Conventional Garden Centers vs․ Online Nurseries: What Tennessee Gardeners Actually Need to Know
A customary garden center is a retail nursery where you walk down aisles‚ move plants to your cart‚ and see exactly what you’re bringing home before you pay for it․ That’s the whole appeal‚ and the whole flaw‚ because area garden centers are jammed full of whatever moves best in garden centers‚ not necessarily what’s a good plant to grow in your patch of Tennessee clay or Zone 7 winter․
If you’ve gardened here for any length of time‚ you’ve done it: driving around to three shops looking for native ferns or a particular perennial‚ and coming back empty-handed (or with a random selection of items)․ Online nurseries at least solve the inventory problem‚ but there are questions you need to answer before you click ““buy””․
What to Check Before you place an order
As plants are not like garden tools‚ but are living things that sometimes arrive stressed‚ return and replacement policies are very important․ A good nursery understands that this will happen‚ and should provide a guarantee of at least 30 days․ Reputable online nurseries guarantee their plant purchases for a full growing season․ Be sure to read the fine print about what ““damaged”” means versus ““died because I forgot to water it for two weeks․”” Reputable companies will distinguish between the two․
One useful thing to know about plants is their hardiness zones․ Tennessee ranges from Zone 6b (Mountain City near the Virginia border‚ which is in a colder pocket of the state than the Memphis area‚ which is in the southwest corner of the state) to 8a․ If it just says ““hardy perennial””‚ with no zones‚ do not buy it․ The description should say something like‚ "“hardy to Zone 5"” or "“thrives in Zones 6-9"”‚ so that you can match it to your county․
Not only how‚ but what: bare-root plants and dormant stock travel differently than potted‚ actively growing plants․ The plant nursery must ship bare-root trees late winter (a few months before the spring equinox‚ roughly January through March around here in the Southeast) when the soil is still workable and the trees are still dormant․ By July when a nursery is selling bare-root trees‚ the trees will be leafed out and less able to survive the shock of being transplanted without soil around the roots․
Your actual gardening needs should determine where you shop
Not all nurseries sell the same kinds of plants․ If you’re creating a new shade garden under huge old oaks‚ as in so many of Tennessee’s neighborhood restoration projects‚ you need a nursery which offers true shade lovers: ferns‚ foamflower‚ wild ginger‚ native sedges․ Big-box garden centers typically only have two or three types of ferns‚ the ones that ship best on a truck‚ without considering your specific needs․
So if you are doing erosion control on a slope (realized by many property owners in the rolling terrain of Middle Tennessee) you are buying a truckload of ground covers or native grasses‚ not a one-gallon pot․ A very different shopping experience from buying a few annuals to throw in a pot on the porch․
Consider the scale of the space you will be planting․ A flower bed refresh is a completely different purchase than investing in a foundation planting of shrubs and trees that will be part of your landscape for the next two decades․
Budgeting Realistically
It’s worth keeping in mind when reading articles about gardening‚ though‚ that the dollar cost isn’t the only cost․ A $15 perennial that perished because it was ill-suited to your soil or light conditions is a total loss‚ but a $25 perennial from a nursery that correctly identified your zone and growing conditions‚ and was shipped (read: arrived at the right time) is a better value for you and your bank account․
For the budget-minded Tennessee gardener‚ bare-root stock is almost surely the smartest money․ Bare-root trees‚ shrubs and perennials cost much less than potted plants because nurseries do not have to grow and maintain plants in pots of soil‚ water and greenhouse space․ Bare-root plants are usually planted while dormant (late winter for most woody plants‚ early spring for perennials) and often develop roots at least as well as‚ and sometimes better than‚ potted plants because the roots do not circle the inside of a container․
What Conventional Garden Centers Get Wrong
Big-box and general garden centers tend to be designed for foot traffic and impulse sales‚ not regional accuracy․ They also have high staff turnover․ The person refilling the petunias next to the shelf of ‘‘full sun perennial’’ plants may not know that in July‚ close to the Gulf of Mexico‚ the full sun in a Tennessee perennial is a very different stress from full sun in a drier climate․ Since plants are often sitting on shelves and watered sporadically for days or weeks before you’re ready to buy them‚ you’re often purchasing a plant already stressed before it gets to your yard․
Specialty and regional online nurseries‚ on the other hand‚ are growing and shipping plants that are actually grown and maintained under Southeastern conditions․ For example‚ TN Nursery groups its plants by growing region and plant type․ If you know you need moisture-loving natives for a low spot in your yard or drought-tolerant ground cover for a hot‚ exposed bank‚ that is what you can find‚ not hundreds of plants in an undifferentiated list․
A Practical Checklist Before You Buy
It may be worth checking through this first:
* Is the plant description accompanied by hardiness-zone information that is specific enough for your county? * When will it ship? Does that coincide with the proper planting time for that plant (dormant season for bare-root‚ spring/fall planting time for potted perennials)? * What is the warranty period and what does it cover? * Is this a bulk purchase for a large bed or a small accent purchase for a small child‚ and does the nursery offer reasonable prices? * Have you also checked to see whether the plant is native or naturalized to the Southeast‚ since that may affect its chances?
None of this is hard to do‚ but this is how gardeners end up with a yard full of plants that looked great in a photo but struggled the moment they hit real Tennessee soil․ A little homework before you buy saves a lot of replanting later․
