About a year ago, my boyfriend and I broke up. I moved into an apartment and lost most of my plants. I just recently moved into a nice big house, and have a yard again. Im looking forward to gardening again, but, it seems that ever since the economy has been bad, there has not been much of a variety of plants for sale in the area where I live, and why is it that all the places that usually sell plants no longer have any plants for sale at all? Even Lowes only has a few annuals. We still have a lot of planting time in this area. I like planting in the fall anyways, as its cooler, and they wont get too hot, and then the roots have lots of time to grow over the winter so they will be stong and healthy the next summer.
lack of plants
You need a road trip. It looks like you're about an hour from Coldwater MS, where Homestead Farms is. It's a HUGE nursery that I bet you couldn't tour in less than 3 hours. They have all kinds of plants, many acres of plants, common plants as well as uncommon plants. I love to shop there.
About 30 minutes further, in Memphis, is Dabney's which can rival Homestead. Again, you'd need around 3 hours or more to run thru Dabney's. Their prices are very reasonable with so many uncommon plants to choose from.
So gather a friend or two and take a road trip. Once you visit these two nurseries, you'll be disappointed with all others. About once a year, I make the trip to Memphis and Coldwater. I save most of my plant money for these two nurseries.
Sometime in Oct, Dabney's has a big fall sale--30% off I think it was last year, so you might wait for that one. I'm going to try to make it this fall. I haven't had my annual trip yet this year and I need a plant fix really bad!
Also, you might try trading for some plants. There's a Swaps forum when you can post non-plant items that you have to offer in exchange for plants you want. Here's a link to that forum:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/swaps/all/
I'm working on a trade now with a lady who makes concrete rock faces; she wants some of my daylilies and I'm excited to get some garden decor.
Hope this helps get your yard full.
NancyAnn
I think there is down time end summer before the beginning of fall before the nurseries get more plants in. To do it now might mean too long a shelf stay for the plants. Once the cool breezes begin - planting fever will take hold and then the shelves will be stocked.
Thanks. Im in memphis quite often and was kinda wondering where the best plant places are there.
There are other nurseries in Memphis like Trees by Touliatos, another favorite. And the Memphis Botanic Gardens has a spring (April), Fall (Sept or Oct) and Winter (houseplants and tropicals) sale. Several vendors as well the iris society and other groups set up booths of plants and you can snag some unusual ones there. You might check their calendar and see when the fall sale is and plan a day in Memphis.
I'm glad you posted the nurseries in Memphis. I go through Memphis for my occasional visits to Tunica. I'd have more fun at the nurseries....but not my hubby...lol.