If you are a butterfly gardener, then I assume that you always have an eye out for another plant for your garden. If you are into providing plants that will support the life cycle of the butterflies in your area you have many specific wants and needs. If you are fortunate enough to have an exceptional local garden center, butterfly group or native plant society you may find just what you are looking for. If you are like me, whenever, wherever you travel, the car just seems to pull into those garden centers, nurseries, etc. you find along the way…that is, if time and spouse will allow you the slight detour.

However, you are aware that many of the best host/larval plants, particularly, are difficult to find locally. That brings us to nurseries that do mail order. My nursery, the 4^th in this series, is just that.

My first experience with any mail order nursery was Sunlight Gardens, located in Andersonville, just a few miles north of Knoxville, TN. They advertise in the classified section of several of the garden magazines and will send you a nice catalog if you prefer a hard copy. My first order was almost 7 years ago when we were first establishing our garden in earnest and I was delighted with their offerings. I appreciated the opportunity to read their horticultural notes for each plant as well as having the chance of finding so many native plants available. I was pleased with the ordered plants. Of course, the biggest drawback to mail order is the shipping charges. The other is that in order to go through the mail, the plants are usually smaller than the 1 gallon (or larger) containers usually available in nurseries and garden centers.

Well, I took care of that. I have visited their place of business 3 times as it is a short detour less than 5 miles one-way) from I-75 which we travel back to Indiana. My third visit was just a week ago on another return trip. As their main emphasis is on mail order, they are really off the beaten path, and this is a “working” nursery, you will not find the attractive/fancy display gardens as you would find in more populated areas.

The advantages, however, are that you can see the plants and pick out the ones that appeal to you. The disadvantage, whether buying by mail order or in person, is that the plant you want may not be available when you want it.

Sunlight Gardens assures you that plants available from their catalog/nursery have not been collected from the wild.

Sunlight Gardens, as many of the mail order businesses, is now on line. You may visit their website, www.sunlightgardens.com. I still enjoy the hard copy for the descriptions of the plants and the colored photographs. The website will list plants that are not in the catalog. For a free catalog, send request to: Sunlight Gardens, 174 Golden Lane, Andersonville, TN, 37705. Check them out.