It is addicting: if I couldn't garden I don't know what I'd do. I've got old established gardens, but there's always something to replace or add or just change for a little variety. For me personally, I like to buy local. Nothing against mail order, but I like to shop around, pick out my own plants, and take them home with me without having to wait for a delivery which may not be at a convenient time to plant, etc. We have a few garden centers here that are quite good, carry a lot of northern grown plants so I know they're suited for this zone - might not be the latest introduction hosta or daylily or whatever, but I'm not really a collector so that doesn't matter to me.

I'm also practical; with big spaces to work with, price is always a consideration even though my gardening budget is whatever I want it to be. The $3 hostas from Wal-Mart grow just as well for me as the expensive ones from somewhere else. I make the rounds every spring - green houses, garden club plant sales, seasonal parking lot garden centers, Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Menards, farmers' markets. My elderly neighbor has a gardener and we've made some trades. Many people on these forums save and trade seeds and grow their own stock.

After concentrating primarily on perennials, last season I rediscovered the joy of annuals. For borders or filling a gap with continuous color, they really are a nice compliment to perennials - easy to experiment with and change from year to year.

Specialty Perennials and Shrubs:

Friends School Plant Sale

Bachmans-especially for hardy shrub roses, climbing plants, high quality/hard to find shrubs and trees (although they tend towards being pricey)

Linders Flower Marts (but only when everything goes to 1/2 price in July)

Minneapolis Farmers Market-Great perennials for $7 each, herbs for a buck.

Mail Order:
Green Mountain Transplants (most plants 55 cents each)
(www.gmtransplants.com)

Common Shrubs & Annuals:

Lowes-great euonymus and weigela selection-most small shrubs around $7 each

Home Depot-colorchoice shrubs (Summerwine Ninebark, Limelight hydrangea, etc.), euonymus and merry berry holly, honeycrisp apple and northstar cherry, and impatiens

Menards-cheap, run-of-the-mill annuals (marigolds), the occasional cheap shrub

Walmart-Although I hate them in general, they are the only place I know of that sells 4 foot tall Alberta Spruce for $20 each

If I were a rich-I would buy most of my plants here:

Tangletown Gardens
Uncommon Gardens
Nathe's 101 Flower Market

Mail order

Haven't tried them yet-but these places look interesting as well:

Sooner Plant Farm-

http://www.soonerplantfarm.com/

Busse Gardens-

http://www.bussegardens.com/

Klehm's Song Sparrow Nursery-

http://www.songsparrow.com/

We have a great garden center in our area. A bit pricey, but the plants are always nice. I tend to avoid going there though, every time I do, I spend WAAAAAAYYY more than I planned! I used to work there part time, and never had a paycheck!

As much as I love this place, I also buy mail order, road sides, Walmart and any where that plants are for sale!

I also found the joys of annuals this year. And Winter Sowing! I have lots of plans for new flowers next year. My DH just dug 2 new beds for me, smallish ones, but new. And he is planning on putting up a fence yet this fall, and I get to have a whole new flower bed in front of and behind it!

Jenny P

Mail order:

Green Mountain Transplants (for when you you have a large blank space that you want to fill up and want lots of plants, cheap. Perennials, annuals, veggies and bulbs)
Bluestone (cuz I like the catalog and varieties)
Forest Farm (when you want a special variety that you cannot find anywhere else; i.e. pagoda dogwood, prunus mackii, dwarf lilacs, magnolia)
St. Lawrence Nursery, New York (for inexpensive hardy bare root fruit trees and shrubs)
JungÂs Nursery, Wisconsin (for bare root roses, shrubs, grapes and fruit, seeds)
Park Seed Co. for special seeds.

Local Nurseries:

Dragonfly in Amery, Wisconsin
JeanÂs Right Plant Place, Perham, MN
Lake Country Gardens, Ottertail
I like them all in DuluthÂno favorites.

I would like to find somewhere that has native woodland plants, hopefully inexpensive; i.e. trilliums, wild forget-me-nots.

I have this place in my favorites, when I am ready to buy natives, this is where I will go.

