Check on Aquabid.com. There is a plant seller on there with the username Lowcoaster who is from Bayside NY. His plants are fantastic and shipped very fast.

Lance

If you buy mail order make sure they guarentee live plants on arrival and/or use insulated packaging, like the styro-foam containers fish are shipped in. The containers might not keep the internal temp. warm, but should prevent the plants from freezing. I have shipped plants by priority mail and they usually get there in 2-4 days. I would charge a little more for shipping because of the extra weight and packaging. Check the sellers shipping schedule or if they don't have a particular schedule order on a Sunday night so they are shipped Monday. This way there will be a better chance of them arriving durring the week. This way they don't sit at your local post office or delivery place over the weekend. I lived in the mountains of northern NJ and forgot plants in a bucket overnight in the garage. They froze for 2-3 days, even the worst effected ones recovered after a few weeks in the aquarium. Some didn't even show much of a problem except for maybe loosing some leaves. Some plants are hardier then others so that's not always the case. Some plants go dormant like lilies and apongentons and are not affected at all. You could also buy bulbs for some of these plants shipped in their dormant stage.

thanks for the advice & input you all!
Sherry

I'd also recommend Plants Aquarium. There's no minimum to buy like most online shops.

Sherry, what part of Maine is cold cold? I have family in Bangor, Topsham, and Portland. We love it all and want to move there someday. Are there good LFS's up there?

-Andy

Pequafrog, when I wrote the original post, it was indeed, 'cold cold' -some days 25 below. Part of a gift from Cananda, I think :0)

I have only lived here 5 years, so not an expert on coldest part of state--- I have friends in the northern counties, and the snow fall is much higher & temps much colder generally speaking. There are 2 or 3 growing zones here, zones 4, 5a and 5b.
I live about 25 miles south of Bangor.

The only local fish store I know about (aside from the one in next town, and I think it is a family owned has 2 or 3 in the state, and not just fish, but other stuff & animals) is Vance's Tropical Fish Store, in my town. He only does fish, corals. He also does custom building of aquarium furniture & stuff. His store is small, but very interesting to look at, he's got saltwater set ups corals, freshwater, etc. He is a font of knowledge.

Portland is down south of us and more populated area. It's a few hours away, dont know much about that area.
Sherry