Perhaps it's the combination of the holidays and a winter birthday, or the hunkering-down tendency that rainy days inspire, but all I want to do is get pretty things in the mail. If I received a box full of dwarf conifers or perky succulents, I might be content to stay indoors until spring…
Garden Design, my new favorite magazine (my friend passed her most recent copy onto me after she read it), has a very helpful feature on reputable mail-order plant companies. Though I am forever in love with San Francisco's own Flora Grubb, sometimes the hour-long train ride to get there seems daunting. Worth it, of course, but most days it seems I lack the time and/or ruggedness to schlep plants home on a crowded train. It's occurring to me that the cost of a cab and of shipping are probably comparable, but let's keep talking about mail-order plants anyway…
I am especially intrigued by Annie's Annuals, home of California wildflowers and heirloom plants, and Moss Acres, which offers "the enchanting tranquility of a moss garden…virtually overnight". Yes, please. Martha Stewart is always doing things with moss that fill me with crazy moss-envy (a moss garden in a giant bowl! moss & mushroom centerpieces!), but I can never seem to find it anywhere. Now there's a world of moss and orchids at our fingertips!
Check out the full list: Garden Design | The Best Mail-Order Plant Sources.
Images: Todd Coleman for Garden Design Magazine
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I highly, highly recommend Andy's Orchids (andysorchids.com). They grow orchid species from all over the world in their California greenhouse, helping preserve rare orchids. And they're so nice and knowledgeable! Apartment Therapy & Renest readers will especially appreciate their "orchids on a stick."
Do you know where the succulents in the far right picture came from? I clicked over to the (beautiful!) gallery on Garden Design Magazine's site and couldn't figure it out.
I ordered some plants online last spring from a very reputable online store and have to say I was disappointed. They were far more expensive and less healthy than plants I can get at our local farmer's market. I did like that they were a bit more obscure, unique to my garden. But many of the plants I bought online didn't survive the transplant.
I would love to have a moss terranium but I don't get a lot of natural light.
@gochrisgo: according to the print magazine, those "hens and chicks" succulents are from Simply Succulents.
I love the Antique Rose Emporium online for container roses. ARE has a great filter where you can select the type of rose you're looking for and narrow down based on color, etc. The best part is their customer service...these people know EVERYTHING about roses. I've also heard great things about White Flower Farm for every plant under the sun. Both companies are notorious for delivering plants in great condition.
Might not be as fancy (okay definitely not as fancy) as most of these sites, but Richters! http://www.richters.com/
Herbs are their specialty and they know a lot about them, but they also sell veggies, flowers, hops, and mushrooms. I am like an 8 year old with the holiday toys r us ads when their catalog comes just after the new year.
Plants have always come in great condition...until our recent mailman, whom I believe to be a sadistic rhino, or Thag, the cro-magnon destroyer of mail. But even when the mailman wrecked the plants, Richters made it right...just in case. Love em.
I've had good experience with www.logees.com. They sell mainly tropical plants. Heard from friends www.whiteflowerfarm.com is good too. They have a wider variety of plants for outdoors (for the colder parts of the US, that is).
Shootz! No mail order plants for us in Hawaii!
Thanks so much for the nice post! By the way, the article should be linked here: http://www.gardendesign.com/how-to/the-best-mail-order-plant-sources
Thanks!
Digging Dog Nursery in Albion, CA is superb. Their mail order dept is extraordinary! Website and catalog are delightful and the staff is not only knowlegable, they're helpful, too!
http://www.diggingdog.com/
Oh, the internets—we've fixed it so that your original link is correct and working again. Ignore my comment above! And thanks so much for linking!