Jenny P

Here is a link that might be useful: Prairie Nursery

Bluestone, Garden Crossings, Busse Gardens, Jung, Northern Grown Perennials, Ensata Gardens, and Ambergate Gardens are some of my favorite mail order sources. I have only one local nursery with good stock within half an hour of me and do frequent that. Also buy run of the mill stuff from Menards, Walmart etc. I like doing mail order. When it's planting time the plants are there and I'm not spending all my time driving around looking for what I want. I do my hunting in the winter when I have more time to look. Have a couple of other nurseries in the area with over priced poor stock, so I just don't give them my business any more. I forgot to mention Klehm Songsparrow Nursery. Shipping is rather high though, because much of their stock is shipped in large pots. For bulbs, I also like The Lily Garden and B & D Lilies, as well as John Scheepers Beauty from Bulbs. Have fun shopping.

Sources in order of the amount of plant material purchased since I started gardening seriously, in 2002:

Landscape Alternatives tied with Outback Nursery (50%)
seeds collected (mostly ;-) from my own garden (25%)
plant swaps (12%)
Bachmans (8%)
various mail order (5%)

Jennypat,

Thanks for the link to Prairie Nursery. I checked it out and it has lots of good information. I thought I would be satisfied with my garden just the way it is for awhile, but now I'm looking at a whole new way to go with my back yard. It keeps it interesting, doesn't it?

Thank you all so very much for your responses! Feel free to send any others that you think of. I will need to spend some time looking through some of these websites!

Oh and hoghaven, I too just LOVE the nursery- Dragonfly in Amery, Wisconsin. They are so wonderful there. My parents live up in that direction. I frequent there quite a bit! They have WONDERFUL sales at the end of the season, and the people are so very helpful!

Thanks again!

Most of my perennials came from Malmborg's because they have a great perennial sale in the early spring. And before Frank's went out of business I would shop the clearance stuff there in late summer. I got a TON of great deals on hostas, ferns, lilies, candytuft, etc! I miss that place!
Kristy :)

Garden Web- First and foremost!!
From our swaps here in MN- to trading in the forums- but more than anything- WinterSowing- and seed trading. Gardening has never been the same for me since finding GardenWeb- and making many wonderful friendships here in MN- and virtually around the world!
"Shovel tours" of friends gardens are a special treat- I like to share what I have- and it seems to me that many of the folks I have met feel the same way.
I have found many sources for buying plants as well- local home grown garden sales- mail order- online- and nurseries around the state- I do have fun "Shopping" and seed nabbing at many places- but find I buy at closeouts and end of year sales- except for a few new treasures every spring. I just can't seem to help myself in the spring.
When it comes to mail order and on line shopping- look towards the 'Garden Watchdog.com' to give you some advise as to what others have thought of their purchases with various companies. It is a useful tool when considering who to buy what from.
Funny thing- a lady who works at a Malbergs told me about Dragonfly gardens, and I tell you- I can not wait to go see their selection and prices after what I heard!
The Lily Society hosts a to die for spring and fall sale- check out their website northstarlilysociety.com for more details- and the MN Rock Garden Society has a great spring sale with VERY reasonable prices- always a good idea to go there- you won't be disappointed- but- hands down- one of the best sales in our area to go to is the Friends of the Earth plant sale- Just give their last years catalog a look @ friendsschoolplantsale.com and you will see why! For gardeners and dreamers- it just doesn't get much better than that- unless your into seeds that is- then I would suggest signing up for a seed exchange (like you could stop at one)in the Round Robin Forum- that is a whole-nuther kind of gardening crazy! If you need some seeds to start trading with- I think I may have a couple of, ah-hum, "extra" packs to get you started.... And those delightfully silly folks in the WinterSow forum just love sending out "newbie" packs to any who are interested in trying their hand at wintersowing.
There is a whole new world awaiting you here in GW-
Enjoy!

My list is a bit like Julie's. She gave me my first shove tour by the way.

The last few years my plants have come from: winter sowing, trades and freebies.

I get sedum from Tangle Town Nursery and until last year from Rice Creek Gardens.

I get my seeds from: Prairie Moon Nursery, Hudson's Seeds and exchanges.

Back when I purchased plants more I used the above plus, Bluestone Perennials, Uncommon Gardens, High Country Gardens, High Country Roses, and of course the Friends School Spring Sale.

I prefer buying plants I can see, but I have gotten them by mail if I can't get them locally.

My favorite for native seeds is http://www.prairiemoon.com/