Re: South Creek Nursery Palmyra NY 14522

I agree 100% with Claire.  Plus, FWIW, this URL triggered my memory
about this company.  Last year, the owner? or one of them, came to
Suite101 and joined only to go to each of the garden editor's
discussion areas for the express purpose of posting an advertisement
for the site.  She came back to several editors more than once,
although several had noted that commercial messages of that type were
frowned upon and some even removed them or relocated them... then she
disappeared, never to post again about anything.  I, of course, went
to the site and looked around and determined that it would be highly
unlikely that the plants would be worth squat at the prices
quoted...I see that they have added sound (ugh) and even more flashy
advertisements since then.

As Gene Bush and the other nursery owners on this list will testify,
it takes time and money to care for plants, whether started in the
nursery from seed, cuttings or division or purchased from wholesalers
and then grown on or potted on for sale.  Picking, preparation,
packing and shipping are additional costs in labor and material.
General office costs - bookeeping, catalog compilation and printing,
etc. add to the cost of doing business....web sites are not free.
When you stop and analyze it, you realize that selling a decent plant
in a 4" pot for $1.00 doesn't make any sense - really is not
possible.  I don't understand how this company can offer a Cimicifuga
for $3.75, since I know from personal experience that this plant
takes 2 years to germinate and at least 2 more years to reach a large
enough size to plant out in the garden...and this is a genus that
does not divide well nor work from cuttings well.  Perhaps they buy
tissue culture plants, but even so, those are not free.

IMHO, there is something extremely fishy about this company.  I would
like to hear otherwise because I do not like charlatans being out
there, giving mail order nurseries in general a bad name - rather
gets me hot under the collar as I am a firm believer in supporting
our mailorder nurseries,  who provide the best and widest range of
plants for our gardens ...but, until I do.....my advice is to
patronize known companies who care about their plants and their
customers.  In this world, you generally get what you pay for...

BTW, Lawrence, you were quite right to ask the list - that's one of
the marvelous things about email garden lists, there is usually
someone who knows or has had experience with almost any nursery you
run into.  Sharing this information helps all of us.

Another source for information about mailorder nurseries is The
Plants By Mail FAQ - The List of Catalogs:
http://pbmfaq.dvol.com/list/ which has an extensive list of
nurseries, many with comments and you can add your own experiences to
the stew.

Further (a bit of horn blowing here) If you are new to the world of
mailorder plants, last year and the one before I did series of
articles about some that I consider to be high quality firms and
that might prove of interest.  Since many of them are now in the
throes of putting up their new 2000 listings, some of the links may
not work (haven't checked), but they should provide you with an
overview...and last year's series was full of photos of plants
carried, generously loaned to me for the purpose.  Last year's first
in the series URL is:http://suite101.com/article.cfm/222/14471 and
the one before (even more ancient URLs probably) is:
http://suite101.com/article.cfm/222/5330.  Subsequent articles can be
accessed by hitting the 'next article' link.  The thrust of the two
series was different.  First one was more about their actual web
sites and what they offered and is likely quite outdated; last year
it was about plants carried and more to the point.  However, I would
have no qualms about ordering from any of them (whether I liked their
web site in 1998 or not) - and have ordered from many of them quite
happily.  If you run into massive link rot, let me know and I will
sort it out.


Marge Talt, zone 7 Maryland
mtalt@clark.net
Editor:  Gardening in Shade
current article: Garden Time
http://suite101.com/welcome.cfm/222
All garden topics welcome page:
http://suite101.com/category.cfm/gardening



----------
> From: Claire Peplowski <ECPep@AOL.COM>
> Date: Saturday, January 08, 2000 7:45 PM
>
>  <A HREF="http://www.sexybloomers.com/html/index.stm">Click here:
Sexy
> Bloomers - Dedicated to the Romance and Comedy of Gardening</A>
>
> Here is the URL for the nursery in question.  There is very loud
music and
> some corny jokes plus an assortment of things to buy.
>
> It would seem that if you are planning a mailorder purchase, you
would go
> with a company known to gardeners.  Someone sent me this link a
while ago and
> I found it saved on my bookmark list.  The above message jogged my
memory.
>
> There are many ways to economize while adding to the garden.
Growing from
> seed is a beginning.  Buying one plant and learning the propagation
of it is
> another.
> We all like a sale.  I would opt for big healthy plants and perhaps
fewer of
> them.  Sometimes a fellow gardener will give you some cuttings or
special
> seeds.  If you live near any of the botanic gardens you can watch
for their
> sales.  Plant society sales are usually a good place to shop.
>
> Or, you could buy a lottery ticket.  A breakfast cook, here in NY,
won one
> hundred million dollars this week.  He had the happiest face I have
seen in a
> long while.  I should like to garden with him.
>
> Claire Peplowski
> East Nassau, NY z4
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