<p>Can anyone recommend a reputable mail order source for perennials? Thanks for your help.</p>
<p>Are you looking for anything in particular? And what parrt of the country are you from?</p>
<p>Hostas, butterfly bushes, hydrangea, sage, catmint. Cold climate. (Thanks for your interest, 1moremom. Nice screen name.)</p>
<p>Finally something I can help with! Among my favorites are-- <a href=“http://www.bridgewoodgardens.com%5B/url%5D”>www.bridgewoodgardens.com</a>, <a href=“http://www.forestfarm.com%5B/url%5D”>www.forestfarm.com</a> and bluestone perennials.</p>
<p>Can’t wait to check them out! You’ve made my day (and hopefully my whole summer too.)</p>
<p>White Flower Farm in CT - <a href=“http://www.whiteflowerfarm.com%5B/url%5D”>www.whiteflowerfarm.com</a>
Had good success with their plants - even in hot humid GA!</p>
<p>I have also ordered from WWF (several times). Nice plants, a little on the pricey side.</p>
<p>Heronswood Nursery <a href=“http://www.heronswood.com/[/url]”>http://www.heronswood.com/</a> is fabulous! They travel to exotic countries and collect seeds in the wild, then cultivate the plants near Seattle. They are very good about not selling potentially invasive plants, and the selection is amazing, unique, astonishing, and wonderful. And often expensive, but these are often not plants you’d get at the local shop. Hostas, for example. They only have four in the online catalogue, but they are cultivars from the mountains of China and remote islands of Japan.</p>
<p>I will reiterate White Flower Farm. They’re in zone 4, which is nice and cold. </p>
<p>I buy my culinary herbs from The Tasteful Garden (<a href=“http://www.tastefulgarden.com/index.asp)%5B/url%5D”>http://www.tastefulgarden.com/index.asp)</a>. They grow well and taste wonderful.</p>
<p>I buy tomato and pepper plants from Territorial Seed (as well as potato starts and lettuce seeds)
<a href=“http://www.territorial-seed.com/stores/1/index.cfm[/url]”>http://www.territorial-seed.com/stores/1/index.cfm</a></p>
<p>Three endorsements of White Flower Farm is good enough for me! (And they participate in Ebates… what more could I ask?)</p>
<p>Heronswood is fabulous 
Our book group goes every year to buy and for a lecture or two.
I don’t really have a yard big enough to do some of them justice- but very inspiring.
<a href=“http://www.heronswood.com%5B/url%5D”>www.heronswood.com</a></p>
<p>I hate to hijack the thread, but I need plant advice. I have an ivy plant in my dorm room that’s doing rather well (I don’t think you can kill the thing). Are there any other easy-to-care-for indoor plants that grow well under dim conditions (my room doesn’t get a lot of light)?</p>
<p>Peace lilly - I’ve had one growing with very minimal light for years. Without much light it doesn’t outgrow it’s pot very often, which is also nice. But one the size you want, water occasionally and wait for it to bloom. One of my favorites.</p>
<p>1moremom, I had a great time on Super Bowl Sunday! While the menfolk were watching their beloved Steelers, I was placing online orders for my new garden. I loved the Bridgewood Gardens website-- what a hoot. Hope my hostas turn out like their pictures. Then I went through the machinations of placing an order with Forest Farm because their prices were the best by far… only they wanted $121 to ship a $133 order so I cancelled that order and went elsewhere. Pity. Anyway, thanks for the help. I am raring to go.</p>
<p>Watch it with those hostas; what starts as a collection can turn into an addiction in no time. You might enjoy looking at the Color Encyclopedia of Hostas, by Diana Grenfell & Michael Shadrack.</p>
<p>The Peace lily is also called a “closet plant” and requires a lot of water, so you can also take it out of the dirt and place it in a jar of water. Change the water weekly and you’re good to go. I’ve had one for 4 years and sometimes add a little Miracle Grow and it will bloom a nice white flower.</p>
<p>1moremom, where are you?! Now that I’ve had my plants in the ground for about 10 days, I’ve got black caterpillars crawling through the beds. What are they and how do I get rid of them? (I warned you that I’m a newbie.)</p>
<p>worrywart, here’s the “eewww” technique: Take a bucket of soapy water, and put on your gardening gloves. Pick the caterpillars off the plants and drop them in the soapy water. Or, if you’re feeling like to you need to vent off some aggression, gently place the caterpillars on a stone and firmly place another stone on top. Apply pressure. :)</p>
<p>Or. you could gather up one or two in a baggie, plus some of the damaged leaves they are chewing on, and take them to your local upscale nursery --preferably one that tries to find non-toxic solutions to these pesky problems. Make sure the baggie is well sealed.</p>
<p>Or, call the local county extension agent, and be prepared to minutely describe the beasties – this means you BRING THEM INTO YOUR HOME – or take the phone outside.</p>
<p>It’s also possible that your black caterpillars are not bad insects. Caterpillars (as we should all remember) do become butterflies. If they’re black, they’re not cabbageworms, which are not a good thing. Is it possible they’re not caterpillars, but slugs? (Slugs don’t have legs; caterpillars have six of them, all of them segmented.) Try this website: <a href=“http://www.whatsthiscaterpillar.co.uk/america/hairy.htm[/url]”>http://www.whatsthiscaterpillar.co.uk/america/hairy.htm</a></p>
<p>You’re both terrific! Thanks. (Loved the “Apply pressure”!) I have no problem with that.</p>