I haven't noticed much difference in the prices of annuals and perennials, but holy moley, already-planted containers!! Maybe they've always been priced high -- I plant my own so I don't pay much attention -- but I can't believe what they're asking for a pot of EXTREMELY ordinary annuals plunked into a 10"-12" container with a wire hanger.

What they want $35-$40 for, I could put together for about $12, tops. And that's if I had to buy the container new.

I experienced major sticker shock when I started my annual trek to my favorite nurseries last week. I too spend way too much $ on plants but gardening is my passion. I really feel as if it is a rip-off--$10 for a very ordinary perennial in a quart pot, $9 each for Malva Zebrina, which is only an annual for me--but I can't live without it. (Can't believe I did that). $3 for one small annual in one small pot. Etc, etc. I guess as long as fools like me pay the prices, there's no end to it. Like gas in an SUV (no, I don't have one).

$9 for a zebrina?! That's highway robbery. They re-seed with abandon if you don't rush to deadhead (my last garden was malva-riffic). I don't mind paying a lot for something that's tricky to propagate, but geez.

Of course, now that I think of it, I saw a 3" pot of ajuga for sale for like $4.00 at the last nursery I visited. I laughed out loud... and I think I pointed at the pot while I laughed, just to underscore the point.

They never reseed for me, alas. I have grown them from seed and they are easy, which makes me all the madder at myself. These were big plants, about to pop--but still....

I too was in sticker shock! The prices at the nursey was way above last year. The usual 12 -15 hanging baskets were 35. Six packs have dropped to 4, and the prices also went up. For every 2 containers I put together the price was equlivant to 3 from last year. I thought I'd check out discount and home improvenment stores to see what they had to offer. It sure wasn't the payroll to take care of the plants they did have in stock. They had several 1/2 dead plants with no price reduction. I just had to settle for less.

.... no more sticker shocks for me. I found the wintersowing forum and still can't believe how many huge perennials and annuals (in one year), I get from seeds. It's worth the effort and what a money saver it is!! Carrie

Well as a grower look at the cost of growing that little plant. Heat and electric have gone through the roof just like gas for your car. Plastic pots use oil for production and are much pricer than in years past. Add it all up and it equals much higher prices for everything to produce that plant. The prices of oil have been passed onto the customer just like your local gas station. It just costs more to grow a plant.

Hi here is my idea for cheap plants I do it every year I have 4 neons downstair which cost 6 dollars each they last 3 years.Then you need a timer which is about 10 dollars I have mine for 8 years now and it still good. Pots I get free just go to the garden center and ask for recyle pots. They have them thrown in the back all dirty so I clean them I pick up a couple of hundred. Earth I buy 4 bags for 5 dollars this time of year. Peat moss 3 dollars for a med.size bag.You can buy colous seed for 2 bucks or there are trade forms where you can get some cheap the price of a stamp.You can also mail clipping of plants small bulbs like cally lilys. I have 23 16 inch pot to plant every year and it does not cost that much i have about 5 different plants in each I know if you go to the garden center there prices are too much. Just one cally lily is 5 bucks well they can keep it cause I starded some seed and now i have have a couple of hundred. do your homework yahoo has also a trade formes so there is no reason to pay alot for a hobby that you like. I love my garden and its cheap but its alot work and time. If you need any ideas just e mail me Anna lisa

ginny12 You really should try the Malva Zebrina by seed. As long as you refridgerate them before planting they come up quick and grow quick. I saw how expensive the plant was at the nursery too last year and just bought the seeds and did this in late mid-July and had flowers in August. We are moving at the end of summer so I refuse to go to a nursery. Won't I be surprised next year! I really have been getting into the seed thing so hopefully I won't have to.

I have grown them from seed a number of times. But in our short season, I have to start them indoors. I have been traveling and working a lot since Christmas and seed-starting, which requires constant monitoring, was not possible for me this season.

