How to understand and evaluate the quality and value you'll find from various
kinds of plant retailers
We've been growing and selling plants for a long time now, but we've been buying them
even longer! Here, Steve & Kristi offer some helpful advice, to ensure you get the best
quality plants!
As you might imagine, it matters where you buy your plants! There are lots of wonderful nurseries all over the world, offering healthy, carefully-grown plants direct to home gardeners. Sadly, there are also some less-reliable ones. So, Rule #1: Know Your Source!
-"Big-Box" Stores, whether they boast an actual garden center, or just have a few
plants on an end cap or two, can be a place to score deals on some interesting
additions to your indoor landscape. That said, there are a few considerations
when buying from major retailers: Often, these stores have no one specifically
trained to care for plants, so it can be hit-or-miss as to the quality you'll find.
Your best bet is probably to get to know the manager of whatever department
includes lives plants, and get some inside info. on when new deliveries will be
coming in. Big box stores generally purchase from a small pool of larger growers,
whose business is focused specifically on producing plants for them. Large
retailers need plants that can survive well with minimal maintenance, are delivered
to the store in attractive packaging, ready to sell, and which hit the "high spots"
of customer interest. This isn't going to be the place you'll find that super-rare
Anthurium you read about in National Geographic, but it can be a great place to
find mass-produced plants at a fair price. In our opinion, the key to understanding
big-box retailers and how to shop their plant selection lies in one fact: almost every
home center, department store, or mass retailer carries live plant on a pay-per-scan
basis, meaning, the store doesn't actually own any of the plants in its inventory.
Instead, the vendor (either the primary grower who produced the plants or a
distributor for multiple growers) still owns every single plant until it's sold. When the
plant gets scanned at the checkout, that's when the retail store actually takes
ownership of it. In other words, any plants that die on the shelf aren't the retailer's
problem: dead stuff goes back to the vendor (or, at least, the store doesn't have to
pay for it!) Now, do you see why nobody bothers to offer those employees any
real training beyond maybe sprinkling some water occasionally? If it doesn't cost
the employer money, why would they? (In fairness, let us say that on a few rare
occasions, we've actually encountered people who specifically sought out a job
in the garden department of a big-box store because they love plants and know
lots about that--but that's definitely the exception.)
Final analysis: Shop with caution, and carefully inspect your purchases.
-Online Mega-Retailers can be a mixed bag. Sites like Amazon and Temu offer
a dazzling array of plants from literally thousands of sellers. As with shopping for
shoes, a vacuum cleaner, or toothpaste, always read the reviews! If a seller has
lots of reviews and most are 5-star, we like to quickly scan any 1- or 2-star reviews,
just to see why they were given. Keep in mind, dear plant-fans, that there are
those people in this world who would've be pleased if you gave them a free
pound of gold, gift-wrapped it, and hand-delivered it to them in bed. None of us
would care to be judged by one person's opinion, but it pays to see if there's any
recurring theme (slow shipping, poor packaging, lack of communication, etc.). If
possible, use a search engine to see if you can find any outside information about
the seller, just to ensure there aren't a million people screaming online that it's a
scam. As in all things, caveat emptor ("Let the buyer beware.") Other sites like Etsy,
eBay, etc. represent a mix: many sellers are primary growers, whether a little old
lady in Pasadena selling plants she rooted from her own succulent collection or
a small business entrepreneur reselling plants bought in bulk from one of the
major growers who don't do retail. For the most unique plants and the best
advice, try to find a seller who is a passionate hobbyist, devoting lots of energy
to becoming an expert in one particular group of plants. Those are the folks we've
learned most from, and legitimate ones, at least, are a wonderful resource for those
plants you just won't ever see in your local store or nursery.
Final analysis: Know who you're buying from, know your rights as a customer, and
when in doubt, ask questions!
