I'm newish to this awesome site and am having trouble absorbing everything and everywhere there is to go. I live just to "left of the center" in Kansas and would like to find out what others in my area are doing, planting, when, what etc. and how do I found out easily who the vendors are that ATP recommends for my zone, which I think is 5B or 5 if no alphabet. I have always thought it would be better to buy iris(for example) from someone in central MO, than from OR. Agree or no? Thanks for any help! The pic is a new one for this year in my garden. Victoria Falls

Well, we do have some regional gardening forums. Would you be considered Midwest?
http://garden.org/forums/view/...
And you can also scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the Memberlist link there. That will take you to a page where you can search for members in your area.

Here is a member-list search for "Kansas":
http://garden.org/users/member...

If you enter a town or city near you, into your Profile, this Member Map with will show your name and location to other ATP members:

Profile (the head-and-shoulders icon at the top of the blue menu bar on the far left)
Change your public profile
Your location

http://garden.org/users/member...


(click to expand)


If you hover your mouse over a balloon, it will display that member's name. You might have to zoom in or out to see some, or maybe click somewhere else then come back to hover.

near Wichita
topiary
joeswife
CindyKS

The other sneaky thing you can do is to click on those member names and see if they've submitted any multi-plant photos, so you can see what they're growing and get a peek at their gardens.

One of my all time favorite nurseries, Arnold's Greenhouse, is in Kansas. It's somewhat "right of center", near the little town of Le Roy about 30 miles southeast of Emporia, but perhaps close enough?

As for iris in particular, I'd imagine my conditions are fairly similar to yours and I've have never had any issues with irises that were acquired from from growers in Oregon or California. It's possible that where an iris was hybridized might matter, but not so much where you buy it from. For example, Barbara Nicodemus is a hybridizer from Missouri and her irises have always grown exceptionally well for me, but I bought many of them through Joe Ghio in California.

I live in MO and have purchased iris from all over and they have did fine for me.
Daylilies are another matter, many southern dl are evergreens and do not do as well for me as the semi or dormants.
I may be wrong, but I don't think hostas will matter which part of the country they are from.

http://rockytopgardens.com/bar...

This place is only an hour? from me I think.
This website looks like it hasn't been updated since 2010?

well scratch that, it is updated for 2014.