Online Nurseries 2001 - Avant Gardens

The 'Shop Catalog' link takes you to a page explaining the size plants shipped, shipping season, shipping costs and all the other information you'll need to place an order online. You can also order their print catalog. If you've already got the print catalog and know the plants item number, you can plug that into the 'Catalog Quick Shop' box at the top of the left navigation bar and be taken to that item immediately.

My only problem was narrowing down my list of plants I'd like to add to my garden. I ended up with quite a few to share with you.

Annuals and Tender Perennials

While April's weather rides the rollercoaster from chilly to too hot, the tender perennials in my greenhouse are waking up and reminding me that I need to be thinking about plants for containers for the sizzling summer days to come.

For years, I've been lusting for one of the members of the genus Phormium, now a member of the newish family Phormiaceae.

They are not easily found, at least in my area.

Avant Gardens offers several, including Phormium 'Apricot Queen'.

This is one of the slightly arching forms with twisting one and a half inch ( 3.8 cm) wide pale yellow leaves with green margins that flush an apricot color in fall. The apricot flush is more pronounced, according to some sources, as the plant matures. Unlike some of this genus, who tend to revert, this hybrid is said to be stable.

Phormium are natives of New Zealand and commonly known as New Zealand flax. Phormium is derived from 'phormos', Greek for basket, and refers to the use of the leaf fiber for basket making. The fiber is also used in the manufacture of ropes and twine.

Rated hardy to USDA zone 8, this one will be a pot plant for me. They can, as a rule, take temperatures down to about 20ºF (-6.6ºC). They will grow in sun or part shade. A bit of shade is more necessary for the yellow-leaf forms, which will scorch in very hot sun. San Marcos Growers (wholesale only) note that when grown in shade, 'Apricot Queen' reaches six feet (2 m) in height but when grown in sun, only about four feet (1.2 m)

What would our shady gardens be without Coleus? Avant Gardens has a huge list of them. I'm rather featuring one of these growing around

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