That's a beauty, Susan! Which one is it?

Aromatic Aster Oblongifolius. Here is good pic.

http://www.anniesannuals.com/p...

Very pretty! I have TN Aster and I bought another Aster last year at Lowe's. It was on their .50-$2 half-dead clearance table. I don't remember how much. It looked bad and I thought it was a goner so stuck it back behind the rain barrel over the winter and paid absolutely no attention to it. Just looked at it yesterday and it's looking pretty good this year.

I'll have to go take a gander at the tag to see the name ... once it's daylight.

Sounds good, I hear they are a good butterfly magnet.

Just planted that root in a three gallon pot, not bad for a starter plant.

I'll say.

Got a big box full of lilies yesterday from Berts bulbs @ mamajacks
Tiny Red Hope-12 bulbs, doing a mass red planting
Tiny snowflake-white-8 bulbs
Casa Blanks-white -4 bulbs
Tom Pounce-pink/yellow--8 bulbs
Tiger lilies-splendens orange 4 bulbs
Tiger lilies-red,red 4 bulbs
Trumpet lilies-golden splendour-yellow 3 bulbs
Trumpet lilies-pink perfection 3 bulbs
Lilies species 'black beauty' 6 bulbs

I thought I had ordered one Lavatera from Hirt's Nursery, but it turned out to be eight TINY plants, and I mean tiny almost like tissue culture. They were in square platsic cells, like 1.5" or 2" at most.

The lavatera were hard to spot in the moss, grass and weeds that were thriving in the cells.

So far, not TOO bad since I was able to weed and pot them up several times and nurse tham along and plant them out. Two plants are fine and healthy, but and 6 more were root bound too long in pots while I made spots for them to be planted in (my bad).

However, I was annoyed that I paid for Lavatera thuringiaca 'Barnsley', but seem to have received common 'Rosea'. Oh, well, maybe they reverted when 1/2" tall due to competition with moss, grass and weeds!

But I wish I knew whether I can save "true" seed from it, and whether I should call it 'Rosea' (an OP cultivar, I think) or reverted 'Barnsley'. I read that 'Barnsley' is a "periclinal chimaera", and I am gussing that meaqns its seeds would be like an F1 hybrid: fairly random appearance.

I donlt have enough room to grow several of them out to see. Even though I prune to 6" in winter, my healthy ones sprawl over an 8-10 foot radius by midsummer. Maybe I should prune again just before buds eme4rge?

I did deal with Hirt's on eBay a couple of times. I was annoyed that they had that stupid 'Channel Advisor' which makes you put in all your information every time. You cannot complain about anything, he does not answer email. I will not have anything to do with him ever again. Customer Service comes first, its not an option. He has nine negative comments over the past year. On eBay I save the bad sellers and the good because it lets you take notes. So I can look back and remember who I want to deal with and who I don't want to deal with.
Soooo, what can you do? Nothing, he does not answer email, so what if you have a problem? Too bad that's what.

I know one thing you can do. Let others know about your experience, Leave feedback where ever you can.

My boss has 150,000+ separate transactions, both selling and buying, so I've learned a couple of things about dealing with bad sellers. Obviously, you would want to try working it out with the seller first. But in cases like this one, go all out. Fill out the DSRs, too, when leaving the feedback. Sellers are restricted and/or suspended if they get below eBay's standards. And see if the transaction has eBay's buyer protection. Which means you can file a dispute through eBay and should get your money back, including shipping.

I ordered seeds and was upset about what I had to go through to pay for the item, plus I could not see the total, it redirected me to another website. This 'channel advisor' does not know anything. You have to type in all your information every-time. I hate having to deal with it and would not do business if I just knew ahead of time, but they don't tell you, I tried complaining about it and could not get through, I had question about an item on a different occasion and could not get through. So I was not complaining about the item just general questions and concerns about the service.

You'll love those bulbs from Bert. He's got some of the best stuff! And he's SOOOO very nice.. if a heavy Georgia accent!!

>> And he's SOOOO very nice.. if a heavy Georgia accent!!

I love dealing with Tainong Seeds in California. They answer the phone in some Asian language, and switch over to accented English if you answe in English. I think that's cool

They specialize in Asian varieties for commercial growers, but will sell $2, 2 gram packets to hobbyists also. And no surcharge for small orders, either! Just the $5-6 for Priority shipping.

So I go back there every year, and will neve return to a certain eBay vendor who won't let you delete an item from your basket. It was like "you looked at it, so you bought it, and now I'm going to send you threatening letters for months".

The fact that there was no recourse via eBay that I could find, plus eBay clearly supported and provided the threatening, dunning letters, soured me on eBay even though many individuals who sell that way are great people.

Service is key to any sales business, absolutely. Channel Advisor is an order fulfillment software service chosen by the seller to use with his/her eBay sales. It used to be third party, but I think eBay bought a stake in it. And, yes, it is a BIG pain in the posterior. We used it for a couple of years, but got so many buyer complaints the boss went to something else. If you choose to use eBay again, look toward the bottom of the listing in which you are interested. There should be a tiny logo/line that says "Powered by Channel Advisor" and is generally in the terms section. Then you will know if you want to avoid that seller.

Ok, sure will, if I go back. I really don't do much business there anymore.

Thanks, Debra.

Very happy with my Hosta,s from Blue Stone Perennials.
---Gold Standard

--Great Expectations

Nice Mature Division from Hosta's Direct, end of season got about 18 different hostas for 3.95 a piece. This baby has 6 eyes, when they say mature, they mean it!
--September Sun

You are welcome, Rick.

Hostas!

Very nice!

virginiarose said:Very happy with my Hosta,s from Blue Stone Perennials.

• Hosta 'Gold Standard'
• Uploaded by virginiarose

---Gold Standard

--Great Expectations

Did you get them this year with the new coir pots? How were they?