Recent Reviews in the Green Pages

I bought three muscadine vines from Ison's in September 2019. Two Sugargates and one Noble. They arrived very well packaged and healthy and are growing nicely. Their website also includes *lots* of growing information. I highly recommend them as a fruit vine/tree vendor!

What can I say? It's Baker Creek!

A large, varied assortment of open-pollinated, many heirloom plant seeds. I'm primarily a vegetable gardener and they have a vast assortment to choose from. The order process is painless and shipping is...FREE!!!! And usually they throw in a free packet of seeds! As far as I know, they only sell home-garden size seed packets so order enough to make it worthwhile for them! Also, occasionally they have "charity" sales where they contribute the proceeds of sales, for say a weekend, to a specific charity. The most recent sale of this type was to help India during their recent skyrocketing COVID-19 wildfire. Baker Creek is not only rareseeds.com but also a rare company that has a big heart!!! AAA+++

I have placed two orders over the last couple of years. Both orders went smoothly and arrived promply. I've had good germination results from the seeds that I've purchased from them. I just planted some Contender beans that I purchased two years ago and have gotten an excellent stand of beans from them. They have several options for seed amounts to purchase, from home garden amounts to commercial grower quantities. The prices are good.

Santa Rosa sent me wonderful boxes of perennials at least once a year for many years, most recently June of 2020. Their website was nearly bare of plants at the end of December, and I got worried. Now their website has changed to offer plant boxes (special gifts and subscriptions), so I emailed them to see what was going on. I just got this reply:

"Santa Rosa Gardens has enjoyed providing plants to homeowners all over the US via our online nursery, but we have made the decision to no longer offer mail-order perennials. We will be focused exclusively on growing houseplants, succulents, and specialty plants for our family of subscription plant boxes: My Garden Box, The Plant Club, and Succulents Monthly. We hope to continue sharing our love of plants with our Santa Rosa Gardens family through our plant subscription boxes. We wish you success with another potted plant provider and a wonderful upcoming growing season."

I will sure miss their big boxes of perennials! I'm sure their new boxes are expertly packed and contain the quality of plants we're used to seeing from them. The quick response to my inquiry suggests that their great customer service continues. Wishing them all the best in their new direction!

Just got lily bulbs I ordered a week ago and I have never seen or held bulbs this size and density. The largest weighs about as much a a pool ball, slightly larger than a tennis ball! Very well packaged and a very nice selection for great prices on their website. Communication via email was quite prompt.

I would easily buy again if I had the space for more bulbs right now!

I received my first order from New Hampshire Hostas, 11 hostas and 1 epimedium. Packaging was well done. Wet rolled newspaper held in place with rubberbands held the soil in place and layers of newpaper protected the plants. The plants were as big as hostas being offered locally, even better. I ordered two plug sizes. One was upgraded to the next size. The other plug came wrapped in newspaper and plastic. It was well rooted and a good starting size.

I will definitely order again.

I am a new gardener and placed my first order with Victory Seeds last week. People are very friendly and took time to communicate about the information I was asking for. Since I live in Oregon the shipment arrived in just one business day. The seeds were packaged neatly with a warm note. Each packet has detailed information. Will definitely order from Victory Seeds in the future.

I've ordered Ginny Pearce's daylily intros and they were very nice double fans and I also received a bonus. I have four of her daylilies and they all multiply well and have performed well in my zone 6b garden. She responds quickly to emails.

I was looking online to order Boston Marrow Seeds; I didn't save any from my few harvested fruits last year (boo to me)

I ordered Boston Marrow seeds from Victory Seed Company because, well their logo looks like the Victory Motorcycle logo and that caught my eye :D But also glad that they had the Boston Marrow seeds which are an heirloom variety. I placed my order and was astounded when I received it 3 days later!

Seeds were planted on a heat pad and under lights; germination in 3 days!

I have good and bad points to review.

Good: The phlox I ordered from them are HUGE. Seriously, they're more than a foot tall already, with multiple stems. By far the biggest phlox I've gotten from any mail-order company. And packed very carefully. The plants put a big smile on my face and a "wow" on my lips when I unpacked them.

Bad: I only received part of my order, with no notice that it was a partial shipment. In fact, both their website and the email they sent me specifically called the order "fulfilled". I sent them an inquiry on their customer service form on their website, but I received no response and finally had to call them. And now it turns out that they're out of stock on the items I didn't receive.

In sum: The plants are very large and very healthy, but their customer service appears to be a mess.

Huge bulbs, immaculately packed and first year growing had 5+ foot tall plants from many of the larger varieties. Very happy with multiple purchases

My first time ordering from Bluestone Perennials, thanks to their fabulous generosity and the gift certificates they provide for the photo contest. So, after scoring a fantastic gift certificate after my finish last year, I set off to their website to make selections. There are so many to choose from, it was a hard pick.

The packaging of the plants are top notch. All of my selections arrived intact, sturdy and well cared for. Even after some mishandling by the shipper. Everything is biodegradable too, from the box, to the pots the plants are planted. Awesome!!!

I can say, this probably will not be my last order.

Here are a couple shots of the packaging and the plants.

Bought seeds for a hard to find dwarf tomato variety, they arrived lightning fast and generous quantity of seeds.

