I was thinking of ordering some perrenials that are hard to find through a catalog: manhattan poppies(purple), double coneflower (razzmatazz), royal heritage helleborus, and globe thistles (echinops).

Spring Hill Nurseries, Burpee, and Jung Quality Seeds all offer some of the varieties mentioned above, but none offer all of them. I am considering ordering from one of them-- it seems like spring hill will send the most plants for the least cost, and that all have good return policies. What are your thoughts?

Do you know of a local place where I could likely find these items? I visited the Philly Flower Show and Longwood Gardens last year, which were amazing and showed many unusual varieities, but didn't really seem to sell this type of thing. Is there a place in central PA that carries unusual varieties?

I'm also thinking if I get to my local greenhouse earlier, maybe a month before the last frost, they may have more of what I am looking for-- but how to keep my plants healthy until the danger of frost is gone? For these reasons I have thought Spring Hill my best bet, but would love to hear your thoughts.

Thank you! Sincerely, Zinnia Fan

I second the vote for bluestoneperennials.com They are very nice to deal with and are located in Madison, OH. Although I did order double deck cone flowers from them, they never did double deck. And I waited to long to complain about it.

If you want to try seeds, I use

Thompson and Morgan and
parkseed

Hope this helps.

Nancy