Hi Mary, good to see you here!
Don't fret about them being set back a year. When we moved from our former home, where we had 10 plants growing, I dug each plant up and put it in a typical plastic grocery bag and brought them out here but we didn't have any area cleared to plant them. They remained in bags. One day my daughter came over for lunch and I asked her if she'd like asparagus with the chicken salad and she did so we went out to pick them...from the plastic bags. Her reaction was funny - "I didn't know they grew in plastic bags". Eventually they got planted but once Jack made the big bed I moved them all and they are still producing 22 years later.
I think they are expensive everywhere and if people realize how much of the pound they discard (hopefully to compost) then they're paying a great deal more per pound.
