Keep saying 'I do not need more plants'....

Clematis Multi-Blue
Deutzia Chardonnay Pearls
Kolkwitzia Dream Catcher
Salvia Eveline
Eryngium Sapphire Blue

Very happy!

CLEMATIS Paniculata
VIOLA Heartthrob
VIOLA Rebecca
CLEMATIS Rosemoor
HEUCHERA Purple Petticoats -2
COREOPSIS grandiflora Early Sunrise
LAMIUM Orchid Frost
PENSTEMON Dark Towers
PENSTEMON digitalis Husker's Red

I always had a great success with Donahue's Clematis I bought directly from Donahue's and from Bluestone Perennials. In fact, they grew better for me than 3 times more expensive Clematis from Chalk Hill and Silver Star nurseries. I always pot them up into 1 gallon pots till fall. By September, gallon pots are filled with roots.

As for Penstemons, I've never tried them before.
It was your pictures Echinaceamaniac that made me purchase them :)
Love that combo with Echinaceas.

Agastache Blue Fortune (mine crapped out a couple years ago)
Heuchera Smokey Rose
Phlox divaricata Clouds of Perfume

I also wanted that gorgeous Actaea with the maroon leaves "Hillside Black" - but it was sold out while it sat in my shopping cart!! :(

I just Googled SUREPOST. Had never heard if it, either.
Looks like it is just a new name for UPS BASIC.
Here is a small portion of info from the link below..
"United Parcel Service will likely soon market its joint line service under a new name "UPS Surepost" rather than previous unappealing name, "UPS Basic."
The name UPS Surepost name was trademarked in 2010. The name does not appear on UPS's website but based on posts on Able Commerce Shopping Cart Software and Browncafe, it appears that UPS is test marketing the brand and the service. Information on UPS Surepost is also available on a web page dedicated to UPS Worldship software.

I wouldn`t worry about your orders, yet. They are also known for good customer service, refunds, replacements, etc., tho I have never had to use those services yet.
Just my two cents!
Nutmeg

I've also ordered several times from them in the past 3 years, and have never been disappointed.

I agree, BP customer service is superb, call them.

So 10 days minimum in a box...I hope that box has windows!

THALICTRUM Glaucum
HELENIUM Mardi Gras
HELENIUM Red & Gold
HOLLYHOCK Rugosa
HOLLYHOCK Spring Celebrities Lemon
PAPAVER Double Tangerine Gem
CENTAUREA Macrocephala
HEUCHERA Obsidian
HAKONECHLOA macra aureola
HOSTA Rainforest Sunrise
CIMICIFUGA ramosa James Compton
ACHILLEA Terra Cotta
SEDUM spurium Dragons Blood
DIGITALIS Ambigua
ALCHEMILLA Mollis
COREOPSIS Creme Brulee
CHRYSANTHEMUM x superbum Gold Rush
ANTHEMIS Sancti-Johannis
GAILLARDIA Burgundy
GAILLARDIA Oranges & Lemons

The Gaillardias look a bit peaked, but I expect them to perk up. Everything else is gorgeous especially the Hostas. Most of this is going into a new lasagna bed that I've been working on for two years. All of the above is an addition to another large order I had earlier placed during their spring sale. Al least most of that is in the ground.

I guess I know what I'll be doing this weekend.

Okay, I couldn't resist and ordered a 2nd order last weekend. What's more, they had the Cimicifuga/Actaea Hillside Beauty back in stock and they added it to my order! Yippee!

Got a bunch more Phlox, heuchera, Atilbe, and Agastache 'Black Adder'. Where on earth will I put these?? (especially with a bunch of WS seedlings to plant!)

With temps pushing 100 degrees the past week, I doubt the plants will arrive alive.

Mary

Mary, that's a long time since your order was shipped - Arkansas is not that far from Ohio so what's up with that?? My 1st order came very quickly (early on in the sale), plants were great. The 2nd order was shipped last friday on June 3rd. We'll see when they come.

Buyorsell, I've already got a big enough pot ghetto...would love to shrink that down. I think I've got spots mapped out in the gardens for pretty much all the plants (phew). But that's only because a few duds got shovel pruned.

I'm at an all time low because we've had terrible weather this spring and after forty years I finally own my own horse and need to cut back on plant buying.....

said in a thread where I bought plants...

What do you think? The Little Honey hydrangeas still have a bit of moisture in the potting soil but the three pack is dried like little bricks, no moisture at all in their potting soil. The plants have to be terribly stressed.

Mary

and:

Meanwhile, try to nurse the plants back to life.

Hydrangea "Little Honey" is wonderful, although it never bloomed for me.

The Cimicifuga Hillside Black looks great. About half the other plants are in good shape, and about half look like Mary's (some possibly worse). They might have been stuck in a hot place over the weekend sometime? Anyway, I'm going to plant them and see how they do and if they don't make it, call Bluestone.

I had visions of blooms this summer, but that won't happen with most of the plants. Bluestone sale plants usually spend the first year establishing root systems anyway. Got to fill in with annuals or the Salvia Black & Blue just purchased at the nursery.

