I don't buy if I can help it - I trade plants with other gardeners, I play slave-labor for others in exchange for plants, and I keep my eyes open when the yard sales start up - I got first-year foxgloves for a buck a piece once, because I had my little 'poaching' shovel in the car.

I've also found all sorts of stuff either on craig's list, or already on the curb - azaleas and hostas seem to get ripped out by new homeowners with frightening regularity ;)

locally, I'm spoiled - there are three or four local garden groups that do plant sales every spring, as well as a native plant group, the Audobon society (who does native plants, and plants the birds like) so it's been years since I've had to buy plants by mail.

best garden shop in Bucks County? Geerlings. hand's down.

cheapest? Fairless Hills garden center. nothing exotic, but great prices on bedding plants and smaller perennials.

I get mine mostly in big box stores in the end of the season on clearance.

Lowes has a lot of stuff on clearance year round. If something is blown over by the wind, chances are it goes on clearance within the week. With March winds I'm going to start checking my local store a few times a week.

A month ago I noticed Menards had just put up their seed racks and had a sign showing the packet prices and then the price now. It was almost 50% off of the packet price. I didn't buy enough but then I have a lot of seeds already. yesterday I saw that same large rack (20' long and seeds on each side) and the sale price notices were no where to be found. Packet prices only.

Good thread. Bump!

This afternoon I got some '6pack' of plants at Lowes for 25 cents a piece! Needless to say several flats worth are now in my tiny little apartment garden. The employee saw me looking through the racks and told me flat out that they were beaten up in last weeks rain/wind storm but otherwise perfect. (that works out to less than a nickle per plant!!!!)

craigslist under free and under farm and garden,late last summer at lowes got yellow raspberrys and red lake currants for like a couple dollars a piece,best ever was when i worked for a farm related retail store and was put in charge of throwing away flat after flat of weather beaten annuals and end of season rough looking perenials,moved my pickup by display filled truck bed of my ranger and me and my dad resurected about 75% of what i got put non survivors in compost pile,wow free landscaping plants.

Lowe's seems to do the best job of marking down their plants in our area. There are always a couple of racks that have been marked down drastically. Just this year, I have bought about 30 gerbera daisies (over several weeks) for $.50 a pot - and some pots even have 2 plants!! If the plant is a perennial and just looks poorly, it will perk up after being planted, watered and "loved".

Walmart is the worst for markdowns. They keep a cart where they throw in bad looking plants. They wont sell them, they say they are going back to the dealer.
Tammy

I've bot a lot of inexpensive plants at yard sales and charity plant sales but some are invasive so a person has to be careful. I've bot seeds there also which were a real bargain.

Overall, I think growing both annuals and perennials from seed is the cheapest way to get a lot of plants for pennies. You'll have enough to trade with friends or your local garden club.

For cheap plants I would definitely say Menard's in the midwest and Lowe's on the west coast. The garden centers at Menard's are getting better every year and their prices are really hard to beat. You've got to love the individually owned garden centers/nurseries, but you definitely pay more.

Like natalie4b above I do the end of season clearance sales. Watch them carefully, they may go fast.

I got some very big veggie mark-downs at HD last spring. When people were badmouthing big box stores for selling tomato plants too early, I picked up several for about 2/3 off. I took a chance, got them in the ground early, covered them when necessary, and got a few weeks jump on the season. They were getting their earliest stock off the shelves to make room for the 'regular' stock at the 'usual' time. I'll be watching again this year to see if they do the same thing.

Agreed, yard sales have some great plant bargains.

santarosa.gardens . com They have a decent collection and their price is really fair.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.santarosagardens.com/Default.asp

If you're looking to order online, greenerearthnursery.com is a good place to get shrubs and grasses at pretty good prices.

Here is a link that might be useful: Greener Earth Nursery

Letsgoplanting......I know this is a bit late regarding the post, although i need to get the name out there as me and and my friend both recieved service which was BRILLIANT! The company is based in United Kingdom Somerset, called Letsgoplanting and theyu deliver to the whole of the UK and will deliver abroad for additional fees, the plants i recieved were brilliantly packed, and to a very high standard. On top of this i recieved two FREE Plants which i happily planted in my garden ready. They have fantastic plants, fantastic customer service, fantastic packaging, and they even take orders over the phone! Honestly im so pleased ive found a company that i feel put the customers first (Finally a business understands that the customers are fantastic!)

