MAIL ORDER PLANTS REVIEW: GARDEN CROSSINGS & CLASSIC VIBURNUMS

Oh my, there is so much going on in the garden and I'm not sharing any of it! Bad blogger! Soon, I promise.

We had the most amazing weather for Memorial Day weekend and I spent plenty of time in the garden. It was lovely. But, once again, I was so busy gardening that I didn't take any photos. So today I'm going to wrap up my mail order nursery series for the year with a bang.

If you recall, my friend Linda at Each Little World starting posting about her experiences with mail order plants this year and I liked it so much, I decided to do it too.

I ordered several small shrubs from Garden Crossings in Zeeland, Michigan. It's obviously not my preference to order shrubs online, but I was dead set that I wanted Hydrangea serrata 'Tiny Tuff Stuff'  in the patio garden where I cleaned out a bunch of stuff last year and although I was finding plenty of 'Tuff Stuff' (which grows to about twice the size of 'Tiny Tuff Stuff'), I saw no 'Tiny Tuff Stuff' anywhere. And as long as I was ordering (I can't tell you how many "as long as I was ordering" plants I have), I threw in some white impatiens that Garden Crossings' website raved about.

A neat stack of boxes was waiting for me. Four hydrangeas came in the big box, plus the fifth in the tall skinny box. The impatiens were in the square box.

I ordered from all kinds of nurseries this spring, both small and large, with specific focuses and some general focused-nurseries. My guess is that Garden Crossings was the largest nursery I ordered from. When my ordered arrived it was clear to me that they have a very specific system in place for shipping. A neat stack of boxes were waiting on the front porch for me.

Impatiens were all neatly tucked in their own compartments.

The five hydrangeas were in tall boxes with dividers holding each plant in place. The impatiens were in a similar but smaller divided box.

Each hydrangea had its own box so all of the foliage was in perfect shape.

The real genius of Garden Crossings' packing is in the paper. Every plant has a tight band of kraft paper that holds the foliage up in a column so it never gets crushed.

Every plant, regardless of size, was wrapped in kraft paper, keeping the foliage protected and making it easy to pull them out of their compartment.

Healthy looking Infinity white impatiens.

When I took the hydrangeas out of the paper, I couldn't believe what I saw. They are basically fully grown plants (or very close) that were in full flower. I left the flowers because I have a heart and lack that hardened gardener ability to trim off a flower even if it's better for a plant. Everything was extremely healthy, although I stupidly didn't figure out that the hydrangeas were obviously greenhouse grown and I put them out right away without any hardening off. The results is that I now have five purple-leafed hydrangeas, all of them having been sunburned. The plants will be fine, I have no doubt, they will just be a little odd looking for a time.

I ordered during a shrub sale, so that helped bring the costs down, although I don't feel like Garden Crossings charged any more than I would have paid locally for hydrangeas of this quality and size. Shipping was only $30, which I think was great, and proves that buying more can help you maximize your shipping dollar. I wouldn't hesitate to order from Garden Crossings again.

Because I feel like this series is perhaps getting a bit tedious, I'm just going to quickly tack on a note about the final nursery I ordered from this year: Classic Viburnums. I continue to be irritated with the lack of selection of interesting plants available even at the better nurseries near us and I was searching for a specific viburnum: Plicatum f. tomentosum 'Shoshoni'.  This is sort of a dwarf version of 'Mariesii,' which is quickly becoming a favorite in my yard.

Classic Viburnums is pretty much the exact opposite of Garden Crossings. It's essentially a couple running a very specific nursery. There is a website with a lot of cultivar information, but you can't order on it, nor can you find out what they have in stock. You have to call or email, which is what I did and received a quick reply. By the next day I was on the phone with Gary learning that not only did they have a nice 'Shoshoni', but I was also getting advice on an additional virburnum I should get to maximize the shipping cost. With Gary's help I chose Plicatum 'Magic Puff'.

The two shrubs in gallon pots with lots of nice, healthy and well-shaped growth, came in one large box, each strapped in by a nylon strap and in perfect shape. Gary had told me that after I get the shrubs and everything looked good I should mail them a check for the amount on the invoice they sent. Yes, that's right, mail them a check. Which I did, along with a note letting them know how thrilled I was with everything. I'm chalking it up as my single best mail order plant buying experience of the year and I'm certain I'll be back for more.

