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Bluestone Perennials Catalog

Bluestone Perennials offers some of the most unique perennials around. Not only do they have a wonderful and unique selection but they also have some great prices. Their catalog is simply amazing! Of course one of the most important aspects of any online nursery is their quality. Bluestone does not disappoint in this department. I have yet to loose a single plant from them because they send non dormant quality plants that will rival any local nursery. That being said, their stuff does need a little time to mature. Like many online nurseries, their plants are young to save on shipping but not so young that they won’t make an immidiate impact. I would say that most of the perennials I have ordered have taken just a few months to look great depending on the species. One of the most impressive things about them is the shipping quality. Everything is carefully packed and has always arrived in tip top condition. I should mention that their selection is strictly perennials, so you won’t find bushes, shrubs or trees. For those, I would recommend Michigan Bulb and Direct Gardening.

In conclusion, if you are looking for trully unique perennials for any zone, then I highly recommend Bluestone. This is one online nursery that really offers quality and unique plants. You can visit them at Bluestoneperennials.com and either place an order or request a catalog. You won’t be disappointed!

Fall Bulbs

Fall is fast approaching so it’s time to get ready for the fall planting season. Fall planting season means bulbs for many of us but if you are like many gardeners in zone 7, your bulb plantings can be hit or miss. There are many factors why zone 7 can be a tricky area for fall planting. First, there are the eratic weather patterns. Unlike lower zones where it gets cold fast and stays cold, zone 7 can have some pretty wild temperature swings as late as december. When I first moved here from South Florida, I was expecting some relatively cold winters. Much to my surprise, my first December here turned out to be quite mild with temperatures in the upper 50s and 60s. Call it global warming if you want but this area can pose a challange when timing your fall plantings. This of course caused may bulbs in the area to poke out sooner rather than later. It has been pretty much the same every other year I have been here. Another challange can be those pesky voles, that’s right, not moles but voles. You see moles, for the most part, don’t eat vegitation. They are pretty strict insectivores and wormivores so your bulbs are pretty safe from them. Voles on the other had, love to munch them. I lost 100% of my bulbs to them the first time I tried my hand at fall bulb planting.

So, how can you have success with bulbs in zone 7? The first, is the timing. The best time to plant bulbs is once the day time temperatures start to stay in the 40s. This can be as late as December. So don’t automatically start planting as soon as the calendar says it’s fall because chances are it will probably be too warm. It’s ok to buy your bulbs early, in fact, many online nurseries offer great deals to early bulb buyers. Just check out this great selection at Blooming Bulb .

As I mentioned earlier, the second challenge can be pests. So how do you keep them safe? One of the common suggestions is to use large collanders as a protective cage for your bulbs. Simply fill your collander with soil, place your bulbs inside the collader then bury the collander along with your bulbs. One of the reasons, I don’t like this is because collanders are expensive! Imagine if you were planting 100 bulbs! So a better sollution is to use bulb baskets which at $2 a piece are much more economical (you can find them here). Of course, you can always use your imagination to come up with cheaper sollutions. Whatever you choose, simply placing your bulbs in a cage like contraption should keep them safe from pests. They can also be quite convinient when it comes time to dig them up and divide them.

So that’s it, just follow these 2 simple recommendations and you will increase your chances of actually getting flowers from your fall plantings!

Lime Green Heuchera

Of course everyone loves flowers to add color to their garden but lets face it, flowers don’t last very long. You may have a great looking garden for a few weeks but what happens when the blooms fade? Are you left with a dreary looking garden? If so, the I have the perfect suggestion for you! Add that much needed splash of color with season long foliage with Heucheras also known as coral bells. Why Heucheras you ask? Simple, because they come in a variety of dazzling colors including peach, lime green, purple, green and more! Some are even multicolored! Even better, they grow fast , are extremely easy to care for and can be had relatively cheaply.

