I buy from fellow gardeners who split their stuff up and sell it so they can buy more!!! They usually advertise on a website for selling local stuff. Like here it is called usednanaimo, I don't like to pay a lot, under $5 per plant. I have a spring fever that hits me and I go to all the plant sales in the spring...again, locals selling climatized plants. Not sure if your area has such a thing. I also joined the local Horticulture society, wow! what a great bunch of people!!!

I ordered my roses last year from Northland Rosarium and Rogue Valley Roses (and a few two years ago from Heirloom Roses). They were all very nice roses and I would order from them, again. Be careful where you order, because in some areas, Rose Rosette Disease can be a problem.

As for perennials, annuals, shrubs, etc. I buy most of my plants from Lowe's (especially the clearance rack) and Fred Meyer. The selection is great, the prices are a lot more affordable and some things (like my Hidcote lavender or stock) have been difficult to find, even at the many local nurseries.

If you can't find what you're looking for at home, I know a lot of people on the forum order perennials, online. Oh, I also ordered seeds (mostly vegetables) from John Scheeper's...who has a great selection and amazing purple climbing beans! Hope that helps :)

Michigan has an Iris Society, and they have some pages of sources too! Check 'em out!!!

Here is a link that might be useful: Michigan Iris Society links

NO!!! Not an Iris link...Noooo!!! Must not buy more....I feel the pull...the iris tractor beam is pulling me in....

I"ve bought from spring hill and was very unhappy. Since then I've purchased from Bluestone Perennials, John Scheeper and Thompson Morgan (for seeds). I've had good experiences with all of them.

Estelle

I never had any luck with plants from Springhill or Michigan Bulb - all of them died and altho' Springhill replaced them, I got tired of replanting dead plants year after year. I had excellent results with Bluestone Perennials plants. Santa Rosa Gardens has great plants + customer service but I evidently made a few poor choices from their sale items because they didn't survive shipping.

I figure I probably can't go too wrong with getting some bulbs from Spring Hill. They had some good deals.

Anyway what about peonies and TB AND siberian irises? I'm having a hard time finding good places online, where do you all get yours?

I haven't ordered from them, but iirc, Adelman Peonies looked promising when I was thinking about getting some. (In the meantime, I keep filling up the spots where I was thinking of putting peonies!)

I've ordered perennials mainly from Bluestone, tho if you see my other thread, you'll see they just changed from plastic to coir pots, and from small 3-packs to larger single pots - and larger prices. I also haven't heard a lot of reports as to how the coir pots work, esp with shipping.

I'm growing Siberian iris from seed via winter sowing and I picked up a few TB iris bulbs cheap at a big box store a year or so ago. Peonies I bought bare-root from Costco and grew them in containers until they were big enough and I had places to plant them in the beds. They bloomed this year and were gorgeous. The Siberian iris I grew via winter sowing last year bloomed this year.

I'm growing St. John's wort & spirea from seed I harvested from a neighbor's shrubs & the kousa dogwood trees I grew from seed last year are 2 ft. tall so far this year. I got the KD seeds from the trees where I work. All were winter sown.

I've ordered a lot of daylilies and TB iris from Gilbert H. Wild on sale (they have really good sale prices) and while they were small, they were healthy and big in no time.

Here is a link that might be useful: Gilbert H. Wild

I don't do mail order. No particular reason, I just don't. Probably because I like many things but am not a fanatic about the expensive, rare or unusual or "must haves" of any of them. And we have a few very good garden centers - perennials can be pricey so I like to see what I'm getting.

My original Siberian Iris came from a local garden center many years ago. I only have two varieties - the dark royal blue Caesar's Brother and its white counter-part, Snow Queen. Both are good clumpers and have been divided and spread around many times.

The yard came with a few NOID peonies, but I bought a couple of packages of bare root peonies from a Wal-mart bin. Reliably mislabled, but all grew like gang busters and bloomed the first year.

I've also had success with nice things from Home Depot and Menard's - you have to check periodically and get things when they just get off the truck otherwise take your chances when they show up on the "Rescue Me" racks. But the prices are usually right for the budget minded.

Guess my bottom line is - don't overlook sources that are near to you.

Caesar's brother and the Snow Queen are the types I'm looking for.

Fwiw, I end up doing a lot of mail order simply because I like planning the garden in the winter, when I can't roam around looking at garden centers but can easily hang out on my couch and look at catalogs. ;) And somehow when I do end up looking at local places, it seems to take a ton of running around to find stuff. But mainly, it's because I like to plan ahead.

I did order a few things from sales at michigan bulb (I think they are springhill's sister company) and Van Bour. and the quality was incredibly variable. Some items were of the size I'd expect, but others were tiny and struggling. I ended up ordering about 15 helleborus (3 different orders, I know, I went a bit crazy this spring) which have survived and all but 3 are thriving (still small but putting out new foliage). I also got some raspberry canes which were tiny little things and two died.

The tuberose I ordered from MB was a tiny single dessicated bulb. Around the same time I ordered tuberose from Brent and Becky's spring sale. WOW, what a difference. Even though it was B&B's spring sale, the tubers were huge, multi-formed and plump. One of them has a bud now which I can't wait to see (and smell) as it is the first time I've grown them. Also bought a few dahlias from B&B sale and they are putting up buds now despite the late planting time. I have discovered japanese beetles like yellow dahlias thoough!

Very late in spring I ordered 75 liatris corms, 15 astilbe and 200glads from Van Bourg. One bag of liatris was completely rotten to bits. The other two bags, however, are doing great. All the astilbes have taken off and seem more vigorous than the ones in ground from last year (they were $2 each from Van.B) The glads were dried out and my expectations were low, but they have healthy looking foliage now--will see if they put out buds.

I did order a lot from Bluestone last year--all of which is doing VERY well. My 3 puny phlox from last year are gorgeous now. Also liking my Monet's Moment lobelia.

But, with BS going to the more expensive pots, I am going to try Lazy S Farm. Incredible selection and prices similar to BS now. Before I never ordered from then as I wanted the 3packs from BS, but now it's time to try them out. Planning my fall order--which should be modest but well planned. Ha! I can hope, right?

We do have some good garden centers here, but they tend to sell gallon perennials for $12-$19 each. I just can't afford that. I enjoy trying out a variety of plants to see what does well.

I do grow a bit from seed too. Last year I grew a lot of biennials-foxglove, verbascum, dianthus and campanula medium. Now I wish I had thrown in some perennials too! Also planning a seed order. :)

I had a similar experience with the Van B. company. They did replace the things that did not grow. I've still had to ask for a refund on two bulbs that were replaced and still did not grow.

I ordered from B&B's sale and most things arrived in good shape, but 8 of 10 cannas have not grown at all so have to get a refund there too. It's just too expensive to not request a credit or something.

I did order some things from Michigan Bulb last year, when there was still snow on the ground and no plants and the garden centers. I only ordered a few types of plants, most did well, but a few died.

The bee balm I got, has grown very large and one is now five feet tall! It's beautiful and towers over the other bee balms I got at the store. Of course, it's red and a different kind, but it's beautiful :)