"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
news
"Jenny" wrote in message
...

The other thing that really bothers me is the uniformity of the
offerings.

It's possible (and highly likely) that the uniformity is as much the fault
of consumers as it is of the suppliers. Here, for instance, there are
plenty
of sources for unusual plants, both annuals and perennials. But
still....look at many gardens and all you see is marigolds, salvia,
petunias
and geraniums. Boring....but that's what many consumers want. This is very
much a plain vanilla country.

I agree with this. It seems that most consumers don't want any risk. They
only buy what they know will work. It would never occur to them to do ANY
research and most don't even read the plant labels for the stuff they do
buy. Occasionally I will see something unusual show up at the box store
nurseries. We had a couple of large "super" stores like Meijer and Biggs
who occasionally get some flats of unusual annuals. When they do you better
buy them because next year you probably won't see them again. That's why I
buy "bulk" plants like impatiens at the box stores and then get my special
plants at real nurseries. The other think I have noticed is that few people
seem willing to buy an entire flat of flowers. Instead they get a couple of
cell packs of this and that and pepper their yards with insignificant dots
of color. I'm not talking about people who supplement a perennial border
with some pockets of annuals. I'm talking about people who plant the lonely
marigold at the base of a 5 foot holly and then ten feet way put in a
petunia under a dogwood. My neighbors is so lazy and/or indecisive that she
just left the plants in the cell packs and tossed them here and there in her
beds amongst the weed. They have been there since Mother's Day weekend and
now most are dead.