Before I buy so much as a pot of daylilies, however, I sit down with the official survey of our property, photos of the yard, graph paper, pencils, crayons, my well-worn garden diary (where I keep track of how various plants have performed in the past), garden books, catalogs, and a master plan I’ve worked on for months, so that my landscaping will complement our mid-century modern house. Because the architecture of our house is far more common to California than the Midwest, the gardens are a living experiment. I’m always trying to find native plants to approximate those used in California landscapes. It’s mostly trial and error, and I don’t mind the errors at all. In fact, I hope my gardens will never be finished, because that means I always have more to learn. And that’s the most satisfying reward of all.

Here are some of my favorite nursery websites:

Forestfarm, a nursery in Oregon with some 5,000 offerings, specializes in out-of-the-ordinary plants. The owners, Ray and Peg Prag, have been operating the nursery for more than 25 years and treat their online customers as friends. Visit www.forestfarm.com.

Eastfork Nursery, operated by Dave and “Sam” Schook in Washington State, specializes in Japanese maples and dwarf conifers. The nursery is small, so the plants receive plenty of TLC before they arrive in the mail. Visit www.eastforknursery.com.

Garden Vision, a small nursery operated by Darrell and Karen Probst in Massachusetts, specializes in epimediums, a hard-to-find and underused plant for the shade garden that comes in hundreds of varieties and colors. Darrell Probst is considered one of the country’s foremost experts in this charming plant. Visit http://home.earthlink.net/~darrellpro/.

The Wild Orchid Company, a small nursery operated by William Mathis, whose fascination for orchids growing outside tropical climes was the subject of his Ph.D. studies. His nursery offers wild orchids that grow in cultivated gardens throughout the United States. Visit www.wildorchidcompany.com.