I am a junkie for the ‘new’ and ‘improved’ any­thing in the gar­den (much to the bane of my nurs­ery own­ing asso­ciates who have to try and keep up with the plant lust many of us share).  Gen­er­ally, retail nurs­eries have to be care­ful about giv­ing too much space to the new kids on the block– they need to pro­vide the tried-and-true favorites they know their cus­tomers want.

2011 Intro­duc­tion Echi­nacea ‘Cran­berry Cup­cake’ Photo(s) cour­tesy of Terra Nova Nurs­eries, Inc.

And then there is the prob­lem of hav­ing eyes that are larger than one’s bud­get!  I have that lit­tle issue too.

On my ‘must have’ list– Kniphofia ‘Cream­si­cle’ (and yes, it’s from my fav Dan Heims and the folks at Terra Nova Nurseries!)

Luck­ily, I dis­cov­ered a great fix! 

Online plant coops!!!!

I am a mem­ber of an exclu­sive lit­tle group (that any­one can join and we need more peo­ple!) that pools our resources and order grower-direct from sev­eral sources.  Not only do we get to sam­ple the ‘lat­est and great­est’, we are also able to buy them in smaller plug sizes and pay about 25% of the cost of buy­ing a larger plant at your local retail nurs­ery sev­eral years after it is introduced.

2011 Intro­duc­tion: Heucherella ‘Yel­low­stone Falls’ Photo cour­tesy Terra Nova Nurseries

Now, it should go with­out  say­ing that you could VERY eas­ily be burned finan­cially in this type of arrange­ment!  I am happy to refer any­one to check out the coop I have used for years if you are inter­ested (e-mail us).  Oth­er­wise, when check­ing out a pos­si­ble coop to join, make sure it has been around for awhile, clearly dis­plays their history/ past plant buys and that you’ve had a chance to talk to mem­bers of said coop.  Even so, keep your order small the first time you play and all should be well.  Gar­den­ers tend to be gen­er­ous folk but always do your research!

Agas­tache ‘Sum­mer Sun­set’- Oh yeah, it’s a Terra Nova Intro­duc­tion too!

We order from a num­ber of dif­fer­ent grow­ers, not JUST Terra Nova Nurs­eries -(click the link for some seri­ous plant lust).  And yes, I put the link last or you’d head over there and never even fin­ish read­ing this post! 

Thank you to Terra Nova for your gen­er­ous photo pol­icy and even more fab­u­lous pho­tos– makes it so much eas­ier to give credit where due while stay­ing within copy­right guide­lines. I can’t wait to get my new babies this spring!

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