As a relatively new homeowner (2 years this coming July), I’ve only just started but boy, do I enjoy it. Even if I have the worst temperment for it-- I’m impatient, lazy and cheap. The last two winters I have spent my time paging wistfully through on-line nurseries. Recently I stumbled upon The Ty Ty Nursery.
According to Garden Web they have a “deplorable reputation”. No, you don’t say! You would have never guessed it from the classy photos on their site.
If I may ask a related question. I have plans to order ranunculus from Easy To Grow but they are located on the other side of the continent from me. Does anyone have any recommendations for an on line nursery closer to me?
Let me warn you against ever buying from Michigan Bulb.
Recommending someplace that can ship to you is impossible, being as you are another member that doesn’t mention where you are.
I will tell you that I see Giant Ranunculus for sale in garden centers every year lately. Some times as a growing plant and sometimes a a dormant root stock. I assume you are looking for Giant Ranunculus with the flowers that are three inches across, as opposed to some other variety of which there are to many to for me to list. I have a Crowfoot which has half inch intense deep yellow flowers.
All the ones listed by Karyn are good except of course the Michigan Bulb.
The one time I ordered from Michigan Bulbs half wasn’t what I ordered and substitutions were made. I also got stuff like tulip bulbs the size of nickles with 15 in a pack labeled 50 at the end of November in central Wisconsin. The entire order came in about 5 shipments all like the one described. The only thing to grow were ten bulbs of a little quarter inch flower I didn’t order. I never got my Chinese Iris which were the only reason I ordered from them. I’ve made it a life goal to be sure others don’t get bilked by them. Anybody I warned that ordered from them has said they wish they had listened to me.
Yeah, but I bet you got a hundred free grape hyacinths and a bunch of gladiolus in a color no one else wants.
I don’t think that shipping distance matters much when it comes bulbs but I’ve never had good luck ordering starts. Sometimes I try because there are some things that nurseries don’t sell here because they need hard winters to bloom but at my higher elevation it gets cold enough to grow them. I can’t grow all of the tropical plants that are planted at sea level unless I bring them inside in the winter.
I have ordered hundreds of tulips, as well as some crocuses and daffodils, from John Scheepers Inc. over the years, and I’ve been very happy with the quality of their product, their service and their prices (although I haven’t really compared prices much).
For the impatient, lazy and cheap (like me), I recommend the King Alfred Daffodil. I stuck about 50 bulbs in the ground, maybe ten years ago. Since then I’ve done absolutely nothing to help them in any way, and yet they keep coming back vigorously every spring, with many big beautiful blooms. John Scheepers seems to be sold out of them right now but there’s always next autumn, if you’re not too impatient.
I’ve had great luck with them, with the exception of a couple unfulfilled orders, but they were due to crappy product, so I’m glad they didn’t try to dump their garbage on me, the unsuspecting rookie.
I forgot about Scheepers. I’ve had good luck with them too. This thread has inspired me to hunt for cape bulbs that supposedly don’t need summer watering. I just finished clearing a hillside and cutting in all of the steps and switchbacks and so far all I’ve planted are ceanothus and native (or naturalized) wildflowers. I’d like to keep it as drought-resistant as possible without resorting to only cactus and succulents.
I love them. Out here we call them California lilacs and they grow into very large shrubs in shades of blues and purples and the flowers smell like honey. They grow all over the place in full sun and don’t get any summer watering. I’ve put in a few small ones and one creeping one that stays low to the ground but I’ll probably go buy a few larger ones soon. They’re even deer-resistant. The hillside that I’m working on is about half an acre that’s below the pool deck so it will be seen from above most of the time and they’ll look great.
So far I’ve found one of the cape bulbs that I wanted at Willow Creek. It’s called Chasmanthe and it grows tall enough to be very visible from above. They don’t ship again until fall so I might hold off for a while and keep looking for a better price.
Crap. I’m mostly shade. I have a hideous gnarly-ass hedge that needs the full Edward Scissorhands treatment, but we really don’t want to spend big money on traditional hedges. This is a definite possibility to take its place.
I’m not even sure what zone I’m in. I’m about 3 miles above the coast and down there it’s the typical Mediterranean climate of the central coast but up here it’s both colder and wetter in the winter and dryer and hotter in the summer. We rarely get snow. The ecological preserve up here (that burned down this summer) is only a mile away and has it’s own microclimate that most closely resembles the high desert. There are things like datura and echium that I shouldn’t be able to grow up here and I have huge ones that live through freezes. I’ve given up trying to match Sunset zones and go by trial and error.
I’m glad I opened this thread. I ordered several dozen iris, daffodils, and other plants from them years ago. All this time, I thought it was MY failure as a gardener that I didn’t get good results. I rather like the little grape hyacinths, but I regard them as filler only, and not something that I’d really plan a major spot to put them in. They’re tiny. But at least we still get some coming up, year after year, as opposed to all the other plants that I bought from them.
I bet you’re feeling pretty smug right now,** Big**. Titling this dull as a garden thread with a vaguely salacious title figuring to ensnare the testosterone-addled Dopers with boob-bait.
Well, it won’t work. Well, it won’t work next time.
