Sherry, I know you can do the driving. I drove to Tennessee from here in central PA by myself in 2004 and 2005 and was gone from here for 2 weeks. I'm such a chicken when it comes to driving in places I'm not familiar with, but I forced myself to do it. It was close to 1000 miles on way, and no, I didn't do it in one day. It took me 3 days of spending about 6-7 hours on the road each day. Anyway, best of luck and just think of the fun you'll have once you get there. That sounds like a nice time picking out plants that you ordered and then the best part, spending time with family! I hope you just have the greatest time and let us all know how you made out and if you found some good deals on plants. I think we all like to hear about a bargain, and you know we like to hear about plants for the butterflies! :) Have a nice vacation!

As a professional 'fear of driving alone in strange places' person, I'll remind you of something I learned to be true a long time ago.

The fear of the unknown is always worse than the reality of the situation. Right? RIGHT!

Once you get on the road, I suspect that you'll be absolutely fine! Better than fine! Keep us posted.

I drove from OKC to Massachusetts, and believe me, if I can do it, anyone can. I was never a "roadie". LOL! One thing that was a comfort to me then was the AAA road book. I called them ahead of time and they sent me a flip over booklet, on each page was an enlarged map of the area I would drive thru, highlighted. It was a great help! I made lots of stops here and there, took pictures, etc.

Nowadays, you can get a Map of each part of your journey from Mapquest, I would guess. Highlight the highways. I don't know if they will show the areas that are "under construction", but mine did. It also showed info on hotels/motels that would allow me to have my cats in the room. It was very easy with this info at my fingertips, and I NEVER took a wrong exit or turn.

And yst, the fear is always worse than the reality.

I guess you have gotten to where you are going by now Miss Sherry. I love to drive by myself. I had to drive over to Georgia last week to a funeral and it was so nice. The peace. As long as I have my cellphone with me there is no problem.

I sure envy your going by Mail Order Natives. Maybe I should plan a road trip.

I'm typing this post from my daughter's house in Tampa - I made it fine, no problems on the road.
My daughter's lanai is certainly presenting one, though. She's a total non-gardener, and she let her sprinkler system work last night, and it's a total bog out there!! I haven't gotten nearly as much done as I would have, had it not been under a deluge.
Mail Order Natives is way out in the country, close to the Suwannee River. Amy had everything waiting at the front when I pulled up - she's very efficient. Eventually, I'll get to plant the plants, which all looked real good!
MissSherry

Congratulations on conquering your fear and doing the trip to enjoy your daughter, grandson and son-in-law. I hope your s-i-l is as happy to see his mother-in-law as I am to see mine. We take her to Hawaii when we go there(every other year) and to our time share at Edisto Beach, SC for mother's day each May.
Keep us informed about your gardening efforts in Florida.

mike

Glad you made it without any problems.

I would love to see Amy's place. I ordered three plants from her today.

Miss Sherry -I sent you an email, hope you got it. My friend said a nursery that has natives is called A-1 Growers off State Road 60 near Brandon, east of 1-75. I have never been there but sounds interesting.

Another one that I am sure would be good is called The Natives but it is in Davenport, which is east of me, closer to State Rd 27. So it is quite a ways ago from us. I did hear the owner speak last Saturday at the Bok Tower seminar. He has worked for the state identifying and cataloging endangered species and was hired the the Golf Course where the Masters is played in Augusta Ga to help establish native plants there.

Anyway, if you have the time and want to give me a call. I gave you my phone number on the email.

Oh, MissSherry - tell us what you got from Mail Order Natives! I'm so excited for you, and glad you had the opportunity to get new plants AND see your daughter! What a great trip.

