"Jean B." wrote in message
...
Vox Humana wrote:

I understand about the fear of propagating plants from seeds. A few
years
ago I found some seeds at deep discount so I gave it a try. Nearly all
of
the seeds sprouted, and I only lost a dollar or two on the seeds that
didn't. The return on investment was enormous. This time of year you
will
find stores clearing out their seeds. You can get some sterile potting
medium and sow the seeds in a margarine tub. You don't need a lot of
equipment and since it is warm and sunny outside, you can just start
them
outside and skip the lights and mess indoors.

Well, I did buy some seeds, and I will try to think of them as an
experiment. I had the brilliant idea (or not) that plastic egg cartons
would make nice little greenhouses....

That said, there is nothing
wrong with buying plants. Bluestone Perennials and Springhill Nursery
both
sell very small plants (in cell packs or bare root).

Hmmm. Have been looking at Bluestone. I forget how folks rate
Springhill and will check that out first....


Springhill gets bad remarks. They had some problems a few years ago and
were associated with some other bad companies under the umbrella of their
parent company. The whole outfit went bankrupt and the employees bought
Springhill. I live near their facility and buy from them without any
complaint. They have a liberal refund policy. The other issue with them is
that their catalog shows full, mature plants. They sort of paint a fantasy
of how wonderful your garden will be with their plants. In reality, they
ship very small plants that will take three or four year to get close to the
size shown in the catalog. Of course, many of the trees and shrubs will
take even longer. People who expect to receive huge plants are often ****ed
when a tiny bare-root plant arrives. Dormant, bare-root plants appear to be
dead to the uninformed and sometimes people think they have been swindled.
The plants from Bluestone are the same size as the ones from Springhill, but
Bluestone is more candid in their representation of the plants they ship.
Springhill is having their huge annual catalog clearance sale starting this
Thursday. Everything that didn't sell in the catalog will be available at
their main facility for $1. I have a yard full of plants from both the
Springhill and Bluestone clearance events (Bluestone had theirs two weeks
ago - all you could fit into a flat for $25.





You might check your region for botanical gardens. Taking a few trips
to
these gardens will give you some good ideas about design and plant
selection. Conservation of wetlands is an a hot area of interest. You
might have some bogs in your area that are open to visitors. That would
be
a good resource for areas that constantly wet.

For better or for worse, this is probably not quite a wetland

A third resource would be a library or large bookstore. You can browse
the
garden section to find books on woodland gardening.


I do need to do that more and not just keep getting out my favorite book
on the topic, which I am going to bite the bullet and buy. It's lucky I
like to research things before I do them, or today I would have planted
something that was much too invasive.



--
Jean B.