I have just ordered some plants from Bluestone Perennials: Pretty Polly Heucheras, September Ruby Asters, a Pink Potentilla, and a Rosy Lights Azalea. I have heard very good things about this company and was impressed with their comments on the Garden Watchdog ratings list. I used a 20% off coupon and saved $8 off my order.
These, in addition to a few plants from the cheap but not necessarily reliable Michigan Bulb Company: some Echinops Ritro, Lady's Mantle, Astrantia, some others I can't remember. They were offering a seasonal special, as they frequently do, plus their famous One-Cent sales. Their plants are decent quality, but I have heard/read horror stories about them, too. You get what you pay for!
For the rest of the season, I will be working with what I have, and a few packets of flower seeds I got on Ebay: sunflowers, zinnias, marigods, cosmos, hollyhocks, columbines, cleomes, Chinese forget-me-nots, portulacas, etc.I am not sure how successful I will be with the seeds (last year was spotty) but it is an inexpensive way to get plenty of color and bloom. We'll shop the end of season plant sales again, too like last year, when we got a mature $40 rose bush for $3, clematis vines for $3.50 apiece, and some salvias for fifty cents. It is all about saving money now, but there are so many bare spots in the yard, waiting until we can afford full size shrubs to fill in means lots of empty space. So I am trying to be creative.
