Garden Shopping

I like going to nurseries to shop for my garden every spring, but since the emergence of garden centers in practically every store I regularly shop in, I hardly visit the nursery anymore. Why pay fifty dollars for a new lilac bush at a fancy greenhouse when I can buy one at Home Depot for only twenty-five bucks? I suppose there may be a compromise in quality when shopping for plants at regular stores rather than garden centers, but even if a plant or bush is wilted when you buy it, you can always nurse it back to good health.

There are especially nice garden centers in the Super Walmart and Kmart in my city. Walmart is especially nice because the store itself is huge and even has a whole food section where you can buy groceries or ready-made foods. When I was there recently I decided to check out the garden center to see what I could find, thinking it would be lacking in variety similar to the garden centers in the local grocery stores. I was surprised when I walked outside into the huge chained area that contained every type of plant, flower and seed imaginable. They even had a whole supply of lawn maintenance supplies including fertilizers and bags of special soil.

I bought myself a lilac bush from Home Depot a few weeks ago and I planted it in my front yard as an experiment to see if a cheap bush would grow as well as the nicer ones I’ve bought at greenhouses over the years. So far the lilac is looking great and I expect that it will continue to do well as long as I pay attention to it and take care of it while it takes root. The real test will come next spring when I am able to see if it produces flowers. If it does then I will probably continue to shop for plants at garden centers rather than at expensive nurseries.

The only real reason to go to a nursery for plants and garden supplies is if you need knowledgeable staff to answer your questions. One thing the garden centers don’t have is staff that specializes in plants. The employees working in the garden center are just as likely to be working in the CD section or the household cleaners, and therefore probably won’t know much about plants. But with the wealth of information that is available on the internet this shouldn’t be a problem when planning your garden.