The Link is: http://www.letsgoplanting.co.uk/

Here is a link that might be useful: Letsgoplanting

Lowes bargain bins
End of year seed sales at any of the stores
Roses and bushes from Big Lot and Aldis - These are bagged roses in Spring and most times you can pick them up for under 5 bucks. Got 2 at Aldis for 3 bucks each. I know that the rosarians cringe, but paying big bucks for a rose that I have to baby throughout the year takes all the fun out :)
Get bargain plants that re-seed; my petunias have reseeded for the 3rd year running and each year they have different colors.

I too love Lowes bargain bins. If i can't wait to the end of year sales then I usually order from budgetplants.com.

Here is a link that might be useful: Budget Plants

Check with your local hardware stores at the end or change of season.

"My" Ace Hardware will have plants of one sort or another on sale from now until they get in the Thanksgiving & Christmas stuff.

Last August, the worst time in Texas for plants, I got about a half-dozen little coreopsis plants for 25 cents each.

Planted them, watered the pathetic little things, figured I was wasting the water...have had spectacular plants & brilliant flowers all spring & into the summer.

1.) Spring State Nursery sales for neighboring states. Great source of bare root trees.
2.) Lowes clearance bin in September
3.) Bluff View Nurseries. Their shipping is erratic but they sell unusual natives cheap.
4.) Plant sales at Botanical gardens.
5.) Garden in the Woods's Fall clearance sale.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bluff View Nursery

I've actually been seeing some great prices on plants and seeds on ebay and Amazon. I got some really great prices on iris and daylillies in my local area off of Craigslist.

Rona! I find their cleaning out basket of stuff to be tossed, pick through it and make an offer of $0.50 each for the big ones. They are always glad to get rid of them.

I never thought about plants on Groupon but saw some good prices on fruiting plants, berries, and flowers. I ordered a couple to see their quality and am waiting for my package to arrive. I used a coupon code and shopped through a cashback site to make the deal better.

I have bought seeds from Ebay, but I don't know if they were seeds they grew and prepared themselves (from their plants) or just repackaged seeds put into a custom envelope which makes it look like their "business" with a logo. However, value-wise, it was very good. For example, for $4, I got 100 nasturtium seeds, instead of $1.50 for about 10 from the local store.

I'm currently finding plants and bare roots in stores like certain dollar stores, Big Lots, etc

Earth Day Specials.

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Free shipping for all orders at -
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Collect plants on walks in the neighborhood. Seeds or a small cutting or ask a neighbor if they need help dividing plants. Then a replicate those plants. Within a year or two I'm up to my ears in plants. Once people know you're interested in plants they'll come by to offer cutting, divisions.

It's a great way to meet neighbors and learn how your plants come to be. Way more fun than buying a plant.

I agree with waterbug_guy. Never buy plants if you don't have to. Grow them from seed or cuttings. And never support the commercial horticulture industry and its malignant practices of spreading invasives, blights, hybrids, and genetically-modified specimens that are ravaging our ecosystems and sending wildlife into extinction.

Great thead...even it it was started in 2009. B

minnamouse, have you tried wintersowing? it's much easier than I thought and by far the cheapest way to go. if your not up to that, metropolitan plant exchange does a 40% off sale twice a year by me that I wait for. they also have a clearance rack. I do admit I've driven past a vacated restaurant with an abandoned garden that is just begging to be dug up. I'm not that brave (yet)........

I'm on Oklahoma and our forum has a Spring Fling. We bring our extras and swap. I got all of my tomatoes and most of my peppers there this year! I have a neighbor that gardens and he gave me 4 trees last year. I typically spend too much on my garden. I decided to put myself on a budget with it. It has really paid off!

I found the BEST online nursery an they have a few different stores...

www.RealFlora.com

www.TeaTimeFlora.com

www.GrowZone10.com

I know this is pretty old, but I found Santa Rosa Gardens by reading through this thread, and I placed my first order this week. I'm very impressed. Usually, I'm a regular at the Lowe's clearance racks, but SRG had some end of season deals on a few things, and I took a chance. Nicely packaged & healthy plants, very quick delivery, and great prices. Flat rate shipping was a bargain too. Sounds like a commercial, I know, but I swear I don't work for them! :-) www.santarosagardens.com

I don't know about locally, but the cheapest I found online this spring for fruit plants or trees (and asparagus!) was rockygapgardens.com

Sometimes they do free shipping. The plants are all still alive, so I'm happy.

