By Jim McCausland, Sunset senior garden writer

After 34 years quietly laboring to bring you great flowers, vegetables, and herbs, Log House Plants finally has something to say—enough, actually, to fill a weekly journal called Garden News. You can subscribe and get a free email copy every week.

Based in Cottage Grove, Oregon, Log House Plants is a premium wholesale grower, so while you may well have bought their plants, it would have been from an independent nursery. They have the huge advantage of going to sources all over the world to find plants that make your garden a much better place to be.

Every year their offerings prove to be more interesting than ever. This year, look for a 2-foot banana (anybody can find room to overwinter that),  a wonderful range of arctotis, coreopsis for partial shade with lime-green foliage and bright flowers (we like the 'Cherry'), and 'Princess of India' nasturtium—like 'Empress of India', but with smaller flowers. Most of them are written up in Garden News. It also has reminders, tips, and the kind of chatter you'd hope for over coffee with your best plant-loving friend.

Once you're on Log House Plants' redesigned web site, you can click through to individual plant descriptions. Many are there now (read Delphiniums for a sample) and the rest are coming.