This week I received about $300 worth of plants (according to the invoice
anyway) all of which would fit in a kid's lunchbucket with room left over
for the lunch. These are mostly kinda rare things, so the fact that they
cost three times the price of common things doesn't bother me; that
shipping makes them more expensive still is just part of how things work.
But when a monkshood vine consists of one leaf sticking out of some
wrapping-moss, barely distinguishable FROM the moss, I'm not convinced I'm
getting bang for my buck.

And this vendor told me last year before I placed this order that they
ship plants much more mature than does Heronswood (whose shipped seedlings
are gigantic compared to this!) & ready for the garden. But on Monday, the
day the plants were shipped, I got a chatty e-mail that included the
information that some of the plants might seem a bit small but it was
cheaper due to the health permit for the plants to ship them all at once,
& the Famous Paghat being such an amazing ace gardener & all, the shipper
was sure I wouldn't mind. Well butter my buns -- if I put these in the
garden they'd dry up & die their first hour in the sun, & flattering me
about it makes me more rather than less annoyed.

I don't have a greenhouse & I don't like to raise my own seedlings. But,
well, I'll pot these babies & put plastic bags over them & in a few weeks
they'll be big enough for the garden, & if nothing dies on me it'll be
worth the imposition. But this is a reminder of why I so rarely
mail-order any plants except bulbs. It's no fun to pay a maximum-high
price plus shipping & end up with a handful of little sprouted seeds.

The lesson remains: See what you're getting before you plunk down the
money, & SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL NURSERIES.

-paghat the ratgirl
--
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"History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden
people maintaining a free civil government." -Thomas Jefferson