An Aggravating Problem For Smart Gardeners Interested In Low Maintenance Gardening
I run into this problem whenever I go anywhere that sells garden plants. They have tons of veggie plants and annuals and tons of stuff they call "perennials" which are ONLY HARDY IN THE NEAR-TROPICAL AREAS OF THE US.
Perennials which are truly hardy in my zone (zone 5 according to the old reckoning) are:
1) hard to find,
2) there's not much variety,
3) they don't bother to buy very many of them each summer nor do they reorder.
I actually found a single Leopard's Bane plant (Leonardo Compact) for sale at Lowe's this year (looks like a low growing yellow daisy).
ONE.
And there are lots of different cultivars and species of this plant available. If you do your homework and choose carefully, you could have all different sorts of Leopard's Bane plants blooming for you from the first of spring through most of the summer and it's supposed to grow easily from seeds. (I finally broke down and bought some from Geoseeds. They're planted now so I'll soon see if they are easy to grow from seeds or not.)
Want to know the something funny about this plant?
Leopard's Bane isn't a new plant. I have an OLD gardening book (pre-WW2) that talks about the "classic" combination of Leopard's Bane and spring bulbs!
Makes me wonder what else is out there that's easy to grow, hardy, and isn't particular about its soil.
I found the website of a wholesaler's nursery the other day (hazzardsgreenhouse.com) and was amazed at all the perennial plants/seeds they had for sale that were rated hardy for zones 5 and under. Most of them I'd never heard of before!
---------------------------------------------------------
Do any of you know of any other on-line nurseries that carry hardy perennials or their seeds?
It would be nice to make a list of these places.
I'd also like to make a list of hardy perennials that are rated for zone 5 and lower.
(Surely that would be of help to someone around here.)
Perennials which are truly hardy in my zone (zone 5 according to the old reckoning) are:
1) hard to find,
2) there's not much variety,
3) they don't bother to buy very many of them each summer nor do they reorder.
I actually found a single Leopard's Bane plant (Leonardo Compact) for sale at Lowe's this year (looks like a low growing yellow daisy).
ONE.
And there are lots of different cultivars and species of this plant available. If you do your homework and choose carefully, you could have all different sorts of Leopard's Bane plants blooming for you from the first of spring through most of the summer and it's supposed to grow easily from seeds. (I finally broke down and bought some from Geoseeds. They're planted now so I'll soon see if they are easy to grow from seeds or not.)
Want to know the something funny about this plant?
Leopard's Bane isn't a new plant. I have an OLD gardening book (pre-WW2) that talks about the "classic" combination of Leopard's Bane and spring bulbs!
Makes me wonder what else is out there that's easy to grow, hardy, and isn't particular about its soil.
I found the website of a wholesaler's nursery the other day (hazzardsgreenhouse.com) and was amazed at all the perennial plants/seeds they had for sale that were rated hardy for zones 5 and under. Most of them I'd never heard of before!
---------------------------------------------------------
Do any of you know of any other on-line nurseries that carry hardy perennials or their seeds?
It would be nice to make a list of these places.
I'd also like to make a list of hardy perennials that are rated for zone 5 and lower.
(Surely that would be of help to someone around here.)