Growing Heucharas is extremely easy, just put them in well draining rich garden soil in a partial shade (no more than half day) to a full shaded spot and they will produce lots of colorful foliage for you the entire growing season.  They are somewhat drought tolerant but should be watered regularly for the best foliage. They don’t really need a lot of fertilizer to do well either, some good old fashion cow manure around the base will do them just fine. They are also extremely hardy being partial evergreens and surviving in zones 3-9. Unlike some other foliage plants, Heucheras are completely non invasive and have nice round mounding growing habit.  As they mature depending on the variety, they will form a nice mound up to 2′-3′ wide and up to 2′ tall.

Heucheras are relatively easy to find but the more exotic and colorful varieties can only be found online and at high end nurseries. If you have never tried them, I highly recommend them because they look absolutely great! I personally have several of the lime green and red/green varieties and absolutely love them. Some of the most attractive plants in my shade garden!

Hardiness Zones: 3-9
Sun exposure: Part shade, full shade
Height: 24″-36″
Width: 24″
Bloom time: Spring
Bloom Color: White, grown for colorful foliage
Watering: Average
Soil: Well draining, rich soil
Availability: Direct Gardening

Do you have Glads that have taken a dive to the ground after rains? Well, you’re not alone. I planted some glads last  spring, it was the first time I had ever planted them. I got a nice mixed bag of 65 from BloomingBulb.com for a very good price and all was well while the foliage was growing. Then the stalks came out and  started giving  some beautiful flowers but after some heavy rains , the glads were looking very sad.  Not because the rain did anything to them but because  some of them flopped over to ground.  It didn’t kill them or anything but it was a shame to have such nice flowers laying on the ground where you couldn’t see them. I tried straightening them out but to no avail. As soon as we got some more rains, they took another dive.

The problem-they were planted too shallow. I didn’t realize they would grow so tall.  Some of them are close to 5′ full of blooms! This of course is way too heavy for the bulb. It seems that the bulbs do not grow many roots or at least not deep roots, so they have very little stability.

The solution- quite simple, they just need to be planted deeper.  Most instructions call for 6″. This would probably be fine if they are planted in heavier soils but but if you add ammendments as I did, the soil becomes lighter and it just won’t hold the bulb with such top heavy growth.  Now don’t run out and dig them up in the middle of the summer, it’s probably best to leave them alone. Either stake them or cut the flower stalks off to make some nice arrangements and straighten the remaining foliage.   The permanent solution is to add more soil once the foliage dies in the fall. Another 2″ or so should do.  You could also dig them up and plant them deeper or dig them up, store them over winter and replant them deeper in the spring.  If you are in zone 7 where they are marginal, you definitely don’t want to leave them like that because an unusual cold spell could do them in.  If you can’t add more soil for whatever reason, at least put a heavy layer of mulch then plant deeper in the spring. In either case,  following any of the above should give you some nice upright glads the following year.

Want to add more glads to your garden? Check out BloomingBulb.com for the best online glad selection.

There are many reasons to buy plants online. For one, you can find a much wider variety online than you ever will at even the best nurseries. Another great reason is that you can save a ton of money! Sometimes as much as 90%+. That being said, there are a few things that you should consider before you take the online nursery plunge.

Patience is Key

If you are the type that has to have a full grown plant or tree the moment you put it in the ground and don’t mind paying through the nose, then online plants are not for you. The vast majority of online nurseries stock young and small plants, trees and shrubs. That’s why they offer such great prices. This is not to say , however, that it will take forever for your online plants to get to a nice size. Most of the plants I have planted have taken 1 year or less to get to a nice size. In many cases, I have had online plants grow incredibly fast and look just as nice in 1 year as any plant offered at my local nurseries. Trees of course will take time regardless of how fast they grow. That being said, it won’t make much of a difference if the tree starts out at 3′ or 6′ if it grows 1′ a year. 10 years from the time you plant it, the 3′ tree will be 13′ while the 6′ will be 16′, hardly a difference at all other than the 3′ tree cost you 90% less than the 6′ tree. In any case, if you have the patience and like saving money, then online plant nurseries are for you.

