Do you usually buy your plants/flowers from places like Home Depot or a local, smaller place?

I have found that places like Home Depot or Wal-Mart usually have the best prices, and since I have owned my home (and garden, yeah!) that is where I have been getting my plants and flowers from. But sometimes, I drive by one of those smaller, farmer type stores, and think I should go in just to see what they have, but I'm usually in too much of a hurry to do it. But from what I see from their displays outside, some of their stuff really looks top quality.



Although, with a little Miracle Gro, anything can look pretty good, right? ;-)

Do you usually buy your plants/flowers from places like Home Depot or a local, smaller place?
Local nurseries tend to carry varieties of plants that do better locally. The super mega barn stores just buy whatever is cheapest. If it doedn't grow in your area, oh well.... I found this out through experience. In 40 years of gardening I never planted a tree that died. Never. Then we moved and I bought half a dozen trees from Wally World. Every one of them died! But those I got locally are still going strong. How much did I "save" by purchasing from WalMart?
Reply:I like to shop at the local mom/pop stores because they have a green house. They grow their own plants.

I also like the plants at Meijer's. There is always a good selection at a good price.



I have never bought any thing from Lowe's or Home Depot.

We purchased our two maple trees from a local wholesale nursery. We got a good deal and they planted the trees for a good price.



Happy Gardening.
Reply:Like most have said already....best to stick with Mom/Pop when it comes to purchasing your plants. The local grown plants simply hold up much better and If I'm going to shell out the funds on a plant I want it to make it! I tend to plant perennials that come back year after year and my success with the local nursery is far superior to WalMart or Lowes or Home Depot who sell forced plants. You're choice however but for me I'll stick with my local guys. Besides, they are really nice and friendly and usually I walk out with at least one free plant each season!
Reply:I would definitely go to a local nursery or garden center that specializes in plants only!! When I was taking my plant disease courses, I'd always go to those home improvement stores to find plant diseases, cause they're usually riddled with disease, insects, or wilting, or they look really bad. That is where we always went to find diseases on plants. Those places tend to be less interested in taking care of their plants because they only have to pay for the plants they sell. (Why do you think they have a warranty on their plants!)



The local garden center, Ma %26amp; Pop's are the best place to go. They are the people that know about the plants they are growing (not saying that people at Lowes don't know). Plus they may grow the plants there and do not ship them in from larger nurseries. To me, a Ma %26amp; Pop store is more reputible and they normally have more to choose from!



I have bought plants at Lowes and from the Ma %26amp; Pop places. I always get sad in the big chain stores becasue of all the wilting or dead plants I see. There's always somebody doing something to plants at the Ma %26amp; Pop places!



When you do purchase plants, no matter where you get them, it is always good practice to do a mini inspection for diseases or insects. If you see something that doesn't look right, don't buy it!
Reply:I do buy some plants at Lowe's or Home Depot, but most I buy at small Mom and Pop nurseries. The smaller places usually have better, healthier stock. They are usually buying their stock from smaller growers who spend more time caring for the plants than for mass producing plants. However, Lowe's, and probably Home Depot, have a One Year money back guarantee if you keep your receipt. So there are pluses to that too.
Reply:Home Depot/Lowe's and even Walmart as plants go on sale or off season. Home Depot has the best warranty if you keep your receipt and your plant dies within the first year they will refund or give you another. Happy Gardening
Reply:The best thing about the home depot is that your plants a guaranteed for a full year and they are brought in by well known nurseries
Reply:I usually stay away from Walmart when it comes to plants.....just found they have poor quality where we live. Lowe's is good to get them from.....however, I still LOVE going to our local nursery. We get the best quality plants from them.
Reply:we always go to wal-mart first and get the basics, like herbs and petunias and supplies. then we go to the "farmer -type" stores for more of the decorating and specialty plants.
Reply:Only Lowes and one nursery have healthy looking plants in my area. I'm with you about miracle gro. I've nursed many a dead looking stick to a beautiful plant with a little MG juice. m
Reply:I would suggest supporting the nurseries that grow plants organically and sell native plants. That's what I do. You'll get plants that will last longer and handle the weather shifts better.
Reply:Absolutely have no desire to shop at Wally Mart. I have found unusual plants at our local nurseries and the people that work there are really knowledgeable on caring for the plants. Costco offers plants at reasonable prices, so that's where I go to aside from our local nurseries. The Home Depots and Lowes have lots of plants, but their personnel sometimes fail to water the plants and I see a lot of wilting plants, what a waste!
Reply:The problem I found with plants is that they have been "forced" to grow to a certain size and maturity stage in large commercial greenhouses under ideal conditions. You buy those, plant them out in your garden, and they go into some sort of deep shock. After all, they are living things, too....

I buy my "cheap stuff" like annuals in supermarkets, because of the price, and I don't become too depressed when they don't make it, or turn out as weaklings.

But for expensive plants, like trees and perennials, I make sure they have been grown by a smaller nursery, and LOCALLY. That somewhat increases their chance of survival.

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