Ordering plants off the internet?
Question:I wanted to order some plants from www.directgardening.com and was wondering how the plants would come? I wanted to order some hedges and it doesn't say anywhere on there how they come.How tall they are or anything! Any help? I've never ordered plants over the internet before so I'm a little shady about ordering.
Don't know if it matters but I want to order the Purple Leaf Plum Hedge.
Answers:
It doesn't look too good but I've never tried them. Check this out:
http://davesgarden.com/gwd/c/231/...
This year I've ordered from:
Breck's---Pretty good, no complaints
Klehm's---expensive shipping but excellent plants. Impressive. But they don't guarantee their plants like most companies.
Lazy S's---good prices but most plants were too small
Garden Crossings---ok, nothing special pro or con
Meadowbrook--healthy plants, decent price, packaging could be better. No on-line orders, have to call in orders
White Flower Farm---nice bulbs, a little expensive
Avant Gardens---plants were a little small, nicely packaged
Wayside---nice plants, excellent packaging, a little expensive. I had good results but I've heard horror stories about them from many people. Use caution.
Bluestone--good prices, small plants, excellent mum selection, good packaging
Greer---disappointing. Heard lots of good stuff about them but they were late shipping, didn't return my calls, poor packaging, high shipping costs, plants needed TLC when they got here, but most lived. But they have a great selection and perhaps they'd be a better choice for those living closer to them (northwest).
Schreiner's---best selection of Iris anywhere. I placed an order but it won't be in until late summer so I don't know yet about this company.
Brent and Becky's bulbs---I've heard many good things about them and will be placing an order this week. Their catalog has more varieties of bulbs than I ever imagined existed.
Anyway, Dave's Garden has a place on their website where gardeners rate different comapnies and tell their stories about those companies. I always read what other people have to say before ordering from anyone:
http://davesgarden.com/gwd/
I buy locally whenever possible but usually the selection just isn't all that great. I like the unusual and specific cultivars that the local stores won't carry or special order for me. But for annuals or common stuff, I'll go local.
Good Luck!
I've had pretty good luck ordering plants on line. The size of the plant to be shipped is listed at the end of the plant description. Here are a couple of places I've used:
http://www.waysidegardens.com/webapp/wcs...
http://www.parkseed.com/webapp/wcs/store...
we order from them the plants are very small so expect them to take a few years to get some size might do better going to a nursery near you the nice thing about the online nursery is, that you keep the shipping label and if the plant dies, send it back to them and they replace it.
as the other answer suggested they should have a description of height or size of plant/tree being ordered somewhere on your ordering page, they should also either have a "contact us" link or a phone number for orders as well and hopefully they should be able to guarantee the minimum size of plants/trees being ordered. I have ordered plenty of items off of internet for my garden, just make sure they have a return policy clearly stated!
If you're ordering from directgardening, more than likely they will come bareroot, which means you will literally get a bunch of twigs with roots. Order more than you need, because some of them will not thrive at all. I ordered 10 red twig dogwoods from them last year, and 3 of them did not make it. However, the 7 that did survive, have grown surprisingly well.
In my opinion though, bluestoneperennials.com is the very best place to order online plants. They come very healthy, and very carefully packaged, and they are fairly inexpensive.
Most shrubs and hedges will be bare-root. They are normally ready to plant upon arrival so make the proper plans to do it. I order lots of plants online and many are not normally grown in my area. Know the proper care for whatever you order. As stated, the size is usually stated at the bottom of the description.
Hi I run an internet garden centre and florist, so I may be a little biased but ordering plants online can be a lot easier than going out to a garden centre or nursery and the plants generally get to your doorstep within 48 hours. We have some hedging plants on the site at the moment. They come in 4-5cm root plugs with about 10-12cm oftop foliage growth. They cost less than £2 per plant delivered as well.
Why not buy locally, where you can see what you're purchasing? You may see something else that you want more.
Why not support your local merchants? And I don't mean Home Depot!
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