I also discovered WinterSow this past winter and laugh at some of those prices in the nurseries. I do still buy a couple of flats of annuals from a local Community College greenhouse. They employ the handicap and teach them how to garden and raise seedlings. All the monies go back into the program and salaries for the handicap that work there. The flats are reasonable - $9.00 for a flat of 36 - 4" pots are $4.00 - very healthy plants

I still grit my teeth and will buy my two mandavilla for my front porch but I am seriously thinking of new vines. I can't seem to overwinter the mandavilla - ggrrrrr.....

Lynne

Hi,

I experienced the same sticker shock you all are experiencing, last year! It really pushed me to try winter sowing. I did and managed to get 200 containers planted with seed, with help from my family. So far I have 70% germination and tons and tons of plants. It was fun, inexpensive, and I have so many plants I don't even think I will be able to plant them all out. I have been to three nurseries this season so far and bought one 6 pack of pansies. It is so strange, that I am not even drawn to GO to any nurseries. I'd rather spend the weekend planting seedlings.

Between that and the local GW swaps I have been going to, my gardening expenses are much less and I have much more than when I was buying a lot.

:-)

I 3rd or 4th the motion on winter sowing and seed trading. Last year was the first for me and I have saved over $350.00 in plants alone. I used to always buy the plants in the big black containers with price ranges from 9-$24.99. I have not bought one plant last year nor this year! Unfortuanatly I will have to buy more brugs because mine bit the dust while over wintering, but thats ok with me! By the way the only thing that cost the most with the winter sowing is the MG potting soil $11.99 from $7.99 last year...but hey thats ok too! Try it you will love it!

The Garden Pooter!!!

I do grow seedlings. I really enjoy it, it saves money, and I can get exactly what I want. I'm fussy, fussy, fussy about color, plus some things I grow, can't find at the nursery (lavatera, browallia). I grow my own vegetables seedlings too.

Some stuff I don't grow, though, like the elephant ears - I've tried but I just can't get them to overwinter - or New Guinea impatiens. I could take cuttings of the N.G.I. but when I figure in the cost of electricity to keep them going under the grow lights, it may not really be worth it, and frankly I don't want to go that route. I did grow heliotrope this year from seed, and they turned out nice, so there's money saved there.

I, too, have tried wintersowing this year and have a lot of plants, plus really got into seed swapping and have tons of those yet to plant. One thing I have bought is a Guernsey Cream Clematis for 15.00. Today I noticed Walmart had Ville de Lyon Clematis growing nicely in pots for FIVE dollars!! I am going back for it-even if it is Wally world :)

Garden Pooter
I just wanted to mention that I started brugs from seed for the first time this winter in the house on a window sill and had good germination and now have a couple of plants that are a pretty good size to go out. I also wanted more and I started some seeds outside a few weeks ago and they germinated and are up already. I don't know if they would be expected to bloom this year or if I will have to overwinter them and wait for next year. But thought you would like to know. :-)

mxk
I agree also, that some are not worth starting from seed to me and I plan on getting a few...NG impatiens being one. I will get out to the stores at some point, but by then I am sure I am not going to need much...or have room for much! [g] Lucky you to have brought along heliotrope. I love those, but I just can't do a light set up any more. They are too expensive to buy started. Last year I saw a flat of 6 large heliotrope for $18.!! I am experimenting this year to get away from 'needing' the heliotrope.

putzer, the seed swapping surprised me at how 'addictive' it is..lol.

:-)

Hello,
Just thought I would pitch in. Prices are absurd. Yes, oil is up and that will reflect some higher prices. However,
there has been a trend to sell larger annuals for larger prices. You should nor have to pay $5.00 for Heliotrope.
Just buy some seed and a fluorescent light. Heliotrope is pretty easy to grow. I have 20 plants on my back porch.
The hanging baskets are a total rip-off. Many nursery do not want to bother with large selections of trailing annuals. They can make much more with baskets. I don't blame them. They got to make money.
Another I noticed this year was that the selection at my local Home Depot is much better than some medium size nurseries. It used to be the other way around. BTW If you want to buy New Guinea Impatiens, it is like 5.99 a pop.
I would rather buy a flat and do the growing myself. I just can't find any.
If you love to garden you will love growing from seed!

