mail order

because good sellers.. sell HEALTHY plants ...

bigboxstores dont give a flying leap about disease ...

ken

Mail order - what Ken said too.
It is just not worth the risk to buy at box stores. You save a couple of bucks at the box store but jeopardize your entire collection.
Pam

Think about what's in your best interest.

To maintain a supply of quality specialty nursery growers we need to support them. When you call or walk into a nursery and talk with the owners and they understand your concerns and tell you what they do to protect you from virus, disease and inferior plants - what's that worth? Support them.

When these specialty nurseries work ahead 1-2 years to get you the latest greatest hosta at a good size and price - what's that worth? Buy from them.

When you buy at a box store what's the difference between buying a carpet, a light bulb, and a hosta? As far as they're concerned - nothing, 'cept they have to water the hosta. Next year it'll be another clerk and manager and another shipment of plants they are unfamiliar with. Run from them.

Paul

IMHO avoid Big Box like the plague!!!! Ive had too many experiences with pointing out obvious HVX to a manager and being told "No, I think thats how its supposed to look."

Dave

What they said :-)

I'm only 2 years into this obsession so first 12 were from big box stores. Then I found this site and what an education I've gotten. Online and local nurseries. The downside: you pay more, sometimes alot more. The upside: healthy plants, plus the added fun of visiting REAL nurseries and going through a gazillion catalogs, online shopping, and then the anticipation of the mailman, UPS or Fedex man. It's like Christmas, only it's just for you.

Alexis

These folks are right, and I agree with them. Right now a lot of our friends in the nursery business are struggling to stay in business. Wal Mart and Home Depot don't have that problem because they are buying goods from countries who use cheap labor. (Not necessarily nursery stock, but everything else, and maybe nursery stock too.)

If we care about having good nursery stock in the future, we have to keep our local and regional nurseries in business. Every time we see one go out of business it means we are getting closer to having no choice at all except the big box stores. I hope never to see that day.

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

Lainey

I tried the nursery today down the road for the first time sense being warmed about box stores.

To me it looked like all their gold standards had HVX odd bleeding coloring all over some and kind of puckered looking the rest of the blues looked good..

It's a mom and pop kind of place so it sort of felt rude to ask if they know about HVX and if there plants had it.....

I found a lady who buys only mail order and sells on ebay and it seems like she is knowledgable about HVX I think I'll buy from her as she is in my town and said I could pick them up I'm pretty happy to find her.

Well, I'm also on my 3rd summer of this obsession.
Incidentally, I'm in the Twin Cities.
The first year, I went to big box stores a couple times a week to see what new (to me) variety I could find for $5.95.

I bought 1/2 from the big box stores and a couple of small local nurseries. 1/4 from "reputable" large local nurseries and 1/4 from a hosta specialist.

Last year, I bought about 2/3 from large local nurseries and 1/3 from private growers. These growers specialize in hosta and are well versed on growing disease-free plants.

This year is a completly different story. I have removed 4 diseased plants already this year. 1 from a small nursery, 2 from "reputable" large nurseries (not the same place) and 1 from a big box store. The good news is that the "reputable" nurseries will give me money back on the diseased material, but it doesn't remove the contamination from my garden, and I'm now faced with replacing the plant (after quarantining the hole) with a smallish 1 gallon plant when it's going to be surrounded by full 2 year old plants.

I thought that avoiding the shipping charges or gas and time of going to hosta specialists would be cost effective. But, in the long run, buying even the "ordinary" varieties from the big box stores has proven a disappointment.

If I had it to do over again, I would buy only from hosta specialists. If you have to do mail order to get that, then do it. In the Twin Cities, we happen to be blessed with several local specialists. Some of which are even known to be quality shippers as well.

A word of advice: I don't know what your particular situation is, but if you can even remotely predict that you're going to get into this hobby with any veracity, try not to buy more than one of a variety, even if it is a perfectly lovely specimen plant!

I buy from "local" (within a day's drive out and back) hosta nurseries. Eastern Ohio has several wonderful ones. I buy at auctions held by my hosta society; that can be a wonderful source because you get some really great, hard to find hostas. Finally, I've gotten some excellent ones from daylily friends, all of whom have hosta in their gardens.

Once when I was first buying, I went to Home Depot. Half of them didn't sprout the next season, so I gave up on HD.

I buy mostly from mail order nurseries like others on here. But I also have bought some really beautiful plants from small nurseries in my area who may not grow their own, but do know the stock.

From those of you doing the mail-order, what are some of the better online companies you've used? Specifically in the Minnesota/Wisconsin area? I'm hoping to be doing some more ordering quite soon.