So for all my talk about native plants, here's a nonnative that I like more every year: Deutzia gracilis 'Nikko.' One of mine, shown here, is almost three years old and it's finally looking like the gracious spreader it is.

It's a low-growing shrub that likes full sun but will deal with light shade, blooms en masse in spring - now - and makes a terrific border plant, groundcover or - get this - container plant. Now that's something I'd like to see. I put a lot of annuals in my containers, but I also have new clematis and heirloom climbing roses in several. No reason deutzia couldn't be in there. Even after it stops blooming, it's a pretty green plant.

It was shy for two years. Now it's spreading out and mounding up - nice and round.

It's a bit of a surprise to learn that deutzia is named for a lawyer! Johann van der Deutz of Amsterdam. Who woulda thunk it?! Deutz was one of three men who underwrote the botanical expedition that discovered this plant in Japan. Getting a plant named for you I suppose was the 18th century version of botanical pay-to-play.

I'm no fan of fads. Never been the kind of person who had to have the latest thing. So I've been quietly watching the Knockout rose phenomenon these last few years, waiting to see if the claims were true and if the single Knockout would evolve into a double.

From what I hear, these roses do live up to their billing. They bloom all summer into frost. They're disease-resistant. They thrive in full sun to part shade. And the single, whose look I didn't much care for, gave way to the double, which I like.

We recently pulled out some azaleas that were planted in a bed that gets full sun and never liked it, put them in a shadier spot and replaced them with six double Knockout pink roses. I have to say they look great. And I don't have to worry about this trouble-spot anymore. Knock me out!

It's been a busy week! Just when you think you're "done" buying plants, you do as I did and go to a plant sale to see what's what. Deadly. The month's MasterCard bill arrived yesterday and it's, as they say, awesome. And it doesn't even have what I spent last weekend on it.

Live and learn. This year I thought I'd be smart (first mistake) and order my spring plants online. I ordered some from a very well known seed and plant purveyor who sent them in a big box with arrows saying "This side up."

You know the rest of this story. They were delivered late last week this side down. All of the seedlings had tumbled out of their little plastic pots, potting mix all over the box and plant tags akimbo. "Never again!" I yelled.

Then, to make matters worse, someone at this famous seed and plant purveyor has invented a cardboard gizmo to hold each seedling. I don't know how else to describe this thing, except to say that it's impossible to get it open. They included a list of instructions for how to do it but I was in such a foul temper I couldn't be bothered to read it.

Since when is it a good idea to package stuff up in a way that requires a whole page of instructions to undo? And guess what! It didn't do the job anyway. My plants were a mess. Some heirloom tomato plants were snapped off.

NEVER AGAIN!

Next year, I'm going to do all my shopping at native plant sales and public garden sales, where the plants have been lovingly and carefully raised and people are on hand to tell you all about them. Our experience Saturday at the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education couldn't have been more pleasant.

The plants looked really healthy, good size. Prices were very reasonable and the volunteers helpful and knowledgeable. We ended up buying some native sweetspire, blue wood asters, clematis and native honeysuckle vines. What on earth was I thinking, ordering online? The stuff arrives in impenetrable containers and the seedlings are small.

My clematis order from another company arrived late - and had one plant in the box, not the two I had ordered. And though these were classified as "medium" in size, all I can say is: I'd hate to see "small."

So there's my grouchy rant about online shopping. Here's a link to information about native plant sales coming up in the Philadelphia region and around the state, thanks to friends at the Pennsylvania Audubon Society, who went to the trouble to gather it: http://pa.audubon.org/PDFs/Spring2008_Events.pdf