Where can False Nettle be purchased?

I know there is Stinging Nettle, but False Nettle would be wonderful as a host plant for Butterflies. Unfortunately, that plant is about as readily available as a needle in a haystack. It's even found here in Nebraska, but finding a place online or locally in a nursery is virtually impossible! Anyone up for a challenge to find out why that is and where one can find it available?
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=BOCY&photoID=bocy_2v.jpg
I'm just surprised nobody has cornered the market for big $$$ since so many butterfly enthusiasts would consider it to be like finding gold!


This message was edited Mar 23, 2009 10:55 PM

Have you tried the vendor in Plant Scout who lists it? http://davesgarden.com/products/ps/go/108456/

Hello Ecrane,

Yes, and I wrote to Admin about the fact that the only things they sell now is stained glass items...no more butterfly host plants. I wrote to Admin about it back in February and just rewrote them tonight indicating that DG might consider taking them off the vender list considering this issue.
And even if they did still sell plants, doesn't it make one wonder why there is only one vender for a native plant such as this? I wish I could just find a plant on the side of the road here...Geeesssh...

I don't really know much about the plant--any chance it's protected? Since it looks sort of like a stinging nettle I can see why it wouldn't be in the mainstream nurseries since it won't appeal to the average gardener, but I would think some places that specialize in natives would have it unless it's a protected species. Have you tried looking for seeds instead of plants? I've often had an easier time finding seeds of hard to find plants than finding plants.

Well, that's really why I started this thread, for help in finding the availability...although I left out the seeds, I did ask in the initial post i made about plants and cuttings.
Hmmmm, well, I'll e-mail a few native plant nurseries and see what they have to say. That is a good suggestion...thanks :)

Prairie Moon nursery sells the seeds, and they have an excellent reputation, too:

http://www.prairiemoon.com/store/template/product_detail.php?IID=2156&SID=82179236b20abb66d769f70c5cfafdb4


Their Watchdog page:

http://davesgarden.com/products/gwd/c/1346/

Neat, I hadn't heard of this species before & it's native to my area. Looks like an almost exclusively wetland plant according to the USDA.

Clay,

You have made my day...Bless your Heart...WooHoo!!!
I put the addy on my fav's list and just called them up for them to send me a catalog. I'll definately will be getting those seeds!!!

I just don't understand why I couldn't find them no matter how much I googled for False Nettle...Good Grief! LOL

This plant is soooooooooooo much better to have in the garden then Stinging Nettle (for attracting particular butterflies as a host plant) when trying to add it to a garden and surround it with other plants.

Thanks again Clay!!!!

Susan

The problem may have been that they list their plants in their catalog under the botanical name. That's one reason I have a little trouble figuring out what they have. It would be nice if they would put some kind of link for each species, as not everybody knows botanical names that well. Although I do google under botanical names quite a bit, since a species is sometimes know under dozens of common names.

I always try to find out the botanical name before I search for something--seems like there are always 10 different common names for every plant, and each of those 10 common names is also used for 10 other plants, so you have to wade through a ton of irrelevant search results and may miss some results for the plant you wanted if a site lists it under a different common name than the one you searched for. Knowing the botanical name will typically narrow things down quite a bit, and I would never buy plants/seeds from a site that didn't list the botanical name so you won't miss too many "good" results by searching for the Latin name instead of the common name. Takes a little more research up front (although frequently you can look it up in Plant Files in a few seconds), but I think it's worth it in terms of the quality of search results.