Pre-planned gardens, part II

Last week we took a look at why you might want to consider using a pre-planned garden and who these gardens might appeal to. This week let’s see who offers the plans as well as the plants, who has the best offers and which to stay away from.

The mail order nursery Bluestone Perennials (bluestoneperennials.com) has long offered a series of pre-planned gardens based on plants that they sell. The garden sizes are modest and the designs limited, but for under $100 you can get all the plants and be well on your way this spring. The plants are on the small side though, so it will take a couple of years for the garden to fill in. But I think this is a great way to start and get some experience under your trowel.

One of the best pre-planned garden collections comes from High Country Gardens (highcountrygardens.com). That collection boasts 18 different plans offered from about $50 up to nearly $200. I think there’s great value in these gardens because they’ve been well thought out and are professionally designed for a range of settings. Another benefit is that you can also click on most of the gardens and see them planted out in full bloom, not just an artist’s rendering.

High Country Gardens is an outstanding mail order nursery that I can’t speak too highly of, but they are in New Mexico and their plant selections are based on gardening in that part of the country. Having said that, remember that it does get very cold in that part of the country and the region has plenty of sandy soil. I suspect that most, if not all, of the garden plans from there will do well here. And yes, I have bought plants from them and yes I’ve always been happy with what I’ve gotten.

The White Flower Farm (WhiteFlowerFarm.com) also offers a few planned gardens and a large number of plant collections that can be used for an easily planned garden. Make sure to check out the 100-square-foot “Deer Resistant Garden for Sun,” which includes a plan and 31 plants. The price is steep though, $325. Or you might want to get inventive by using the White Flower Farm plan but with plants purchased locally or from other vendors.

You could also try Spring Hill Nursery (springhillnursery.com), which has eight very reasonably-priced gardens, all of which might do very well out here. The designs are simple and small and the plant varieties are basic. But for a beginner, especially if you have only small spaces to work with or if you want to start small and simple, these may be a good starting point as the offerings encompass sun to shade, season-long gardens and a couple of monochrome theme gardens.

Prices at Spring Hill Nursery range from a very modest $27.99 up to $74.99. And remember, you can double up to make the garden bigger but also keep in mind that you are not buying plants that will completely fill out in the first year, so be patient.

Lewis Gardens (lewisgardens.com) offers 16 different pre-planned gardens. Again, the plants are not the varieties you’ll find in the more expensive catalogs or at local garden centers, but if you are a condo owner or have a small apartment or cottage and you’d like to put in a modest but colorful garden, one of these may suit your fancy. These gardens begin at $19.95 and go up to only $59.95 so temper your expectations.

I also checked out Stargazer Perennials (stargazerperennialcatalog.com) to see what that company had to offer. I’ve never dealt with this nursery but I took a careful look at their gallon pot “Pre-Planned Easy Care Perennial Border.” I think it was the gallon pots that caught my attention as these are fairly large plants in mail-order terms. There are 21 plants of nine varieties and two of them are actually fairly new introductions.

The downside of ordering from Stargazer was that when I calculated tax and shipping, the 60-square-foot garden came out to more than $300. For that price, I know I can buy the same plants in the same size pots or larger at one of our local garden centers, even an expensive one, and spend the same or less and get larger, mature plants. So, in my opinion, this deal is a no deal.

This next company is not one I’d recommend. Recently, I got an offer from my least favorite mail-order nursery. The Michigan Bulb Company (and I hope you won’t buy from them) advertises that for just $9.95—that’s right, ladies and gentlemen, for just $9.95—you and I can get a butterfly and hummingbird garden consisting of seven varieties of plants, for a total of 17 plants, for just $10 (plus shipping, handling and tax, of course). Problem is the plants are all seed-grown and the most common plants. Two of them may be invasive as well. And they will come in pots so small you just may lose them in the garden.

Overall, though, there are lots of possibilities here for a very reasonable investment. Remember though that these are starter gardens. They may be the backbone for a more ambitious project, but they’ll get you started and from there, who knows. Take a look, order early and keep growing.

Andrew Messinger has been a professional horticulturist for more than 30 years. He divides his time between homes and gardens in Southampton, Westchester and the Catskills. E-mail him at: Andrew@hamptongardener.com. The Hampton Gardener is a registered trademark.