An ode and a shout out

General Gardening
#1

I am despondent over the loss of too many good online nurseries…

Hallson Gardens website was a fantastic source of lily bulbs, hostas and perennials. The lily bulbs I received were absolutely huge (approaching softball sized). I wish I had ordered more when they were selling.

Oikos had the most eclectic varieties of most of what are growing. WIsh I had gotten their perennial bean. I did get one of the (supposedly) zone 5, non-grafted morus nigra. Big claim, but the owner is still a respected name in horticulture.

Specialty Growers http://specialtygrowers.net/ Beautiful peonies, perennials. Woodland flowers. Run out of a home, you felt like a privileged guest.

What nurseries in your area (preferably who also do mail-order) are too good to lose? What nurseries can you share, and recommend what they specialize in, to the rest of us?

Arrowhead Alpines https://arrowheadalpines.com/ Wonderful nursery with one of the larges alpine plant collections in the US. Cordalys (ex dufu temple) was glorious, though I’ve never gotten it to establish in my yard. Bob, the founder’s, original catalogs were truly some of the most entertaining reading I had ever done in my life. Spending time with him shopping/weeding was a treasure. I learned a lot. His wife still runs the nursery, as far as I know.

Coleman’s Farm stand (if you are near Ann Arbor, Michigan). 200 perennials, 3 inch pots. Under $2.00 each. (was 1.25 only 5 years ago). Perennials I see sold for 4-5 times as much by most online retailers. (no mail order as far as I’m aware).

Logees https://www.logees.com/ Edibles and lots of “that shouldn’t grow here” things. Oldest lemon growing in New England? check. Choice tropicals and a great selection of other plants. Seem to have more reasonable shipping costs.

I’m sure there are a couple others I could/should mention (like that California Carnivores I ordered from this past winter). Maybe a later post.

Scott

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#2

Probably the largest range of woody-plant stock just announced he’s selling: Bucholtz Nursery.

His blog is incredible. I used to read it when I was knee deep into ornamentals. Some of the most spectacular plant material in the world. He got 14 varieties of Dove trees, for example.

Jeezus, I’ve seen em’ all go down the tubes… I can’t tell ya how many others I remember.

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#3

I live close enough to Logees that I went there to pick up my Honeyberries last year. They were open but you had to call when you got there and they brought the order out and put it on a table much like the take-out restaurants were doing. They looked to be open for business as usual when I checked their website last week.

They do, in fact, have a very unusual old lemon tree. It is the centerpiece - literally - of the oldest greenhouse in that it runs the full length and breadth of it. The greenhouse is a hip-house, half in-ground, half-above, and humid as a rainforest which suited the 800+ begonias on hand at the time I first visited, back in the 1980’s. The humidity didn’t suit the lemons much, though.

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