When the book J.D. Vertrees wrote about Japanese Maples was first published in 1978 its readers, even passionate and highly experienced gardeners, must have wondered how in the world they could ever acquire some of these trees. In Oklahoma City in those days the only varieties available commercially were 'Bloodgood', 'Crimson Queen' and a green leafed version with various names.
In the years since, however, Japanese Maples have not only gone mainstream… they have become sought after collectibles… and the focal point of many fine gardens.
Robert Jamgochian, and Mendocino Maples, has been instrumental in making this possible. For over 25 years Robert has been grafting thousands of exotic maple trees until, presently, Mendocino Maples currently offers 45 maple species… from which there are more than 250 varieties to choose from.
I ordered two Acer palmatum varieties from Mendocino this spring. 'Kasagiyama' is an upright, bush form of red-leafed maple with unique foliage color. 'Sharp's Pygmy' is, perhaps, the smallest dwarf form… seldom exceeding three feet in height. I received the 'Sharp's Pygmy' the other day and want you to see the quality of the plant that came in the mail [18 inches tall in a one gallon can]:

Mendocino Maples also has available a terrific selection of other maples: Trident Maple [Acer buergerianum], David's Maple [Acer davidii], Lacebark Maple [Acer griseum] and Shantung Maple [Acer truncatum] are four outstanding possibilities.
One last selection that deserves mentioning is a small maple I haven't seen since I visited Heronswood Nursery in the early 1990's. Acer pseudoplatanus 'Puget Pink' [Sycamore Maple] has a shrimp pink leaf emergence in the spring that is outstanding!
Mendocino Maples is a very highly recommended source for maple trees.

Sow True is local to me and they are a great company with a mission to support food security. I love everything they do. Wonderful variety of organic open pollinated seeds.

The deeper endeavor of gardening must be so much more than picking up anonymous packets of seeds from the chain company grocery or hardware store. No offense to these generic companies, but the work of growers today must be linked to an understanding of place, human--plant exchange, and history; the folks at Victory Seeds seem to understand this. I appreciate the notes and research that they are aiming to make available about each individual plant variety. For logistics of getting seeds by mail, I agree with so many previous comments: I appreciate the clear communication, affordable prices, and surprising promptness during an extra strained time. Thanks for all the hard work!

To the best of my knowledge all of the artists in this book live and work in the Pacific Northwest. It seems logical that a good many gardeners in that area are familiar with at least some of these artists. The rest of us can only hope there are artists close to our homes who are as accomplished as the 12 portrayed in this book.
One of the artist/gardeners, Ginny Ruffner, summed these artists up beautifully when she said, "I believe in the continuity and intrigue of all things... that comes from my art and extends to the garden."
A ceramicist creates garden rooms in which her large vases share the stage with beautiful plant groupings... a sculptor whose wood and stone art is lovingly displayed in a garden in Vancouver, WA that contains 3,200 varieties of plants... an artist in metal sculpting who created a garden that would have, "a natural setting that can come halfway to meet his sculpture"... two gardeners on Bainbridge Island who seem dedicated to creating a completely believable and extravagantly beautiful garden fantasy... a plant explorer who travels the globe; determined to offer customers plants they could not possible find anywhere else... 12 artists whose gardens are as much works of art as their primary forms of artwork.
If my words don't motivate you to look at this book perhaps these images from the Little and Lewis gardens will:











The large Gunnera leaves in photos 1&2, the Elephant Ear leaves in photo 3 and the palm-like leaves in photo 4 are examples of the concrete artistry performed by Lewis and Little.
The perfectly shaped "tree" in photo 5 deserves an explanation. I'll let Little and Lewis do it.
They describe it as follows... "The "rain tree" is an ingeniously crafted fountain in which water seeps through a crown of baby's tears and hart's tongue fern."

I've been slow to pick up on buying plants on-line [1] because the nurseries here are good to very good about carrying a broad choice of plants and [2] because I usually balk at the thought of paying fifteen to twenty-five dollars for a plant in a 3 inch square / 5 inch deep pot.
This winter, however, our record cold weather prompted more internet surfing than usual and I ended up buying ferns from Fancy Fronds. While Judith Jones and I were talking she strongly recommended I look at the Sebright Gardens website. Taking her seriously, I did.
Sebright has an attractive, easy to navigate website and an excellent selection of 3 ornamental perennials. The selection is both fascinating and a little intimidating.
Sebright offers approximately 500 varieties of hostas... 150 varieties of hardy ferns... and 100 varieties of Epimediums. They ship bare root plants and their prices appear to be very fair. Best of all, their selection of hostas is inspiring. I ordered 5 hostas and 1 fern... but if the budget permitted I could have ordered about 2 dozen more. Here are four good reasons to visit Sebright:


Hosta 'Ben Vernooj'


Hosta 'Brother Stefan'


Hosta 'Magic Island'


'Sunset' Fern [Dryopteris lepidipoda]

Do any of you recall, back in the 1990's, a 10 volume series of paperback books titled "Taylor's Guide to..........."? One of the volumes was "Taylor's Guide to Specialty Nurseries" and I was lucky enough to take it with me when I visited Seattle and Vancouver.
It is, pretty obviously, 2021 and 28 years have passed since I used that book to find outstanding Pacific Northwest nurseries... and some of those nurseries no longer exist.
One that was listed and is still in business is Fancy Fronds Nursery, owned and managed by Judith Jones.
Her website is well worth exploring... her inventory of ferns is very diversified and fascinating... and they are well worth growing in your garden.
If you've never grown ferns before I will strongly recommend:
Autumn Fern [Dryopteris erythrosora]
Ghost Fern [Athyrium 'Ghost']
Japanese Painted Fern [Anisocampium niponicum]
Sensitive Fern [Onoclea sensibilis]
Tokyo Wood Fern [Dryopteris tokyoensis]
Parsley Fern [Dryopteris filix-mas 'Parsley']

Great organization, with fast delivery even in winter of 2021 all the way across the country. Excellent selections of heirloom veges.