I hate to invoke the name of evil, but I got a couple of New Guinea Impatiens at the local Wal-Mart for 2.50 each, and they were fairly respectable sized plants. Our local Wal-Mart actually does decently with their plants, but there is no variety of course. I still have some white bleeding hearts that I got there last year, and I might go today for marigolds to put in the veggie garden.

Helpmeet works for a nursery/greenhouse so I have to mention this!

Did any of you notice that your heating bills were higher over the winter? do the extension and consider how it must affect a greenhouse! Not only were they whacked with increased energy costs, but they still have to pay the help to transplant the plugs. C'mon you guys, what are you thinking? this is a sensible crowd... but costs to produce are borne by the product that arrives to market.

Chelone, of course you are right but what about perennials, for instance, that don't need to sit in a greenhouse all winter? Around our way, an ordinary perennial is $10 in a small-ish container. And those Malva Zebrina's I paid $9 each for are easy from seed and don't take that long to get to be a good size. On many plants, I agree with you about costs...but some things seem to get what the traffic will bear.

Perennials DO need to sit in "green house" all winter... the difference is they sit in a hoop house that is completely dark! Someone still has to cover the hoophouse with the darkening cover, and all the one gallon plants have to PICKED UP AND MOVED to the covered place when the frosts dictate the season is over. In the spring they have to be fertilized and relocated to the benches where they are arranged alphabetically for the customer's convenience. Labor costs are high. Someone has to heel in all the balled and burlapped trees and shrubs that are to be wintered over. Someone has to deal with rodent-proofing the stock, too. "Easy" perennials are the items that guarantee profit in an uncertain market.

Plastic pots are petroleum based (washing/disinfecting requires labor which is also expensive), and transportation costs are greatly increased. EVERYTHING about plants has increased, especially the annuals!

Greenhouses and nurseries face tremendous, tedious labor requirements in the face of a very short time span. Think about it, 4,000 stored perennials to be moved out, fertilized and alphabetized in under one week, with 2 people assigned the job.

Yes, I find everything more expensive, too. Not only that - a nursery I frequent has started to sell their annuals in the 3-pks instead of the 4-pks - at the same price as what the 4-pks used to be.

Plus, the prices of bagged soil have gone up, too.

At one unnamed northeast Ohio nursery, they were charging $20 for a gallon campanula 'Blue Gown' and $30 for 'Pink Spires' snakeroot in a gallon pot...eeeek!

Alia

As a commercial greenhouse worker I can give you an inside view of this madness too, that will probably make you as sick as it does me. We all know about that whole supply-and-demand thing. A "thing" is worth what a consumer will pay for it. This year especially the demand is for the finished product (i.e planted baskets that are already fully bloomed out and good for only a month or so only to be thrown out and replaced with a new one.) and yes, people are driving for miles to pay these horrendous prices. Why, I don't know. It's the "in style" this year. But since this happens to be the going fad commercial nurseries (like the one I work for) are getting so greedy they would rather throw away unsold product rather than reduce it's price. Consequently, literally thousands of dump truck loads of beautiful, gorgious, wonderful plants are ending up in landfills all over the nation. It's heartbreaking for those of us in the field who truly love what we do and consider our "charges" as the product of our labor and love. I guess the only way this trend can be reversed is for folks to stop paying these outrageous prices for a few years. But it doesn't look like that's going to happen any time soon.

Yea, definitely agree the trend is toward pre-planted containers and hanging baskets. I would rather do my own (and do) for three reasons: (1) it is by far less expensive, (2) I can grow specific varieties I want (from seed or store-bought packs) in the planters, (3) I get a season-long display from a single planting because I don't cram every stinkin' square cm of the pot with flowers.

People pay top $$ for these baskets, and yes they are lovely in bloom, but there are usually too many plants in the pot (they do this in order to get that full, lush effect), but a lot of times by mid-season I see planters that have pooped out, just not enough soil/nutrients/room for root growth with all those plants packed in there. So what do people do when their baskets poop out by the middle/end of July? They run right back to the store and buy another basket, of course!