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WINTER HARDY PLANTS, including Perennials, Bulbs, Grasses, Trees, Shrubs, & Vines. These are "winter hardy" in our Zone 6b Southern Ohio climate along
the Ohio River valley. Many plants we note as HH for "Half Hardy" can be overwintered outdoors in our area if carefully mulched or sited--but always consider
planting them out to be an experiment on your part. Many HH plants are excellent for the alpine house or cool conservatory for our northern customers, while easily
grown outdoors by our many southern customers. Always remember that winter hardiness depends not so much on the low temperature recorded on a particular
date, but for the duration of that temperature--many subtropicals which easily survive two nights of 10 degrees will die completely in two weeks of 20 degree
temperatures. Hardiness is also seriously inflorescenceorescenceuenced by exposure to winter sun and windchill (especially if evergreen);
inflorescenceorescenceuenced by soil composition (Hardy Bananas sail through cold winters if in well drained sandy or loam soils yet not survive a mild winter if
planted in a heavy clay), or even inflorescenceorescenceuenced by being sited in such a warm spot that it comes out of winter dormancy too early, only to be cut
down by later frosts and freezes. Microclimates abound, so experiment with yours. We intend the following plant offerings to give you a range of choices typically
unavailable at most garden centers--especially plants with unusual winter interest, bonsai potential, distinctive groundcover use, tough & miniature railroad design
potential, unusual variegated foliage, and striking foliar designs and coloration. And sometimes we offer a plant simply because it is too bizarre or obscure not to give it
a spin in your garden--after all, we all need new toys. As usual, plants which do best in fall plantings, such as biennuals, Aquilegias, Digitalis, most bulbs, and some
rare trees will be offered in our fall list along with the usual batch of the weird, the rare, and the preposterous which we have gathered, imported, or finally propagated
from our display gardens. The plants offered below DO NOT reflect those plants we keep available at our walk-in nursery here which we keep typically stocked wit
various variegated Pines, Spruces, Cornus (the "Dogwoods"), Fagus (the "Beeches"}, and Acer (various "Japanese Maples" too complicated to inventory for mail
order), & numerous odd species of shrubs in numbers too small to offer in a year long catalogue--including ones too large to mail once their spring foliage appears.
Typically a range of very rare weeping and variegated specimens from the nearby Five Springs nursery are also on display for sale here in very limited numbers of
each distinctive (and ever so desirable) cultivar--and Mason Chambers regularly finds amazingly distictive, rare, and variegated woodies that we can only wonder at
(and quickly abduct one for our own display gardens here). Also offered on our display benches here are a range of daylilies, native wildflowers, Hosta, mints,
numerous bog & aquatics (including water lilies, lotus, and so on, larger grasses & bamboo. Jaded collectors come to dine on the limited batches of oddities derived
form seed lists from arboretums around the world. Check our listings of nearby specialty nurseries for local sources either offering at their nursery sites or shipping
from exhaustive inventories of sophisticated daylilies, rare Hostas, Pulmonaria, Heuchera, and so on as well as sources for distinctive herbs, striking natives, and water
gardening items. Our good friends at Companion Plants, Plant It Herbs, and Hootowl Hollow offer complementry selection of a vast range of winter hardy material--
and they are all also within the borders of Athens County. Also on this website please find a wide range of substantial, dependable books for sale which picture &
comment on many of our winter hardy offerings. If you can't find the information you need please send us a SASE or call or email about such elusive items.
Please also note our collections of >decorative grasses, >conifers, >hardy bonsai, >trough plants, >Victorian bedding schemes, >plants attracting butterflies &
another for hummingbirds; even plants >native to Japan! Of interest to beginning gardeners (as well as an excellent gift to gardening friends) is our very popular
PERENNIAL PLANT COLLECTION with Stock #99110 for 10 labeled plants @ PRICE: $25.00. Be sure tell us your hardiness zone and whether these plants
are for sunny or for shady locations, whether for unusually dry or for boggish conditions. We've received many compliments on this collection and will continue to
send distinctive, but not culturally difficult plants to you & your friends. After all, there is one overwhelming reason to send you the best: this is our way of getting you
hooked!
You will notice an ever increasing number of individual photos & images in thumbnail format this season--the attempt to illustrate
nearly every plant we list continues--and we do thank again those of you who have sent photos we can use as so many of our older stock plants show the effect of
many cuttings and airlayerings, resulting in less than typical stature for that particular species and/or cultivar. We also offer many books with great photos &
discussions of the bulk of the plants we try to keep in propagation in order to support your hobby. Our "Common Names index" is now also on our website, so you
can quickly locate any plant we offer if the technical Latin name eludes you. (We are the major users of this handy memory aid!) Again, please realize that if you can
only bring yourself to order from an older outdated catalogue or listing, we will try to find and propagate some of the out-of-stock items if possible; however, this will
obviously delay your order considerably--if you feel that constant calls to our office staff is necessary while we attempt to give your special needs and requests special
consideration, we will cancel your order at that point. Too many orders go out each day for us to find time or to pay extra workers to search for ongoing paperwork.
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