Stores, Catalogues, Fellow Hobbyists: A Guide to Where to Find Plants

Winter is a great time to get to know the many places where you can acquire plants.

Local plant suppliers. At garden centers, nurseries, home-improvement warehouses and some hardware stores, you can see the plants you're buying.

For example, a downy serviceberry ( Amelanchier arborea), an eastern redbud or a scarlet oak bought by mail order is usually younger and smaller than one at a local supplier where larger trees and shrubs are brought in by the truckload.

When establishing a garden, you might want to include some mature trees and shrubs to create a background. Mature trees -- six to eight feet tall with two-inch trunks -- are more likely to be found locally, not via mail order.

Nurseries grow trees, shrubs and perennials. Most nurseries are in rural settings. Professionals at these facilities are excellent sources for information.

Familiarize yourself with local nurseries and garden centers, and establish relationships with the people there. It takes at east a decade for your garden to grow into a work of art -- 10 years of planting, replacing, dividing, removing, discarding, and learning where plants will and won't survive and thrive. A liaison with your plant supplier will bode well for you and your property.

Large chains and discount stores such as Home Depot, Wal-Mart and Sam's Club might offer lower prices, but they have considerably fewer choices in size and variety than do most full-service garden centers. The plant information you get from a large chain will usually pale compared with that from the experienced staff at a local garden center.

When buying plants, ask about warranties. National chains and many garden centers guarantee plants. Warranties can run from 30 days to a year. Meadows Farms, a large Washington area garden-center chain, promises that greenery is "guaranteed for life" if the store plants it. That's tough to beat. Many people don't realize they can go back to stores with a receipt and dead plant and get a replacement.

Local landscape contractors. Landscape contractors who perform the work can supply and install mature trees and shrubs of a size far beyond one person's ability to plant without a machine. Root balls on very large trees (three-inch caliper or larger) and shrubs can easily weigh 500 to 1,000 pounds, or more. Most landscape contractors who install plants will warranty them. If you have a contractor deliver trees and shrubs for you to plant, there usually isn't a guarantee. Some landscape contractors will install plants you purchase without a warranty.

Mail-order catalogues. Mail-order companies, whether they sell via catalogues or the Internet, are common sources for seeds and herbaceous plants. Herbaceous plants are those with soft, fleshy green stems, such as annuals, perennials and bulbs. Buying them as seeds or root pieces will not compromise your landscape design. Historically, much shipping of plants was as seed.

Annuals are usually available as seeds. Order now. Cool-season flowers, such as snapdragon and viola, and edible plants, like spinach, kale, kohlrabi, broccoli and cauliflower, can be started by mid-February. Warmer-season plants, including peppers, tomatoes, squash and beans, can be started from seed by March 1. With a heated greenhouse, you can start plants around Valentine's Day.

Some companies to turn to for seeds, bulbs and rooted plants are Renee's Garden ( http://www.reneesgarden.com), Thompson & Morgan ( http://www.tmseeds.com), Burpee ( http://www.burpee.com), Brent and Becky's Bulbs ( http://www.brentandbeckysbulbs.com), Sunshine Farm & Gardens ( http://www.sunfarm.com), Andre Viette Farm & Nursery ( http://www.viette.com), John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds ( http://www.kitchengardenseeds.com), Heronswood ( http://www.heronswood.com), Park Seed ( http://parkseed.com) and Seeds of Change ( http://www.seedsofchange.com).