On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 13:13:22 -0700,
(paghat) wrote:

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
I learned my lesson a few years ago when I saw the size of some of the
shrubs I had bought from Bluestone. Now I just buy a few perrenials
from them. That are plenty of good local nurseries. IMO its
worth the extra bucks versus the years of waiting for things to.

On the other hand, a couple of those tiny shrubs have bloomed this
spring, are starting to get some size, and are filling in quite
nicely. It just took a few years more then I expected.

Swyck