Several mail-order nurseries specialize in the vireya and in the development of new hybrids that thrive and bloom lavishly in a sunny window facing east or south.

But now Wayside Gardens, a large all-purpose mail-order nursery, has thrown its hat into the ring, putting out a 48-page catalogue devoted entirely to roses.

And in 1988, Renee Shepherd sold Shepherd's Garden Seeds, a small mail-order nursery in Felton, Calif., with unusual vegetable and flower seeds, to White Flower Farm, a much larger mail-order nursery in Litchfield, Conn., which eventually abandoned the line as a losing proposition.

Whenever buying native species, especially the rare ones, ask the garden center or mail-order nursery how the plants are acquired and how they are propagated.

The catalogues of our best-known mail-order nurseries regularly offer perennials of British origin, even if some of them, like Michaelmas daisies and phlox, turn out to be selected forms of plants native to North America.

But some larger mail-order nurseries have been listing them of late, and several nurseries specialize in them.

Several mail-order nurseries, are offering three new varieties of periwinkles, with names that sound like they are right out of the opening scenes of "Gone With the Wind," with the swirl of crinolines and petticoats: Pretty in Pink, Pretty in Rose, and Parasol.

Most mail-order nurseries comply and many are now identifying the sources or origins of the bulbs they sell.

Most mail-order nurseries start shipping this month and gardeners on the receiving end have to act promptly if their valuable plants are to survive.

The same mail-order nursery lists an upright evening primrose Oenothera glaber that has bronze-green foliage and deep-red buds.