Santa Rosa Garden is offering 50% off coupon with their already amazing discount price. Use coupon code = VIP50, expires Oct 31, 2015

The cheapest I've found is groworganic.com.

Baker Creek Seeds( rareseeds.com )

mowildflowers.net (plants and seeds are cheap (very cheap mailing of seeds)

americanmeadows.com but you can find most items cheaper at mowildflowers.net

directgardening.com (super cheap and on par - maybe a bit better - than other nurseries online). Some people gripe that the hostas they receive are smelly! (or have other gripes that makes me wonder if they know anything about plants) Seems weird someone would buy hostas and think those plants do not like rotted leaves or manure. The hostas have done awesome for me! The yellow ones make a huge difference and is a very nice contrast in my shade garden.

I love growing my own plants, so I will knock on doors and ask people for seeds and cuttings. I've made some great garden friends in the process, one elderly lady who nearly landscaped my whole yard because I offered to help her clear out overgrown yard for the plants. She had some seriously gorgeous large bromeliads that sold for $50 each at the one place you could buy them in the area. I must have gotten $1,000 worth or bromeliads and other plants from her for 8 hours of work. We remained friends and I got even more plants from her in years to come.

I also trade plants and seeds with people online and off, and dig up, get seeds from, or take cuttings from beautiful blooming natives from the side of the road. I have no pride when it comes to my garden. LOL

Of course, I buy half-dead perennials from Lowe's and WalMart markdown racks and bring them back to live. I also live in an apartment complex and have gotten some plants people left behind or gave to me when they moved. I also used to belong to a community garden and got quite a few free plants and seeds from there.

I was just figuring how much I've spent over the past 3 years since I"ve lived in this apartment on plants, and it came out to less than $50 and most of that was fertilizer and potting soil.

Speaking of potting soil, Lowe's will sometimes mark down broken bags, because they can't sell them for full price. I got 5 bags of nice, organic soil for 50% off by offering to take the broken bags off their hands for a discount. Same for plants with broken pots. I got a beautiful peach tree once for 1/2 price because the pot had split down the side and wouldn't hold water, so it was drying out and dying.

But the best and most treasured seeds and plants I get are from GWers. I have such good friends here who regularly send me plants and seeds for no reason at all except they know I love growing from seed and don't have much of a budget. I always pass the favor forward or send them something I know they are looking for.

Sorry but you asked about cheap, Well I grow everything from seed except potatoes.I save seed as most of my buddy's do and we trade some back and forth.Dirty brought up potting soil and I get the real thing here. I have a guy that uses 420 brand potting soil to grow his weed! He does it in 20 gallon pots and then throws it away after 1 season! So me being frugal I help him out with that and I get about 600 dollars worth of 420 mix every year to use in and around my garden.

State departments of conservation like nys DEC sell seedlings of shrubs and trees

Joe G. -- I wish I had such a source for soil! We lost trees in our apartment complex in a hurricane here about a year ago (Irma). They cut and ground out a couple of large stumps from oak trees that fell, and I've been waiting for those wood chips to rot so I could start hauling them over here to my gardens. This is the time. I'll start soon adding them to the soil to see what happens. It's been over a year, so they should be safe to add to the soil.

Dirty ,From what Iv'e read It takes a lot of nutrients out of the soil to break down wood chips,Around here in the fall leaves are piled up everywhere and I go fill my utility trailer full of whatever type I want and shred them before I till them in the ground. You might want to look into leaves vs wood chips. I was at Walmart today and they had Bonnies 4 inch pot tomatoes for& 1.50 . I went to Home Depot and they wanted $4.25 for the same thing!! Man it's so easy to grow your own and save seeds.

Joe, I already use leaves. I luckily have a large chiquapin oak that gives me plenty enough leaves for my gardens. It takes about a year for the grindings of stumps to break down enough to use, because they are so small, not at all like wood chips from a chipper. I've been watching them, and they almost look like coarse soil now.