Look's like the cat is out of the bag. According to "Sprout" the journal of The American Association of Nurserymen, "Monrovia Growers, Asuza, Calif., has announced to its customers that the company must 'show significant improvement' to spring bookings or risk a distressed sale of its inventories, and has extended to them the opportunity to purchase excess, 'specially priced,' top-quality plants." Here is the real juicy part. According to Sprout, "Monrovia long has sold its brand, 'Distinctively Better Plants,' exclusively to independent garden centers, but has been repeatedly approached by mass merchandisers; its creditors now are urging the company to sell Monrovia’s quality plants in generic containers through Big Box channels. Lenders have given Monrovia a January 31 deadline." This is a horrible development brought on by the poor economy. Unlike Hines Nurseries which sold to the box stores on a regular basis, Monrovia always supplied mostly independents. Monrovia was always a quality company and I enjoyed working with them in the past. Let's hope they can pull this off and stick with the independents. I doubt it though. Wow, times are changing fast.