Best places to buy plants in the Bay Area
Even the greenest of thumbs sometimes needs help — sometimes lots of it. Which plants to buy? How to plant them? Where to plant them? How to nurture them?
The best-run garden centers have the answers. They employ experts and —maybe most important — emphasize quality. Selling plants is not like selling power tools or lumber. Plants are alive, each one unique and each one vulnerable to disease, injury and death.
Running a good garden center or nursery takes knowledge, years of experience, organizational skill and a strong commitment to quality.
And since most garden centers buy — rather than raise — most of what they sell, there is room for tremendous variation in buying ability and buying standards.
The opinions Checkbook collected from Bay Area customers on garden centers they use reflect the big variation in quality among retailers. Some stores were rated “superior” for “quality of products” by at least 90 percent of their surveyed customers, but several other retailers were rated “superior” on this question by fewer than 40 percent.
Surveyed consumers gave Home Depot, Lowe’s and Orchard Supply low marks for quality — their stores scored, on average, lower than almost all of the independent stores.
But for the selection of plants they sell, the big chains do very well on price. Checkbook’s undercover shoppers found that Home Depot’s prices averaged 40 percent below the average of all stores for comparable items, Orchard Supply averaged 24 percent below the all-store average, and Lowe’s averaged 22 percent lower.
Unlike most types of services and stores Checkbook evaluates, paying more for plants at garden centers does slightly improve your odds of getting better advice, service and product quality. Checkbook found that many of the stores rated highest for quality charge higher-than-average prices, but some stores that rate high for quality also have below-average prices.
For specific plants, Checkbook found enormous nursery-to-nursery price differences—perhaps more variation than in any subject we cover. For example, for six liriope in a 1-gallon container, prices ranged from $35.88 to $89.70; and for a hydrangea in a 3-gallon container, prices ranged from $20 to $59.99.
Before shopping, make a plan. Consider your yard’s soil type, acidity, drainage patterns and sunlight exposure, and match plant types with areas where they are likely to thrive. Your plan should show how your property will look right away, and how it will look years from now when your plants have grown. Without a plan, you could wind up with an assortment of plants that do not complement each other in size, shape, or color. You might end up with shade where you want sun and with the view from, or of, your house obscured. And you might pay for expensive plants when inexpensive ones would do just as well.
Seek advice from gardening websites, friends with attractive gardens, and experts at local botanical gardens. If you want professional help, you can hire a landscape designer.
When making plant purchases:
Check roots to be sure they have not dried out. Probe with your finger or look through the drain holes of a container to make sure the roots are whitish, not brown.
For shrubs and trees, check for weak or broken branches. Bark should not have scars or holes, and pruning cuts should be flush with the branch or trunk.
Check plants for brown or gray areas or spots on leaves or stems, all signs of disease. And check for insects.
In growing season, be sure there is new growth.
Get a receipt that shows the common and the Latin names of plants and the size, number purchased, date of purchase, price and guarantee. You should also receive instructions on how and where to plant and on what pruning, feeding, and spraying will be needed.
Ask what guarantee you get. Fortunately, even though many plant deaths are the result of improper planting or care—in other words, the buyer’s fault—Checkbook found that most garden centers nonetheless offer broad guarantees.