海角大神

Moving is often cited as one of the top ten most stressful events in life. I don鈥檛 doubt it, but in my case, I was so busy coordinating our recent move I didn鈥檛 have time to realize I was stressed.

We put our Maryland house on the market in late January last year, it sold a couple of weeks later, and we closed on March 31. And oh, by the way, we left for our son鈥檚 wedding in Australia a day after the settlement.

When we finally arrived at our house in North Carolina in May, we wasted no time starting a new garden. I wasn鈥檛 able to bring any of my plants with me, so at first it seemed fun starting fresh with a completely different garden design.

Now, exactly a year later, I am beginning to miss some my old favorites from all the years I gardened on the Eastern Shore. And I鈥檓 discovering how difficult it鈥檚 going to be to replace them.

Out-of-the-ordinary roses are hard to find

We鈥檝e been reading a lot lately about financial problems in the nursery industry and the bankruptcy of big names like Jackson & Perkins.聽

If you鈥檙e looking for a Knock Out or climbing rose, the collapse of some of these businesses probably is not going to affect you.

But what if you鈥檙e like me and want to locate a unique variety called Lyda Rose?聽 The bloom of this shrub rose looks more like an apple blossom than a rose, but it puts out amazing sprays covered with dozens of simple, exquisite flowers.

Unfortunately, you鈥檒l never find one at your local big box store.

A indicated that four nurseries in the country carry Lyda Rose. As it turns out, only one had her in stock, and I fortunately snagged the last available bush from in Alachua, Fla.

Louisville Lady was the next rose I tried to locate. I鈥檇 left six behind in Maryland and was having a hard time finding even one. Fortunately , came to the rescue. They not only had Louisville Lady, but another miniflora I was looking for, named . The plants they sent were beautifully packaged and extremely healthy.

Tracking down perennial partners

Some of the companions I planted with roses in my cottage garden were more than 15 years old. I鈥檝e found some lavenders and catmints, but was striking out when it came to a favorite variety of Centranthus (also known as Jupiter鈥檚 Beard.)

I鈥檇 grown both the red and white varieties, which produced beautiful clusters of flowers on long arching stems from May till frost if the spent blooms were pinched back.

is readily available, but I鈥檇 just about given up finding when I discovered聽 . They had exactly what I wanted, and I was very impressed with the quality of all their perennials.

So it seems that smaller nurseries have helped me replace my old garden faves in a big way.

Now if I could just get my hands on .

PSSST: If you have sprays forming on your shrubs and floribundas, pinch out the terminal (biggest) bud in the center, then all the other blooms in the cluster will open together.

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Lynn Hunt, the Rose Whisperer, is one of more than a dozen expert gardeners who blog regularly at Diggin' It. She's an accredited horticultural judge and a Consulting Rosarian Emeritus for the . She has won dozens of awards for her writing in newspapers, magazines, and television. After a recent move, she grows roses and other plants in her garden in the mountains of western North Carolina.. To read more by Lynn, click here.You can also follow her and read her .