Timing is Everything

One of the drawbacks of online plant buying is that you have to buy at the right time. Too early in the spring and you get that unexpected frost that kills your new plantings. Too early in the fall, it gets a little warm and your dormant online trees break dormancy. Order when it’s too hot and your plants will expire in transit. So it’s important to buy your plants at the right time. Late spring and early summer are great. I have also had great success with planting things throught the summer. It really just depends on what type of plants, trees or shrubs you are getting. I have had the best luck planting trees and shrubs in late spring early summer. I have also had luck planting them in late fall/early winter here in zone 7. Worst luck has been planting in early fall. With perennial type plants, I have had the best luck planting late spring and early to mid summer. I have found that perennials need some time to establish before it gets too cold. Bulbs are a different story because you have summer bulbs and spring bulbs. Those are pretty straight forward when it comes time to buy. My suggestion is to consider your local weather first and foremost. Don’t expect online nurseries to be weather forecasters because it is impossible for them to time things pefectly.

Pick the Right Plant

One of the easiest ways to have success with online plants is to pick the right plants. By this I mean, choose species that are not extremely finicky. If they are hard to grow, they will be even harder to grow when you introduce the stresses of shipping. Also pick plant species that are generally vigorous. Don’t buy an oak tree that takes 50 years to grow to maturity and expect it to do much in a short period of time.

Don’t give them up for dead

One of the biggest complaints I have read is that people are dissapointed to receive dormant plants, trees or shrubs. They receive a “stick” in the mail and they assume it’s dead. When buying plants online, you should be aware that many online nurseries sell “dormant” trees/shrubs/plants. This means that they are artificially kept in a dormant state by keeping them in freezers until they arrive at your door and are planted. Once you plant them, they can take anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks to get going. If you are not sure, give them the scratch test (for woody plants) by scratching a little bit of bark off with your fingernail. If it is green or white underneath the bark, your plant is probably still alive. Last year, I ordered some hydrangeas and rose of sharons from Directgardening.com. They arrived as “sticks”. Some of them started growing leaves almost immediately other take a couple of weeks. This year, you would never know it because they are full plants that look like they have been there for years. The moral of the story is, realize that you are getting “dormant” plants so don’t assume they are dead.

Know What You Are Getting

All online nurseries offer wonderful pictures of the stuff they sell. While they are great representations of what you plants may look like in the future, they will NOT look like that when you get them. Most of them sell dormant bare root plants, trees and shrubs. If you don’t know what that means, it usually means that you will either get “sticks” if getting tress and/or shrubs and roots with little to no top growth if you are getting perennials. This doesn’t mean they won’t grow or won’t grow fast. It’s simply the best way to ship and store them. That’s why you get great prices. You may feel mislead by the pictures but if you think about it, would you buy plants from them if they showed you pictures of sticks and roots? After all, everything would look the same and how would you know what your plants will look like?
Don’t Go Overboard

Another common thing that I always see are comments like “I ordered $350 worth of plants and they all died…”. I find this both funny and amazing because as cheap as they are, ordering $350 worth of plants can literally mean hundreds of plants. Do you have time to plant that many in a few days? I know I don’t. If I bought that many, 75% of them would be dead before I got around to planting them. Instead, place small orders. I have found that $50 worth of plants is still alot of plants.

Well, that’s all I have for now. Hopefully, this will help you with your online plant ordering. If you have never tried it, I highly recommend it because you can get great plants at great prices. It can also be very rewarding watching that “stick” or “root” grow to be a full sized plants. If you don’t know where to order from, here are some of my favorites that I have had great success with: Directgardening.com, Michiganbulb.com, Bloomingbulb.com, bluestoneperennials.com and Worldplants.com.