Do you purchase plants online?  

Garden centres here are usually closed when I get home from work in the evenings and I sometimes have to work at weekends, so I tend to buy all my plants online. They are well packed in little black pots which are then placed in a larger plastic container. They cost a little more than what I would pay in the garden centres, but there is also a guarantee with them and I also received free gifts. Sometimes this could be a large bucket of bulbs or an ornamental plant in a nice vase. I usually buy shrubs and vegetable plants and sometimes a few plants for around the borders of my garden.

I have purchased bulbs on line, which arrived in excellent condition. They bloomed and have come back each year. The company sent me many bonus bulbs and a bulb planter.

I've bought qute a few bare root plants from Bakker here in Dublin. They have a lot of specialty varities of fruit that just aren't available otherwise. Most of the stuff I bought has done well, although it was often far more expensive then it should have been. For instance, they had dwarf citrus for 35 euro, but I picked up one very similar at a local shop for only 7 euro. The most important thing to me is that they have a no quibble policy when you complain. I have had a few things die, and as they are guaranteed for 5 years, it's a nice safety net. All I had to do was ring them and a refund check arrived within the week.

Our sunday paper always has an ad in the coupon flyer for an online store called michigan bulb and though I've never ordered online before I'm thinkin about ordering from them this spring...We're finally putting gardens in here this yr and that place looks like they have a HUGE selection so I'd like to try it out and see how it goes...for the usual stuff that we used to get at our old place I'll probably just go to the local market mind you but there are some plants that I want that Ive not seen at any local market so I'll buy those online...

I did buy a couple of plants last year through ebay but they did not last long, I think it's better to get plants, bulbs etc from a company brochure online plus it worked out more expensive in the end so I won't be doing that again. There are however lots of ads in the newspapers for bulbs and plants my mother always purchases hers that way and has never had any problems. In fact she buys them with her neighbours as it works out cheaper when you buy a lot so that's a good way to keep prices down and everyones gardens look good!!