As the new year begins, piles of garden catalogs stuffed with all manner of flowers, veggies, seeds and bulbs start deluging our mailboxes. Those glossy photos look so tempting as we flip the pages and sip our tea. Whether we’re in a buying mood or not, it’s exciting to peruse new varieties and ponder others we still haven’t gotten around to acquiring but keep thinking about.
So you circle one here, dog-ear a page there… Finally you decide to commit your choices to the order form and hit send.
Or maybe not.
Maybe you just don’t trust mail order. Or you had a bad experience years ago and swore Never again. But mail ordering living plant material has come a long way. Let me lay out the pros and cons of gardening by mail.
Ordering seeds is easy; there’s little to no risk. But entrusting unseen plants and bulbs to the vagaries of shipping, though, takes a leap of faith if you’re unfamiliar with the process.
Before the Internet, it was hard to even find many mail order houses unless you were a customer already. Selection was limited to top sellers and easy-to-obtain stock. Prices could be as variable as the quality and service, meaning it could be anything from great to terrible.
Fortunately, direct online ordering forced the nursery business to get its act together. The last decade has seen tremendous progress, and with the pandemic, that trend has only accelerated. Customer demand skyrocketed in 2020 and has stayed high with no end in sight. That’s good news for everyone: gardeners, growers and nurseries alike.
On the down side, the pandemic also caused a number of smaller nurseries and mom-and-pop operations to close. But overall the business has persevered, even thrived through it all.
As you may have guessed, I buy plants through the mail regularly because it gives me so many more options. I also support my local growers and nurseries, and I buy locally whenever mail order doesn’t make sense, or I need something right away.
So, how to decide?
Let’s look at mail order’s pros and cons, starting with the cons.
Cons
- SIZE – Plants (usually in pots) are much smaller than what’s available locally. The exceptions are bare-root roses and bulbs, which can be larger.
- PRICING – Mail order prices are often the same as or close to local retailers, despite being for smaller plants. They are rarely lower-cost unless you are buying seedlings, plugs or flats. But, you’d pay the “going price” at retail anyway, albeit for a larger plant. So that’s a slight downside but not huge.
- TIME TO MATURITY – Plants arrive dormant or less developed. Establishing and flowering can take longer than you have time or patience for. Dormancy minimizes loss, but does take time.
- LOSS POTENTIAL – Plants can wilt, die or suffer if they languish in transport, there’s a heat wave, you forget to unpack them or they arrive when you’re away. Try to arrange for plant deliveries to be placed out of direct sun, especially if it’s hot.
- SHIPPING COST – Live plants rarely ship for free unless you spend a lot on your order, and it can get expensive. Due to the handling required it’s understandable but still irksome. Most growers don’t have the bargaining power or profit margin to negotiate better rates.This is one trade-off you just have to accept or weigh against competitors’ rates.
- PACKAGING – Plant shipping is a packaging-intensive business. Most houses are trying to use eco-friendlier materials like cardboard and coir, but there’s still too much waste, plastic and styrofoam in the supply chain. Still, plants tend to be packed well and arrive mostly intact because of it.
Okay, so there are understandable reasons not to order by mail.
But here’s the thing: If you pay attention and follow care instructions, losses are the exception, not the rule. Most plants recover quickly and will thrive despite a rocky start in a box. Shipping costs aside, everything else can be managed or overcome one way or another.
With the freak heat waves this past summer in the Northwest, I did lose a few plants in one cross-country shipment. They simply cooked in triple-digit temperatures during transit. Most suppliers try hard to avoid shipping during extreme weather events, but in this case it couldn’t be helped. Still, such loss is the exception.
Pros
- SELECTION, SELECTION, SELECTION – The top reason to buy mail order is unrivaled choice. If you want a certain cultivar and none other will do, mail order is often the only way to get it. Extensive online catalogs, botanical garden websites and university ag extensions are packed with information, photos, trials and reviews. Take advantage of them.
- SIZE – Sometimes smaller is a plus. Young specimens often establish faster than older transplants, but it depends on the cultivar. Many plants (think trees) would be too big to ship any other way than as seedlings or whips. Don’t judge on size alone as a reason not to buy.
- QUANTITY – Mail order is a cost-effective way to buy groundcovers and meadow plants in bulk. For example, a single hellebore plant in flower can cost $12.75 to $25 at a retail nursery, whereas a flat of 6 plugs via mail order is $20, or $3.33 each. Yes, plugs will take 2 -3 years to bloom. But if you can wait, the savings are well worth it.
- GUARANTEE – Most mail houses guarantee their plants upon delivery, and a few for a limited time thereafter. If you document any issues promptly and honestly, I’ve found all will honor their promises. For the few problems I’ve had, the supplier provided either full credit or replacement plants. They really do want you to be satisfied. This kind of service is rare at retail.
