we got one and I haven't used it yet. I just say, "hon, I need an area tilled" and it's done!
Before we got married I told him that I never wanted someone telling me what I could or couldn't spend my money on and he never has. But then I never spend any money that I don't have and never buy on credit anymore. If I don't have the cash I don't buy it. It really helps put your priorities in focus.
Gardening is my only hobby during the summer and I put a lot of money into it but I really enjoy it! Okay, not EVERYTHING about gardening is fun but most of it!
Feel like my gardening hobby is understood/supported as today is our 14th wedding anniversary and he got me a wheelbarrow! He didn't think that was very exciting but I insisted that's what I wanted, since I am forever moving pots, plants, soil, etc. He probably saw the writing on the wall anyway -- we have recently moved into this house and I mentioned re-mulching all the flowerbeds so he knows he will be enlisted to help and obviously a wheelbarrow makes it a gazillion times easier!
Several years ago I did mostly container gardening because I live in a townhouse and have a large deck on the back. I also have a “sunroom” where I am able to see the deck which is great. But due to travel for family purposes I lost a lot of plants so I gave it up for several years. I will be retiring in two more weeks and have started up the container gardening again. Now as to the cost, right now I am afraid to even think about it, and I haven’t gotten my credit card bill yet. I know I have gone overboard but I tell myself this even includes some winter pots as well. I will let you know next year when I return to my senses, if I have not become bankrupt and am living on the street. HA!
Tarantella, I too container garden as we are always either in base housing or renting and it is the cost of the pots that gets me. And sadly my motto seems to be "I can always use another pot," which leads to "I need a plant for that pot," then to "Boy, I really like this plant, I'll buy three instead of just one," which ends inevitably in "I need another pot!"
Lucia, I share your "pain". In other words ..... "no pot shall go unfilled"? I hadn't realized that my son had stashed a bunch of pots under the crawl space of my town house and when a neighbor asked to borrow a shovel ....... aaaargh ..... big trouble. I HAD thought I was finished. Kind of like mashed potatoes and gravy .... always trying to come out even.
But it IS fun isn't it?
Tarantella, to find a stash of pots you didn't know you had -- what joy! And as you said, what trouble! Think of the possibilities. . . We have moved 9 times in 13 years (military) and I have always taken every pot I own, even to Japan several years ago, and I ended up using every single one and often adding more. It is a sickness but I agree with you--it is great fun!!
I don't know about spending that much. I usually buy a ton of seeds and grow my own herbs. So far, I buy very few plants except for the ones that's hard to germinate or don't have seeds available. As for container gardening (which is most of what I do), I only pot things up in nice pots to display. I don't pot everything in nice pots. I usually start off the seeds in the germinator kit then move them to the plastic nursery pot (I recycle all of them and always have extra ones lying around). When I want to make a pot, I put several plants in. So it's not that bad.
What's bad is all the little stuff that I see for the gardens and planting that I get. All those self-watering devices (that don't work) and garden decorations. Those really add up for me.
Hi JeaneTH,I was really speaking to the hobbiest,not a pro like yourself.Wow how cool it must be making a living doing something you love. I looked up companion plants before,but decided it was too far away.I admire your dedication.Conneaut is as far northeast in Ohio as you can get without entering PA.I live right on Lake Erie.When I look out my window all I see is water as far as you can see.Hence my name Edgeoftheworld.
I bought my pots in bulk at one of the supply places. One case of 4 1/2 inch pots was 29.75 for 375 pots. Not fancy, but they get the job done. I finally got my greenhouse up, and now I'm trying to get the benches pput together. Should be able to use it shortly. Since I do everything myself, I'm going to have to con one of the neighbor kids to help me put up the shade cloth.
I also "collect" unusual stuff. One of the folks that I work with just gave me a Curry leave tree. I bough a bunch of crocus bulbs for saffron, but I haven't got them in the ground yet, need to make a cage to keep the voles out.
I want to make a kitchen "herb" bed off the porch this year, but haven't gotten around to it yet.
P.S. I also am trying to do alot of my stuff from seed.
mscheinost, that's awesome. 375 pots.. Are you planing to turn that into a business? I just recycle the pot that I get when I purchase plants. And I also do all my plants from seed... But they always have so many seeds per packet.. I never use them all...
edgeoftheworld, we moved up here a mile off Lake Huron last summer. I used to be a manager at a commercial greenhouse in Troy. Love being near the 'big' water. My greenhouse now is more 'hobby' size. I make enough selling herbs to be able to have the greenhouse and fund my obsession. I'm with whoever said it above. Don't use credit anymore, only buy what I have cash for. But I love doing propagation and growing. As well as the more unusual herbs. So start lots and lots of plants from cuttings and seed. Make my real living writing websites and advertising for a local realtor as well as the greenhouse I used to grow and do retail for. May pick up another website for a local shop. Won't ever get rich selling herbs and garden art up here, but sure meet a lot of really nice people!
edge,
I don't mind a bit spending $50 and more for plants including herbs which I grow. Of course, I try to keep from spending money I don't have to spend -- I let my parsley and chervil reseed, keep rosemary and Kaffir lime indoors over the winter, etc. I just don't like to buy overpriced herbs. But if you think buying the plants is expensive, try buying fresh herbs at the grocery! That is really expensive. And from my viewpoint, eating food cooked with fresh herbs is way better than food cooked with dried or no herbs. Besides there are plenty of herbs that just aren't available unless you buy them from a nursery and grow them yourself.