Also 2 plants were back-ordered, and will be shipped in late August.

This is exactly the way my two Little Honeys look this morning. I also emailed BlueStone. Perhaps we should call.

I'm sure they will make it right but I'm thinking it's now too hot to send such a delicate plant through the mail. Maybe we should request a refund.

Mary

I had to pick the leaves out of the packing peanuts and pile them into the pot to take that picture. The stems were bare....

Here's what my two 'Little Honey' plants looked like this morning. Mary

Mary

They shipped on a Friday, during some CRAZY heat. My plants sat somewhere unfriendly to plants for a weekend!! The plants arrived on a Wed. When I did the math, BP could have shipped on Monday and the plants would've arrived on Thursday, one day later and two days less in a heated box.

However, all of the plants thrived after the abuse. I planted them the same day as arrival - more abuse because it was like 100 degrees that day - FULL ON SUN too!! Now I know to leave them in the shade, well watered, to allow a bit of recovery before planting; for a day or 2.

If my plants would not have survived, BP would have replaced them.

Unless their customer service has diminished, they'll replace your dead plants.

P.S.
I did order from Santa Rosa Gardens clearance sale, this year, and am more then happy with the plants' health - even after shipping from FL to CO!!

I have ordered from both places and am more then impressed with SRG's quality and shipping, but BP has great selection and healthy plants as well.

Happy Gardening!!

Santa Rosa Gardens is farther than Bluestone is from me but shipping cost less and was much faster.

Bluestone shipped a week before Santa Rosa did but the plants only arrived two days before....

Santa Rosa does look very interesting though and I'd like to try it next year.

Anyway, I was wondering too why Bluestone shipped my order on a Friday, when it would be in the box for 2 extra days. That might account for some of the heat stroke the plants seemed to suffer.

If it is a zone 5 plant it is a zone 5 plant though might be further along in growth from a warmer zone than a colder....

Bluestone does carry a lot of perennials, I might order again but not this year for sure....

I learned from experience to order immediately when the sale starts. The quality is better and that extra two weeks
early makes extended high temps somewhat less likely. Also that two weeks earlier shipping means plants are smaller and may not need to be cut back, or are less pot bound.

Of course I've received plants that look like stems. They do re-leaf grow very quickly and i"m sure nearly everything have survived . Again, though planting small starts in June brings special challenges.

For instance, right now my many of my garden plants are have nearly reached full height. The current bloomers, like baptista, are towering. A small start cannot get the sun it needs when it's surrounded by giants. Also, it is too easy to lose track of tiny plants at this time in the season. Forget to water them, etc. You might not; I do.

So, I've done a few things: I just pay full price early in the season so the small plants can get a better start with more space and more time before hot weather.

Or/and I put the plants in a holding bed water them religiously, feed them lightly until they are big enough to compete with the big guys

Over the years I've built a couple of raised beds just for "growing on." (english expression, i think, like "potting on..."

I have become more patient. Last year I kept the small ones going all summer and didn't plant until early fall. Much bigger plants, much lower mortality rates. Some that didn't get in last fall got planted this spring. Yes, a full year later but, as I said, after gardening nearly 40 years I am more patient.

And if I really want something big now, I go a bricks and mortar nursery and pay the asking price. But I shop sales there too....again I go early to the sales...stock better, happier easier to plant

Marie

I potted it anyway to see if it would live but it is very dead.

Of the ones I planted, my mums, coreopsis and violas are already blooming. My heucherea and polemonium are putting on new growth and looking beautiful. All in all, I am very pleased.

I am very happy with this year order from Bluestone. All plants arrived very healthy. I planted them in the garden during very hot week and they did not even wilt.
I placed my order immediately after the sale started. Maybe, that is why the order was perfect.

Another good company for ordering small plants is Garden Harvest Supply. They do not have huge selection, but they sell lots of newer cultivars of Heuchera, Hydrangea, Hakonechloa, Lilac, Echinacea, hardy Mums. Also, great selection of annuals and organic fertilizers.
Lots of other stuff, but the list above reflects what I ordered from them :o)

The plants from 2nd (larger) order that placed toward the end of the sale are not faring so well. Two of the Phlox 'Blue Paradise' and 1 Agastache 'Black Adder' are dead sticks. Looks like 2 of the Phlox 'Natasha' are dead. It is borderline for the Phlox 'Clouds of Perfume'. Astilbe and Echinacea 'Prairie Splendor' are doing okay. I will be contacting Bluestone for replacements once I have the final tally of casualties!

As Alina suggested, seems that the plants towards the end of their sale are not such good quality. Maybe they are the dregs of what's left.

I started several of the Digitalis purpurea cultivars from seed this year (seeds from Swallowtail) like some of the Camelot series, and Apricot Beauty, and would be pretty bummed if these seedlings I'm pampering and planning to plant out according to COLOR, and waiting more than a year to bloom, turned out to be common foxgloves...