To Buy Local or Mail Order?

Category: Ramblings | Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 3:40 am

I am too cheap to often buy plants mail order, but last year there were two plants that I felt "I just have to have them!" They were the miniature pampas grass and the double helleborous "peppermint ice".

( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )

I have had wonderful successes with bulbs the last couple of years mail order. I found daffodils that were spectacular to me. Frilly and of colors I had not imagined in daffodils.

Close-up of Sir Winston C. ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )

Rosey Cloud double daffodils ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )

I got both the pampas grass and the hellebore. It has been a bit disappointing with the pampas grass that will take at least another year to mature sufficiently to be placed where I would like it to go. Even then it will not be very big. The hellebore plant is blooming this year, but is still much smaller than other seedling plants I have moved around the yard. I still find it unique and a great addition to the yard. It's just that the pictures had led me to believe it was much more doubled and the color was pinker than it has turned out to be.

Helleborus 'Peppermint Ice' ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )

dwarf pampas grass ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )

Maybe next year it will come into its own. The hellebore was pricey. For the same price I was able to get three much bigger plants this spring at the local nursey for the same price. Not the same variety, but more doubled and the varieties of color were perfect for me.

Helleborus Orientalis "Mardi Gras Double Mix" ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )

I realize that there is a lot in a name and I was buying the name, but last year I had a hard time finding doubled hellebores. This year...bingo...there are lots of choices. Of course nothing beats the little old seedlings that turn into nice sized plants with a little time and free of charge.

Seedling helleborus transplanted last year ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )

helleborus seedlings transplanted the year before last ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )

I am sure I will have another weak moment and buy plants online or from a catalogue, but I am beginning to believe local is better. Still learning after 40 years of puttering in the soil. Still changing my mind seasonally.

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Comments

Netty wrote on Wed Mar 16, 2011 12:37 pm:

I like mail order for those new varieties I just 'have to have'.
I have found that mail order plants took longer to get established and if I had waited one more year I could have bought larger potted plants at the local nursery. You have some wonderful plants there - I love your Mardi Gras Double mix Hellebores!

Annette wrote on Thu Mar 17, 2011 2:15 pm:

love your hellebores.....that's one i will definitely have to look into.....i sometimes do mail order (they often have things i can't find at the local level) and have had pretty good luck with most....i also browse the local nurseries.....have a farmers market about 3 blocks from home..makes it easy..

marlingardener wrote on Thu Mar 17, 2011 6:33 pm:

I prefer to buy locally, too. So many plants grown in the north just can't survive Texas' climate. However, if you wave a rose picture under my nose, I'll order it from Siberia if I must!
Your hellebores are beautiful. Since we don't have them here, I'll just enjoy your photos!

daisybeans wrote on Mon Mar 21, 2011 11:12 am:

Last year I bought blueberries locally and by mail order from a nursery in the region.... Paid more for the local one, but it seemed much hardier through the summer... This year, I'd like to add a blackberry or two and I think I will look locally. On the other hand, I bought a special rhododendren by mail order and it was (and is) beautiful... so I guess it depends on the source too...

The photos with this entry are stunning, as usual Jewell. I always like to read your posts!