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Scoutjr, I see your original post was a while ago, but if you haven't had the work done yet, then I would like to offer my professional opinion. If the guy who gave you the quote gets offeneded or won't do the work unless you use his plants, then something is wrong and he is not the guy for you. Ultimately, landscaping is a service industry and you are the client, whom we are there to serve. Yes, it can be good if we get to use our own stock or source the plants wholesale, but to be honest, sometimes I'm not sure if the mark up even covers all that is entailed in fetching and caring for the plants. Anyway, the point is that if you are willing to pay for the labor (the cost of which includes appropriate overhead, ie. fuel, insurance, etc...) then we will plant whatever you want wherever you want. Of course we will tell you if we think it is not such a great idea, and we will not guarantee the health of the plants. It gets a little more complicated if you are hiring someone for a design/install, rather than just site work and planting. Still, the bottom line is that you are the buyer. When I am not a landscaper, I have a little bit of a life, and sometimes I have to hire contractors. I just had a guy come and repair some damaged sheetrock and trim, but I told him just to do the hard stuff, and I would do the finish work (painting, etc...)so I could save some money. He didn't say "oh no, either I do all of it or none of it". Is that a good analogy? Am I writing myself out of work? Also, many clients do their landscaping projects in phases. If we are reasonably sure that you are serious about actually doing phase 2, and phase 3 then it's really not so bad for us, as it guarantees future work.