First spring plant catalogue and burnt fingers

Beautiful photos of beautiful plants but when I looked at the prices my fingers caught fire. Is it my imagination or have White Flower Farm prices skyrocketed in the past couple of years? Agastache Blue Fortune is listed at 11.95 each. EACH!! I got 6 for $20 last year from a different vendor. They all thrived and bloomed to the point where I had someone pull over in their car and ask about the pretty purple "bush" Lots of gorgeous Dahlias at $9 per. I don't know if that's a fair price or not. Al?? The shrub prices were a bit high but not shockingly so. And of course, I saw an evergreen "have to have" So they will get some of my money but not much. Coconut Lime Echinacea-- $$$19.95 !! Yikes

I've found that our local garden store has all the new catalog plants the following year at a much cheaper price. I did send WFF a nice chunk of dough though in years past - can't resist beautiful plants!! I want them now!!

I do like WFF to look at, hopefully Tiki Torch will show up somewhere else to buy. Coconut Lime was local here last year.
I didn't look at the dahlias there yet, $9 is not out of the question for new or exclusive varieties.
I got my Burpee catalog that I like to look at for new annuals too - $5 for new ones - yowza!

I received their catalog today too. They've been unreal for a few years now. WWF is overpriced and overrated in my book. I wasn't overly impressed when I visited them either.

I totally agree with you Victor --- after years of salivating over their catalogs we made a trip there a couple years ago while on vacation in N.Y. and I was very disappointed. So many wonderful small nurseries far outshine WFF now!

Absolutely.

I never got the big deal about WWF. Great catalogue though.

The catalog is good for combination ideas, and when I had to have Trillium, they were the only place I could find them. But those were the only plants I ordered from them.

How long ago was that, Deb? With the web, it's rare that there is only one source for anything.

Okay Dave, you're getting mixed up: it's WFF (White Flower Farm), not WWF (World Wrestling Federation)! Although I've been know to wrestle with some plants in my garden. They are good for a winter read, though.

Actually, Sue, the WWF is no longer the wrestling bunch. They lost their court battle for the acronym to the World Wildlife Fund. The wrestlers are now called the WWE.

What's the "E" for - entertainers?

Not sure - I'm not into that nonsense.

I think it's edutainment.LOL I watch it now and then - not as good as the old days when it was funny and not trying to be 'real'.
How could you not love Daddy Don Muraco, Jesse the Body or Bobby Heenan.

I got White Flower Farm, Jung, and Farmer's something or other nusrsery all in the same day. All were looked at but only one survived not being filed under "G".

Jung's not too far from here, I've been by an outlet store, but never stopped in.
I mainly order seeds so it's easier to choose from who has what and shipping charges.

I can't chuck it. It's such a nice catalogue that I consider it reference material :)

Yep, I got WFF, Jung's and the Maine Potato Lady. I want to do some potatoes in a tub, but I have to look for a place that sells smaller amounts. I might just see what they have at the nursery.

What kind of tub, Jan? I want to try potatoes too, but I'm not sure which way I'll go.

So what are everyone's favorite catalogs? I always end up getting most of my vegetable and annual seeds from Pinetree Garden Seeds in Maine. I have heard some negatives about them but have only had positive results myself and they are cheap. I also get some from Parks. Occasionally, I use Stokes, Scheepers, Jung and Gurneys. I haven't bought any perennials in a few years, just divided what I have, but I plan to get a few things this year. Not a clue who to use. I agree that WFF is overrated and overpriced. Victor, we have gotten our potatoes from Pinetree for the past few years and the yields have been fine.

We've received quite a few catalogs so far, including WFF, and usually order seeds from Park's and Burpee. I understand prices for anything coming from greenhouses will be higher due to increased costs for heating the greenhouses and more for shipping due to the gas prices.

Grow the potatoes right in the pot - brilliant!

pot atoes :~)

Alongside the meat?

I received the Burpee today. Some annual plants were not bad - 12 for $22 or something.

For trees, shrubs, some perennials, some exclusive DL's (from breeder Apps), clematis and other vines, I love Fairweather Gardens. They are not cheap but you get large, healthy plants. I get most of my shrubs and small trees from them.

For annual plants, I like Michel's Greenhouse.

For perennials, no catalog, but a website - Garden Crossings. Again - not the most inexpensive you can find but the quality is top-notch.

What I don't like about Fairweather Gardens is no pictures on alot of what they sell. If im not positive it's the right plant I have to go to a different web site to look it up.
As for Garden Crossings I love the fact that I can just put in 'hardy to zone 5" and it pulls all the plants hardy for that zone.
I bought Hydrangea macrophylla 'Cityline' last year and am crossing my fingers it survives it first winter here.

Mischel's is great but with their increase in prices and the shipping I can do as well locally so they've lost me as a customer. UPS delivery didn't help as they'd swing the box as they came down the driveway and plants were often suffered broken stems or were completely out of the containers and had to be replaced. That delays container planting so I just gave up.

Celeste - Fairweather has more photos on their website, but they should have more. I always have to google the stuff too.

Pirl, the prices certainly went up significantly last year on Mischel's and my order was smaller than usual. However, last year was the first time I did not lose a single plant from them! They replace failed ones anyway. My local nurseries don't carry many, if not most, of their varieties.

A fair weather Fairweather fan?

Cute, Al.

If Mischel's had more of a selection I might go back to them but there are always so many more plants I want that I can get locally that it makes for too much confusion with containers buying some from each place and trying to remember what I ordered.

I wish the online nurseries would realize how important photos are. One JI site in particular must be missing half the photos for their plants.

I have a somewhat funny story about Fairweather. I love them, partly because they have quality stuff and partly because I can drive there and pick what I want. So I went there once with the other half and he kinda glanced around and prematurely looked bored. According to me. The next time we went there I had the catalogue in my hand with the pics. He went wild with his pics of what to buy. His reaction was, I didn't realize those dead sticks you were buying would grow into this. So I shake my head and love him anyway. Guys are funny............Sorry vic, al, jasper, etc...guys that garden are different and special and LOVED

Funny!

Sue, I never got the other WWF either.

I used Jung's to grow my collective unconcious garden.

I'm getting 2 or 3 catalogues a day. Immediately recycle about half of them.

Now the darkest 2 weeks of the year are gone and the brightest 50 remain. Yeah Victor. I see the world as 1/26th light instead of 25/26ths dark. (This made for a much easier fraction than a couple of days ago.)

I'm impressed with your mathematical prowess, Dave.

Catalogs are rolling in now - one or 2 a day.

How many plants (trees) get killed so we can look at plants??

Not enough when I'm golfing it seems.

Sorry about that Al!

They usually hold off until after you're done golfing Al. Too dangerous.

I'm new subscriber & saw the posts about WFF. I live a few minutes away from them, have always purchased there, & been very satisfied. But when I saw the prices this year, I gasped. May have something to do with gas prices here---$3.20, and heating oil $3.00 with a senior discount. I was in NH over Christmas--gas was $2.93 by the interstate. CT taxes are overwhelming. Did get a gift cert. for WFF, & that's all I'll buy this year!