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Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Do buy plants from a local grower if possible. We buy annual closeout / overstock during off season. Local plants are usually far more Hardy and will not be dwarfed for many years, as will a non-native variety.
For the quality of plants, is Home Depot or Lowes better? I just need small plants that I can just take out of those plastic cups and put em in the ground.
Never seen much of a difference: I happen to love Home depot for reasons I won't go into, but Lowes is much closer to us, so unless I am near Home Depot I shop mostly at Lowe's
They are horrible at everything. Lumber is warped. Boxed on shelves are open or re-taped. And take note of the returns... I see a lot of plants & trees being returned. Sure you can get lucky at times, but the quality and choices are better at Lowes
Wow, I have never heard anyone refer to them as "home cheapo" That must be something only people in your area use. Here they are just about the same and as someone mentioned it has more to do with the employees than anything else. AS for things like lumber, etc. I was under the impression the OP was asking more about gardening dept and not the overall store. To each his own,
Just noticed this thread is 5 years old and just re-visited yesterday. There are some interesting responses. Looking at my response to Cambum, he never answered me, but that was so many years ago..
HD and Lowes buy from the same contract growers (Monrovia, Proven Winners, Iseli, etc etc) that most independent nurseries do. As @jaqueg pointed out, it's the on-site care that is more important. The price differential is simply because HD and Lowes get a quantity discount whereas the "indie" growers do not.
But if you are looking for anything out of the ordinary (i.e., not the same plants/shrubs/trees that both HD and Lowes stock), even the independent nurseries may disappoint. For most things, the only difference may be pricing and care (and sometimes, container size.)
Sadly, some of the best independent nurseries -- the ones that had interesting plants and often propagated their own -- are no longer in business in my area (Long Island). However, many will try to do special orders for trees and shrubs IF one of their vendors can get the desired plant(s) for a customer. But often the contract growers will slate certain plants for shipment to certain geographic regions only, i.e., to the Midwest but not to the Northeast, for example. So, many times a special request will be unsuccessful.
In recent years I have taken to driving to Connecticut to visit some independent specialist nurseries there during the growing season. There really are no specialist nurseries left on Long Island; Roslyn Nursery was one, for rhodies and azaleas and, to a lesser extent, dwarf conifers but they closed during the early/mid 2000s. Gardeners who, like me, were interested in rhodies will probably remember Roslyn's catalog from back in the day because they shipped nationwide; Greer Gardens was another great catalog source. I was just lucky to have Roslyn in my "backyard", relatively speaking LOL.
Speaking of catalogs, I was sorry to see Forestfarm sold; the new operation doesn't have nearly as many unusual things as the old one did. Of course the cross-country shipping was a killer (for me) but they usually offered shrubs and trees that nobody else in the USA had at the time.
Last edited by BBCjunkie; 02-13-2020 at 08:43 AM..
Personally, I'm not buying tomato plants at Lowe's anymore - while they might be a better price, they have problems. For the last couple yrs. the plants from Lowe's have either just plain not done well, they've gotten horn worms (eek), etc. Unfortunately, there is a variety that is my fav. and is always sold out at H.D. so I've gone to Lowe's for it but not anymore, might as well throw my money away.
Personally, I'm not buying tomato plants at Lowe's anymore - while they might be a better price, they have problems. For the last couple yrs. the plants from Lowe's have either just plain not done well, they've gotten horn worms (eek), etc. Unfortunately, there is a variety that is my fav. and is always sold out at H.D. so I've gone to Lowe's for it but not anymore, might as well throw my money away.
Look for it online. Many online sources sell veggie transplants through the mail. Find one that is reasonably close to you, and you can pick up your plants yourself.
I have to ask you, what does warped lumber have to do with the gardening dept? As for things being returned, I haven't seen that at either store. Overall they are really very similar in quality.
As for people saying one store has plants on sale, the other does not; this isn't true in our area. Each store is different. I found a better selection of herbs at Lowe's this year, but a much better selection of tomato plants at Home Depot. Of course the ideal place is a private nursery, but you pay for it.
Home Depot has a great return policy. You can return plants for ANY reason, within a year. THAT might be why the other poster saw so many returns.
I prefer Home Depot over Lowes. Where I live, Home Depot just seems to have healthier plants, and more variety than Lowes.
But we have an awesome nursery in our town, that I LOVE to go to a couple of times a season. I just meander up and down the aisles, looking at what they have, and deciding what I need. They are ALWAYS busy.
As a devout gardener, I find the service and quality of Lowe's garden, much better than Home Depot......and for excellent prices, Walmart's Garden Center.......
Do buy plants from a local grower if possible. We buy annual closeout / overstock during off season. Local plants are usually far more Hardy and will not be dwarfed for many years, as will a non-native variety.
Transplant early in AM or after dusk. Less shock.
So true, here in Arizona we are amazed that HD and Lowe’s stock plants that will never thrive in local alkaline soils and the hot summer climate. Varieties like blueberries, azaleas, coastal vines, etc. are in the garden center even though they won’t last one season. The local garden centers are far better with regards to perennials that make sense for our climate.
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