So that's it. The shopping is finished (except for what I need to buy for the container at work). All that's left now is to get it all in the ground and to get the garden in full-on shape for the summer. And to give my bank account a chance to rest a little.

Here are the other mail order plant reviews I did:
Digging Dog Nursery
Arrowhead Alpines
Joy Creek Nursery

And here are Linda's:
Odyssey Perennials
Far Reaches Farm
Rare Find Nursery / Old House Gardens
Plant Delights Nursery
Arrowhead Alpines


Are you still buying plants or are you mostly finished for the year?

MAIL ORDER PLANTS REVIEW: JOY CREEK NURSERY

Another mail order nursery review today but before we get to that, I wanted to share a couple photos of the serviceberry tree in bloom. the flowers are really only at peak for a day or two max so I take a photo of it every year. It's rather amazing to me that this tree was a gift from my mother-in-law the second year we had our house, which I think would make it 13 years ago.

The featured nursery today is Joy Creek Nursery, which was another place I'd not ordered from before. They are a small operation, which is the kind of place I prefer to order from when I'm looking for specialty plants like clematis. I've had great success with Silver Star Vinery in the past, but I got there too late this year and the plants I was interested in were sold out.

Joy Creek is apparently so small that they don't have a deal with the big shipping companies, so they charge you actual shipping plus a $4 handling and packing fee. They clearly stated this on their website and I emailed them ahead of time for an estimate for shipping which was close to right on. In the end, shipping was $33 plus the handling fee, so about the same as the cost of the plants.

The packing material on this one was newspapers and other recyclable material including a church bulletin. I love this kind of packing because it's such an insight into where your plants come from. It's a bit of a pain to recycle when it's all crumpled up but that is really picking a nit.

I ordered two clematis that came in gallon-sized pots and as I've come to learn about clematis, the most important thing is an abundance of telltale yellow roots coming out of the bottom of the pots, which these certainly had. In fact, when you get a small clematis, you are really supposed to put it in a container and grow it out there for a year or so until those roots come jumping out.

I was thrilled with the plants: 'Prince Charles' and 'Vinosa Violacea.' Both have been planted and are looking good.

MAIL ORDER PLANTS REVIEW: DIGGING DOG NURSERY

My friend Linda over at Each Little World has been doing an excellent series on mail order plant purchases this spring and it inspired me to do the same.

My first mail order plants arrived last week Friday from Digging Dog nursery. I don't think I've ordered from them in the past, but they have excellent reviews on Garden Watchdog, which I routinely consult before buying from a nursery for the first time.

When I opened the box and saw that the plants were packed in shredded paper I immediately do what I do with all such boxes: took the whole enchilada over to the compost pile. I just open these boxes on top of the pile so the shredded paper goes immediately into its final resting place.

All of the plants were nicely nestled in the paper, plastic bags around the pots to help keep them moist. My invoice and the planting information was right on top of the box so no digging was needed. Each bag of plants (not necessarily each plant) had a great plastic printed label, which I really appreciate so I don't have to make a plant label right away.

Before I go on, I should add that I had placed my order online but one of the items I wanted wasn't going to be available for another month so I opted to cancel it. Then I ended up added a clematis and the very nice folks there called me to confirm they had gotten the addition and all was well. A-plus for customer service on that one.

I'll admit that the size of the plants was somewhat underwhelming, but I think it's fairly typical for what you can expect from mail order nursery. All are extremely healthy with oodles of roots in those little pots. So many roots, in fact, that I need to get them in the ground or potted into something bigger ASAP.

If there's any disappointment, it's with Clematis viticella 'Alba Luxurians' ($17.50). It's really tiny and I'm not loving that because there are clematis nurseries that send huge plants these days. On the other hand, Digging Dog clearly explains their sizing on their website so it's not like I didn't know it was going to be a little smaller than other clematises that I've ordered and they were one of the few nurseries that actually had it in stock.

I also ordered Hakonechloa macra 'Nicolas' ($8.50 each) and Sanguisorba officinalis 'Red Thunder' ($7.75 each). My main frustration is that when I ordered that Hakonechloa I'm positive I had a specific place in mind for it and now I can't remember where that was.

Check out Linda's mail order reviews of Plant Delights Nursery, Odyssey Perennials and Far Reaches Farm. I'm enjoying this series so much that I can't wait to see what Linda gets next!