My husband doesn't gripe because he likes my cooking. He doesn't know the intricacies of how I make it good, but he knows by herbs and my veggie garden are part of it.
From my viewpoint, the money spent on herbs is well spent. Of course, I agree that one shouldn't be running up debt to grow herbs, but even people deeply in debt might do better keeping an herb garden than spending money on luxuries.
I'm on a strict budget myself when it comes to seeds and garden supplies. Each spring I put up a small sign in my front yard, and a big plastic container. The sign says , "used flowers pots welcome, please drop them off here" It never fails ! People always leave me several nice plastic pots and some are even decorative clay pots. I figure they were going to throw them away anyway, so I saved them a trip to the landfill, and they did their part to re-cycle. I wash the pots in hot soapy water, and air dry them. Sometimes, my neighbors will drop off 1/2 a bag of un-used potting soil, and I've even had an shovel [ old and better than the new ones] left near the container. We should do our part to re-cycle whenever we can, and I do appreciate my kind and thoughtful neighbors. I give them bunches of fresh herbs grown in the very pots they so graciously gave to me.
Arias
Other than the 'normal' herbs there arent many in my neck of the woods either. Steins, Menards, Fleet Farm etc all carry the same ole' thing. I order a lot of herbs from Richters, both plant and seed, as well as other online sources including ebay. The most I have spent on a single plant....$13.00.
Tlili ~ what kind of $13. plant? Do you still have it or seed from it?
I am a Richters customer as well. I have many herbs that come back each year, and others that have to be regrown from seed each year -- the basils. Then I have the ones that I allow to reseed -- chervil, parsley and to a lesser degree cilantro. I have paid up to $25 for herb plants. One is kaffir lime, which is used in Thai cooking and the other is curry leaf, not curry plant, but the one named Murraya koenigii. It cost around $15 and was very small. I didn't do a very good job of watering it and it died. I buy curry leaves at the Indian grocery, but it is 100 miles away. I need to learn to grow them outoors in summer and indoors in winter. I haven't been able to talk myself into reordering, but will eventually.
It is very difficult to buy curry leaves in my part of the world, so the solution is to grow one's own. It has worked out well for the Kaffir lime, so I need to try again on Murraya koenigii. Bad enough that it cost so much. Then to have it die! But a package of the leave is $3 or more. So growing one's own does make sense.
I agree. If the spice is expensive or hard to get, having your own plant is the answer. Of course, keeping it alive is another matter. I spent over $50 on a miracle berry plant and it's still alive. But it's only been 2 months.. I'm still waiting to see a new leaf or growth.. Only time will tell.
I agree, the price of a plant may seem expensive til you price the seasoning or finished herb product.
Hi Podster,
I have several 'out of the norm' herbs that I purchased plants. My most recent additions to my collection are Diviners Sage,Lion's Tail and Fragrant Angel Echinacea. Other additions this year, by seed, include Chinese Toon, Maikoa, and Very Berry Wintergreen. All from Richters. I haven't had any negative experiences with Richters. However, read the company section before ordering from them. It appears others have.
I do have a lot of seeds/plants will get my trade list up asap.
Happy Day
Theresa
Tlili -- what is Very Berry Wintergreen? It sounds intriguing!
Gaultheria procumbens 'Very Berry'
A stunning improvement over the wild species: more compact and uniform, with multitudes of bright red berries appearing in fall. The breeders have suggested that this plant will be an excellent fall and winter plant for holiday pot sales, and we agree. Wonderfully scented leaves and berries are every bit as medicinal as the wild species. Ht. 20cm/8". (Richter's Catalog)
Picture on Richters site
http://www.richters.com/Web_store/web_store.cgiproduct=X6851&cart_id=3859477.26393
I am sure you are familiar with Wintergreen..it is smaller with berries. I am looking forward to giving as holiday gifts as well as a few for myself. {smiles}
Oh, that new wintergreen looks wonderful -- and it can be propagated from seeds! Hooray! I wonder if that's likely to be a good wintersowing candidate... If not, I may have to order seeds anyway and start some under lights this winter.... Thanks for letting us know about it, Tlili!
Thanks for the info, Tlili! Especially the link to Richter's. Am fairly new to gardening so am not familiar with many online sources, but have seen Richter's mentioned several times on different forums, so am looking forward to perusing their site.
I have bought seed and plants from Richter's and have been completely satisfied.