- GEOGRAPHIC HARDINESS – If a plant is grown in the same or colder zone than yours, the chance of it surviving in your garden is better than one from a warm zone or unhardened in a greenhouse. With local retail plants you have no way of knowing their origin unless the retailer tells you. For instance, roses grown on their own roots in colder zones (as opposed to grafts coming from warm regions) are often hardier and do far better in the ground their first year than those raised in warmer climes.
- BETTER GROWING INFORMATION – All mail order houses provide planting and care instructions, and growers will often go into great detail. You’ll learn a lot in a hurry, whereas retailers rarely provide any information beyond the plant tag.
How Do I Choose A Mail Order House?
There’s no right or wrong to this, and there are dozens of mail order suppliers from a few big guys to small family-owned operations. I prefer not to drop names, because there’s no way I could possibly include every deserving house. Conditions change year to year too. The exceptions I make here are a few of the most well-known names whom you’ve probably heard of anyway. But there are many excellent small operations that do an impressive business and offer great selection and service. So use your own judgment and research online.
Here are some tips to get you started.
Start with a familiar name that’s been in the business a long time and carries what you’re looking for. There are a handful of generalist houses who have weathered many storms, literally, and are still going strong. Look for consistently positive ratings. Three safe bets (all of whom were founded by individuals who began their careers at the original Wayside Gardens operation in Ohio) are:
- White Flower Farm – Litchfield, CT. Excellent quality and service, but also one of the priciest. Never the best value, but always good quality stock and good customer service.
- Bluestone Perennials – Madison, OH. A personal favorite. I find the coir “pots” they use do not degrade in my soil and inhibit growth despite their claims, so I remove the coir before planting. A small quibble. Bluestone usually has an excellent selection.
- Wayside Gardens (Now a Jackson & Perkins subsidiary owned by Western Capital Resources) – Hodges, SC. The original mail order brand and perhaps the largest mail house in the US or close to it. I’ve found the quality and service are much better recently than had been the case in previous years.
Once you are comfortable with the mail order experience generally, feel free to try other suppliers and specialty growers. The thrill of discovery online is half the fun. Don’t forget to make a note on your calendar of your order’s expected arrival date. Most houses ship at the optimal planting time for your region, which can be weeks or months after you placed your order. (Many don’t charge your credit card until the order ships, another reason to keep track of timing.)
TIP: For hard-to-find cultivars, here’s one of best sources: Digging Dog Nursery in Albion, CA. An excellent family-run business with good service and an amazing breadth of choice. Their catalog doesn’t have a full phalanx of corresponding photos, so you’ll need to research those online. Unfortunately they don’t archive your past orders, so keep those confirmation emails! I find them indispensible.
Avoid bargain houses whose main selling point is discounted pricing and little else. (This includes Amazon, by the way, unless you’re buying seeds.) Low-ball sellers are associated with poor to average stock, dried up bulbs that fail or are too small, and careless packing. If a claim sounds too good to be true, it probably is. No plant information is another red flag. Not all bargain sellers are bad but why take a chance. These are often the houses that are responsible for giving mail order in general a bad rap.
Beware of “collections” on sale. These are often repackaged odds and ends destined for clearance, especially if the deal is a one-time offering. It might be fine or it might be crappy. Bulbs may be tiny or non-viable. Don’t risk it. If you like mixed colors, stick with regularly offered planned collections that tell you exactly what’s in them, such as “field quality” bulbs, or that list the exact varieties included.
Consider a specialty grower if you have a particular passion. In other words if you want peonies, seek out a peony grower. Specialists care deeply about their business, offer a wide selection and take every precaution to ensure customers have a positive experience. They won’t be the lowest priced, but they stand behind their stock. All provide in-depth information and tips for success. There are excellent specialist growers around the country for nearly all major perennial categories such as roses, irises, lilies, natives, conifers etc.
Read the fine print. I know, it’s a pain! But at the very least, get familiar with the shipping policy, the sizes offered, and where the grower is located. (Stock from colder zones will be late breaking dormancy; stock from warm areas may be past peak.)
Stick with North American sellers. There’s plenty of choice on this side of the pond without having to deal with foreign currencies, exhorbitant shipping fees, import duties and the like.
Keep a list. I have over a hundred suppliers bookmarked by category like generalist, shade plants, succulents and so on. Being organized allows me to zero in on what I’m looking for in seconds. I also keep past orders and receipts, as well as notes about service.
When to Buy Local
I love buying locally when I can. Consider patronizing your local independent retailers using these simple criteria:
- You know they carry the cultivar you want
- A plant is just too critical to buy unseen
- You want instant impact now, today!
- Excellent value, or it’s an impulse buy — we all love those 🤗
- To show your support for local businesses
I hope these tips are helpful. Do consider trying out a mail order house, especially for a coveted plant that just isn’t available locally. And no matter what, enjoy your catalog browsing this winter, whether it’s physically by the fire or digitally. No weeding necessary.
