Photo illustration: Baltimore Sun/John Makely

Garden Design magazine's Lindsey Taylor performs a gardening public service by testing some new -- and not-so-new -- mail order outlets for a plant material.

She rightly notes that Dave's Garden records consumer comments on over 7,000 gardening websites, so if you have questions about a catalog or website that has caught your eye, you should certainly check there.

But she checked seven outlets and found them to be solid performers.

Among them, Moss Acres, which provides mosses for gardens and terrariums; Tiny Treasures for dwarf conifers and other plants for rock gardens and dish gardens; Annie's Annuals and Perennials for California wildflowers and heirlooms; J&L Orchids for fragrant and miniature orchids; Rare Find Nursery for unusual shrubs and trees, and an old favorite, Plant Delights for hostas, succulents and "utterly new" plants for the garden.

Me? I am bookmarking Simply Succulents, which Lindsey checked out.

Succulents are my new favorite container garden plants. They are exotic looking with fascinating blooms, and they can withstand late summer in our Mid-Atlantic heat without batting an eye.