White Flower Farm


Review of White Flower Farm
January 1998
by Steven C. Chamberlain
105 Academy Street
Manlius, NY 13104
Steve_Chamberlain@isr.syr.edu

White Flower Farm
P.O. Box 50
Litchfield, CT 06759-0050
Phone 1-800-503-9624
http://www.whiteflowerfarm.com
Catalog - free (listed as $4.00 on catalog)

Owners: Eliot Wadsworth, II

This vendor publishes the snazziest full-color catalog in the business and aims at the upscale retail trade. However, they sometimes offer great bargains if you know what you want and how much it should cost. In the past, I have bought the following hostas from White Flower Farm:

I just mailed my order for 1998 they have an impressive astilbe collection offer (12, 3-5 eye plants for $29.95).

The hostas I have purchased were tissue-cultured plants and I imagine that is all they sell. They were nice large divisions, however, and really have done well in the garden.

The 1998 catalog has 136 pages gloriously illustrated in full color. (This catalog has original photographs taken specifically for the catalog and not borrowed pictures from 'standard sources'.) If you don't already receive this catalog, call and ask for one. It does wonders for a gray winter day. They list 10 hosta cultivars: H. 'Blue Angel', H. 'Collossal', H. 'Francee', H. 'Frances Williams', H. plantaginea 'Aphrodite', H. 'Royal Standard', H. 'September Sun', H. sieboldiana 'Elegans', H. 'Sum and Substance', and H. 'Halcyon'. Some of these are shipped bareroot and some are shipped in pots. They also offer an Emerald Isle collection of 6 plants each of 4 varieties.

Prices tend to be slightly to somewhat higher than the average price in the 1997 Hosta Finder and range from $7.95 for H. 'Royal Standard' to $19.95 for H. 'Colossal'. The Emerald Isle collection, however, offers 24 plants for $2.50 each. This is an excellent value, but there is a slight catch. The plants arrive color coded but not identified as to cultivar. When I bought them, they were the four cultivars listed above. However, if you call their 800 number, and ask questions, they can tell you what the color codes stand for because someone deep in the business knows which color codes are which cultivars. (I may have to go through this for the astilbe collection I have just ordered once it arrives.) All major credit cards are accepted and orders are billed when received. Shipping is by UPS at the time appropriate for planting in your area.

All of the hostas I received from White Flower Farm were shipped bareroot and were in excellent condition. Of 48 plants, all were true to form except one H. 'Royal Standard' which has turned out to be something else. It is a spectacularly large and vigorous green hosta, but it has lavender flowers, blooms early, and is not fragrant. If you want these cultivars in quantity, I don't know of a cheaper source for large, healthy plants.

The catalog includes annuals, perennials, bulbs, vines and climbers, and shrubs. Not all of their offerings are commonly available in the trade. In most cases, I imagine you can get it somewhere else cheaper, but sometimes they pass on the lower prices that result from economy of scale to their customers. Then you can get some good buys.


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