Would love to help but send me home email address because people don't always get their mail thru here correctly. You are looking for nurseries in what state(s) in particular? Let me know - Sent me email at lhendri479@aol.com

Niche Gardens is a favorite. When you order on-line you will find that they use excellent packaging and ship in the week YOU get to specify. However, I sometimes browse the catalog, make a list, and go to the nursery in Chapel Hill to buy them directly. The cost of gas driving there is much less than the cost of shipping them and I can see what most plants look like growing in their display gardens, which are fabulous by the way. There are very few places that offer Eastern and Southern native plants but Niche specializes in them. If you go, pick a day when they have the free tour - amazing amount of knowledge is shared by them as they show you through the display gardens.

I've been happy with Terra Ceia Farms for bulbs, corms, tubers, and rhizomes to buy on-line. I've even ordered Narcissus in their "Bulbs by the Bushel" section which was a great savings for landscaping swaths of naturalizing bulbs.

Nancy the nancedar

Here is a link that might be useful: Niche Gardens Catalog

I'm a big fan of all the nursery/catalog places near Raleigh. Sorry to see that Singing Springs has closed down (they had the best Coleus). I also like to drive to Niche or Plant Delights just because they always have something special tucked way in the back that never made it into the catalog.

I also buy a lot of seed from Parks (aren't they in SC?). I tend to get the bulk of my plants locally and use catalogs for seed.

Every year I do at least one driving trip back to Oklahoma to see the folks and I always try to stop in at Reynold's Greenhouses between Nashville and Memphis. They're a lot like Niche here in the triangle but you'll find the freakiest tropicals there and the staff are all plant nuts and a hoot to talk to (the dawg ain't much for conversation while on the road).

Slightly out of the range you mentioned, in that they are both in western NC, but both We-Du Nursery and Sandy Mush Herb Farm have some unusual things - We-Du has a number of natives, and Sandy Mush tends more toward small starts, mostly herbs, but a number of perennials and natives as well. It's worth the drive to Sandy Mush, beyond Asheville about an hour, but the final bit of road needs a car with good traction or 4WD - it's VERY steep and narrow! The owners are very knowledgable. We-Du changed hands a couple of years ago - I've met the new owners at a few plant sales, and been impressed with what they brought, but haven't been to the nursery.

One of my favorites is Wilkerson Mill Gardens in Palmetto, GA (near Atlanta). They have a super selection of hydrangeas, plus collections of trees, shrubs, Viburnums, vines & perennials.

Here is a link that might be useful: Wilkerson Mill Gardens

. . . and another great source for a wide variety of plants is Nurseries Caroliniana in North Augusta, SC.

Here is a link that might be useful: Nurseries Caroliniana

Now that Singing Springs has shut down, what mail order nursery would you suggest for Coleus? Singing Springs had such a great variety, large healthy plants and good prices.

Suggestions?

The two places I shop for Coleus are the Nursery in Sanford that we are forbidden to mention hear on Garden Web (its initials are BB) and the guy out at the Raleigh Farmer's Market that has plugs from Glasshouse Works (I think thats the name of the big coleus greenhouse. Anyway they are the biggest collection of coleus and they produce their own varieties also. They have a website and a retail catalog. They are not based in NC. Evidentally this guy buys them wholesale and sells the larger plants and the tiny plugs).

I believe that the lady who runs Singing Springs decided to get out of the retail business, but is still breeding Coleus and selling to the wholesale market. If so, hopefully, someone else may offer these gorgeous coleus in the Triangle. She was a big supporter of the JC Raulston Arboretum, so I should be able to find out the status of Singing Springs and post the information in a topic by that name.

yup- i buy from the guy at the market, too. but beware- the guy he has working for him is a jerk. i try to get as much as i can from anyone else first, because he really isn't nice. for an example: i once saw a harried mom come in there and one of her toddlers, who wasn't misbehaving, knocked over one of the big expensive coleus and cracked the generic plastic pot. no damage at all to the plant. he embarrassed her, made her buy the plant and was was just plain nasty during the whole thing. now i don't have much patience for parents who let their kids run amuck, but this really was a an accident, and he it happen and she was contrite. there was no reason he couldn't have simply taken it back that night and gotten another plastic pot. another time i was buying plugs, he insisted on counting every single one, even though i'd told him i had 10- like i'd steal a plug that cost .50! he'd watched me like a hawk the entire time, too, and has every time i've gone in there. i'm at the market a lot in warm weather and most of the vendors know me and are friends- but it's as though this guy is determined to think the worst of everyone! if i didn't know that he didn't actually own the joint, and someone else offered the plugs and selection, i'd never shop there again. as it is, i limit it to just a few plugs and plants each yr now that i just can't find elsewhere and gotta have. there are few times i'll badmouth a place, but this is one i feel i need to let people know about.

gosh, i hope you can find out, ralph! wouldn't it be great if some of the local nurseries acrried her selections! maybe they already were and we just didn't know it. 'course that means they'll mark up from what it was t order from her, but she had awesome varieties.