Susan

Mike, I think it's wonderful that you take your m-i-l to Hawaii every other year and see her on Mother's day in SC every year! She's lucky!
Susan, I got 15 viburnum obovatums to use around Claire's lanai - I'll be taking 2 of them home, to plant on a wet site. The area I'm working is still wet. Her property is lower than the surrounding houses, so, since everybody here waters their lawns 2 or 3 times a week (underground sprinklers), this house gets all the runoff, at least in the back. I chose v. obovatum because it's evergreen, which gives them privacy in the pool all year, grows fast, is a swamp plant, and makes fruit that birds love. I got 3 rhododendron canescens 'Claire' - had to get a cultivar that has my daughter's name!, one more cornus florida var. 'Weaver' -' Weaver' and 'Madison' have HUGE flowers and grow like weeds, 2 more hammamelis virginiana/witch hazels, and 1 more viburnum rufidulum. I brought my seed tray with 25 ptelea trifoliata planted seeds - I got these last fall from one of the p. trifoliatas that grows in my garden. I didn't want to trust my husband to keep them watered while I was gone. Since ptelea trifoliata makes such a good understory tree, I thought I'd have room for a lot more of them - the giant swallowtails should appreciate it!
I can't believe how much my grandson has grown! And his hair has turned dark like my daughter's - he looks just like her!
Mary, I'm going to be too busy to do anything but work here - maybe next time we can get together. The ends of some of my fingers are cracking and starting to bleed, but I want to finish this job!
I talked to my husband, and he said that a PVS emerged while I was gone. He released it yesterday - thank goodness the weather is warm there as well as here! I saw my first butterfly here yesterday. It was a big sulphur, too brightly yellow/orange to be a cloudless sulphur, so it was undoubtedly an orange barred sulphur, but it flew by too fast for me to be sure.
MissSherry

I usually am over in the Antique rose forum, but visited this forum today for some ideas on butterfly plants for my garden. I live here in Tampa and there is a nice nursery called Holley's (or Holly's) that I visit from time to time that has some very nice butterfly attracting plants. It is north on Dale Mabry, past Lutz, but not quite to Land O' Lakes. People are nice. There are a few other nurserys I like, but those are over in Clearwater. Beckett Lake nursery is huge- wonderful variety of shrubs, but maybe standard stuff for butterflys, but worth the trip anyway. There is another called either the Garden Room or the Garden Party in Duneiden that I like. Have a great visit- I'm off to my garden!

Florie

Thanks for the nursery info, Florie, but I'm back! I got back yesterday - it's so good to sleep in my own comfortable bed, unlike the board I tried to sleep on at a hotel in Pensacola night before last.
It was a huge job, but I got it done - hopefully, the v. obovatums will thrive, and my daughter will get the pool privacy she wants plus nectar and berry making shrubs.
MissSherry

MissSherry - do the viburnums grow rapidly or slowly? I'm looking into a viburnum in Oklahoma that will do well in partial shade and isn't very demanding. There is one across the back fence from me that is gigantic - almost 18-20' tall, but I don't know what species. I haven't done much research on viburnums yet. But, I do know they host several sphinx moths, and the fruit provides food for the birds. I imagine the flowers may also provide nectar for butterflies when they are in bloom. This viburnum on the back fence has medium size ovate leaves that turn red in the fall (I've probably described about 1,000 viburnums). But, I mainly want to see what sphinx (other than the snowberry or clearwings) might use it as well.

I know what you mean about sleeping in your own bed. I didn't use to mind sleeping in hotels or even on the ground when we camped out, but now I have to have my bed!

Susan

Susan, viburnums are fast growers, some of the fastest growing shrubs around, butterflies and bees nectar on the flowers, they make berries that birds love, and they do indeed host some sphinx moth cats. I've found azalea sphinx moth cats on them several times - they use both my wild azaleas and viburnums. I checked out the government website for viburnums and found that v. molle and v. prunifolium are native to Oklahoma - v. dentatum is native to the states right around OK, so that'd probably do for you, too. I can't find any place that sells v. molle/softleaf viburnum, but Pine Ridge Gardens sells v. prunifolium. Maybe somebody on the Shrubs Forum will know where to get v. molle? - the pictures I've seen of it show leaves that look much like v. dentatum. I also don't know anything about what type growing situation they prefer, but you could Google them and find out.
MissSherry

Thanks so much for the research you did for me! I don't think anyone has ever done such a nice thing for me ever! I didn't expect it, but I am pleasantly surprised!

I will look them up on the net and see what I can find. I'm already thinking about ordering some natives from Pine Ridge.

Once again - thank you so much; you really are a genuinely nice person!

Susan

Thanks, Susan - I try to be nice!
MissSherry