-Local Independent Nurseries can, again, encompass many kinds of sellers. In the
age of mass retail and the need for small business to compete with it, it's not uncommon to find that your neighborhood nursery is selling substantially the same set of indoor plants offered at that national chain store or price-club. Still, there are benefits to buying those plants from smaller, plant-focused businesses. First and foremost, the employees are actually trained, and they should be able to do a great job of not only caring for the stock, but advising you how to best care for the plant you're considering. And then there are the "rare few"--those local nurseries and garden shops who are actually growing their own plants. Across the industry, the vast
majority of plants sold have been delivered to the retailer ready-to-sell--often with
labels and barcodes already applied, in display organizers, ready to produce a
quick turnover of inventory and, thus, increased profit for the seller. Still, there is
another step between just buying plants and putting them out for sale and actually
growing from seed, cuttings, or tissue-culture in-house: many of the better garden
centers and local greenhouses purchase plants as what are called "plugs"--trays of
already-started young plants, which are grown to maturity in their own greenhouses
and potted for sale to the customer. Typically, you get a very high quality product
from these nurseries, and it can be worth asking whether they produce or merely
resell finished plants. A good indication can be had, just on pulling up to the
garden center: if there are lots of large greenhouses, chances are good that at
least some of their plants are being produced in-house. It takes lots of space (and
lots of labor, water, and propane to heat that space) to produce plants, even from
plugs, so it's an enterprise that really only pays for itself if it's done in a big way.
The other major advantage of independent retailers, in our humble opinion, is that
the hard-earned money you spend with them stays in the local community. Far be
it from us to begrudge any corporate bigwig his platinum-plated yacht, but we do
have a soft spot for the "little guy" (or girl), working hard with their own hands to
make a living and spending their own paycheck with other local retailers. Big
business in an unavoidable necessity, at least for most of us, but small business is
good for everyone!
Final analysis: Small businesses often provide more variety, healthier plants, and
more expertise, not to mention you may find better prices!
-Online Retail Nurseries are much like any other online source: you should do
your homework and find out as much as you can about the seller. Read the fine
print on their website, and ask questions when it doubt! Our advice is to shy
away from any company that won't fully answer your questions, address any
concerns you may have, and clearly state its policy on returns and refunds. A
good online company will go above-and-beyond to ensure customer satisfaction,
every single time. Online nurseries fall into a couple of subcategories. There are
larger ones, typically specializing in plants, bulbs, seeds, etc. that are available
in bulk and which can be adapted to standardized packaging, and smaller ones
that may offer a much broader selection, especially if you're into rare and unique
plants, but probably won't have thousands of each variety. We can best speak
about this from a personal perspective, as we're a small, rural, family-owned and
operated business. There are wonderful companies whom we respect and admire
whose business is selling millions of plants. We've bought from them for our own
collections, and there are many that are doing a great job! Our own business
model is focused not on developing massive volume of sales, but on selling
unique, hard-to-find, high-quality plants for a specific audience, namely passionate
plant-nerds like us! We produce most of the plants we sell, and they're grown in
small batches, rather than acres of the same thing. If you're browsing our site and
see a super-rare Philodendron or a foliage Begonia you've been seeking for years,
we recommend you don't delay, because some specimens we offer are
one-of-a-kind, and we seldom have more than 50 or so of any variety in stock at
once. This presents some challenges, in that our website takes constant work to
keep it up-to-date (and we occasionally fall behind.) We also have to carefully
hand-tend all those thousands of cuttings and baby plants, but it allows us to
achieve a very high-quality end product. And by dealing with fewer overall
customers, we're able to quickly respond to questions and requests, take time to
write long emails when needed to offer detailed advice, and carefully hand-pack
every single plant for shipping. The most challenging part of our business is
finding ways to offer amazing plants at great prices. Smaller production is always
more labor-intense on a per-plant basis, and we work hard every day to find ways
to purchase supplies at the best possible cost for quality, automate routine chores
like watering and misting, and take other measures to keep prices low for our
many faithful customers.
Final analysis: Get to know your online nursery and its staff, expect great product
knowledge and friendly, personal service, and remember that value is often a
wiser focus than just price!