Really? Because on the watchdog they have a lot of unsatisfied customers. I was thinking of ordering some thyme plugs but after looking at the watchdog I wasn't too thrilled with their rating. They only got a 56 out of 100
http://davesgarden.com/gwd/c/133/
Well, I guess I was lucky. Everything grew. And their seed selection is huge. This was in my pre-DG life so I didn't realize others had had bad experiences. And I haven't ordered anything from them in a while.
I just put in another order, half has arrived(seeds), received a call today that two plants are back ordered and asking how I wanted it handled. I truely have no complaints. You have to expect the order to take time coming from Canada and going through customs. I havent complained about anything to them so I have no clue as to how things are handled. I do know that they cover plants that arrive ill or are ill soon after arrival. I wonder if it is a persons expectations of 'mail order' as opposed to a company that I shouldn't order from. My opinion-I will continue to order from them expecting long ship time to my area. (seeds arrived in a weeks time from order date this last order). Patience seems to work for me with Richters. LOL!! As I said before read the company info here first.
Happy Day
T.
Tlili, I think you might be right on. I've always heard good things about Richters. In my experience with Canadian companies that ship to the US the larger greenhouses generally have someone on staff who is certified to do the inspection as the plants are shipped. The smaller greenhouses share an inspector. We're only a few miles from the boarder and get a lot of plants coming in from Canada. Inspecting them as they're loaded onto trucks only makes sense. Richter's may have a mail order schedule where they inspect and ship once a week or so to the US so they can inspect as the plants are packed. It would just depend on where they are in their inspection schedule when you order as to how long it will take. But I do know that plants are generally inspected on site rather than at the boarder so as long as the papper work is in order they shouldn't have a problem at customs.
People new to mail-order may expect to see plants looking like the ones they buy at the local greenhouse. Most companies ship very small plants and are at the mercy of the postal services. I worry about temperature control on the mail trucks and planes so prefer shipping spring and fall, when it's above freezing and below cooking in transit. And prefer priority mail or global express if it's an option, in the hope that it will only take two days of actual travel time so the plants won't get too stressed. If your plants are back ordered it means they weren't ready in their growing cycle to ship those particular plants.
Long ship time is acceptable if we are notified.. Some of us travel and have to plant our travels accordingly. So when I ordered from DirectGardening, I called them before the order. They said the items I wanted were in stock and should ship withing the week, two weeks at most and I should get it a few days after that. That would indicate 3 or so weeks. I ordered in early June. I didn't get my order and mid-august. To boot, the stuff that arrived was slimy and rotting, stunk so bad that the neighbors thought I got something dead in the mail. It had the consistency of smushed baked garlic.. They said they'd replace it when I send the label back, which I did ASAP. I didn't get new bulbs back until end of Oct. Humm.. The bulbs seems a bit light. Sure enough, the bulbs were dried out husks.. I try again, this time I get it faster, end of Nov. Bulbs arrived okay.. They were moldy and some where like a bit soft.. Hum... I used fungicide and plant them. This spring, only 5 out of 16 grew at all. And the ones that grew and bloomed weren't even the plants I ordered. I ordered oriental lilies and I got some sort of asiatic rejects. Small weak colored flower, one over a stem. Hum... I found DG afterward and saw that they rated horribly, 24 out of a hundred.. I can see why..
Theresa, be careful. If so many people get bad experiences, you can just be lucky. Can't always count on luck though.. Better to be safe than sorry. I'd rather go with place that everyone loves than go with a place that everyone hates. These companies can be okay once, twice, even a few times but chances are if other people having problems with them, "statistically" that will happen to you too sooner or later. Just be careful and when dealing with them, have everything documented so if there's problems, you are protected.
I too have a curry leave tree. I got it from one of my co-workers (actually his wife, she made the cutting for him to give to me). It appears to be the small leaf variety of M. koenigii. He told me not to get too carried away with watering, especially during thew winter. So far I've been watering every two to three weeks, when the soil feels dry.
I finally got my greenhouse up. I thought about putting it in there, but I don't want to take a chance on loosing it. It appears to be very happy in a south window, in the house.
Would like to try a kaffir lime too. I'm trying to talk one of my other fellow workers out of a cutting.
I do plan on trying to expand my herbal garden this year. I'm going to put in one more raised bed, and that will be for the herbs. (I want to put in a second one right off the kitchen door for perenial herbs.)
Kaffir lime trees are a whole lot easier to maintain than M. koenig. They are prone to scale insects, but I find that if I use Safer soap on them I can usually clear them away. They are yummy in Thai dishes. The place where I got mine grafts them onto something else which makes them stronger. Not sure what. I could send you a cutting of mine, but have no idea what to take. I understand people in Florida grow them as yard shrubs. Here is where I got mine:
http://www.fourwindsgrowers.com/lore/kaffir_lime.html
Don't know how they are currently rated in the garden watchdog, but http://papagenos.com/
is a source of a fairly wide selection of herbs. My recollection, they are small and pretty seasonal but worth a look.The plants I have purchased have done well.