WFF is expensive and I don't order from them. That being said, I have purchased pricey plants from other growers. The fact is that some plants are rare or otherwise expensive to propagate. And, yes, many gardeners will pay a premium for such plants. I probably wouldn't spend that on 6 plants from WFF, but I could easily spend that on 6 or fewer plants from a place like Plants Delight or on 6 or fewer difficult to propagate native lilies from a local native plant nursery I frequent.

What I will NOT do is spend money on plants at big box stores.

I was looking at their Echinaceas today. They sell them for $19.99 a piece and they are sold out!!!! What is wrong with people? LOL.

Some people think that anything expensive is necessarily better, and White Flower Farm takes advantage of this belief. They probably need to charge higher prices to pay for their catalog, anyway!

I've paid more than that (way more than that) locally for plants that were good size and/or plants warranting the cost (re: Mary's post above). Generally speaking, price is not a deciding factor in purchases I make - quality of plant material is, and so is size to some degree (I prefer larger plants right out of the gate). I'm also not stoopid - I know when I'm getting ripped off (whether I look the other way and choose to be ripped off is a different story LOL!)

It is also important to me to buy from local establishments (which DOES NOT include big box stores).

What is it with you people always bashing the big box stores? Where do you think they get the perennials they are selling? They get them from local growers. So if i can get some real nice plants from Lowes or HD for a great price with a coupon, I WILL!

No, they don't always get them from local growers -- and they are tremendously exploitative of growers generally. They have been a very significant vector of diseased plant materials (which often isn't obvious to the buyer). They have a very limited selection of plant material -- which, because of their force in the market, tends to limit choice for those of us who don't go there as well. Of course, those are just the gardening reasons.

I dislike their behavior as corporations more generally. That "cheap" price tag comes at a high cost -- in concessions exacted from local jurisdictions (paid for with my tax dollars), in environmental damage, in poor employment practices (to this day, Walmart employees are the biggest single group of working poor eligible for and receiving public assistance in one form or another in my state). And on and on. We pay. We just don't pay at the register.

So, you go right ahead and use that coupon. I won't.

I have purchased some of the 'Happily Ever Appster' everblooming daylilies from White Flower Farms. They were new varieties that I couldn't find anywhere else.

I am amused by any plant seller that has the nerve to charge sky high prices for common plants that are extremely easy to propagate to boot. Their prices for things like sedum or coleus are hysterical.

Sure don't know about what goes on in other states, but here in NM the plants at Lowe's and Home Depot are trucked in from out of state growers, one of the major ones being located in Oregon (garden-wise, NM and OR may as well be in different countries). I seldom buy at either place, mainly due to the indifference shown by employees, as they brush past the dying unwatered shrubs, barely glancing at the fallen trees blocking the aisles due to lack of water. Personally, I'd rather pay the extra few bucks for healthy, locally grown plants (or, in the case of the unavailable must-haves, order them via a reputable source). Would rather not take my chances on HD's frequently mislabeled, neglected, inappropriate-for-my-climate stock and waste time digging up, returning and replanting those "bargains." I suppose the annuals might be okay, as long as you get there just as they're coming off the truck... I'll give them that. This is a challenging climate though, others' might have better luck. A couple years back, High Country Gardens opened a couple retail stores here in town. Their greenhouses are about 20 miles away from here, so have becomed spoiled anyway.

We all pay too much for gardening at one time or the other. Just the concept of ornamental gardening is in the "fluff" catagory. I recently was desparately hunting for a glazed ceramic pot of a certain dimension when I chanced across one at a pricy private tent nursery. You know the kind I mean. They sprout up every spring with hanging baskets of petunias and Callibrachoas and then disappear just about the time those expensive annuals begin to succumb to our heat. Anyway I bought a chipped, cracked pot for sticker price. I was embarrassed for myself, but I was desparate......And not to get into a discussion as I'm not a Walmart/box store fan myself particularly, but no one holds a gun to their low level workers head and demands they work there. If there is some corporation that is clamoring to employ these people with their current level of skill and at a high wage, this is America and they are free to accept that employment.

White Flower Farm caters to the yuppie trendy population who don't know any better. They also now sell wholesale to nurseries and personally, I rarely see a plant of their that is impressive condition. (I'm a huge fan of Monrovia myself).

As far as big box stores, the Home Depots that are near me take poor care of the plants and don't carry anything interesting anyway. Lowes, otoh, often has things at a good price that is very hard to overwinter here due to drainage issues. I bought a Penstemon Violet Dusk for three bucks at mid July last year. I added lots of sand and figured whatever happened, happened. It started blooming two days ago.

And, truthfully, lots of people don't have decent nurseries near them and the big box stores are their only option unless they wish to drive for hours. I have quite a few friends in this position.

I use their catalogs for reading material in the john! lol
If I see something of interest, I'll go look elsewhere for the same thing!
They want twice the price for everything. No more!
I've found many huge and gorgeous plants at my local nurseries, including the Brunnera Jack frost for $10. WFF is just a pretty glossy magazine for me.

If you are a skilled gardener, you should really drop by your local Lowes now that it's hot and find their section of 'lightly killed' plants.

They have plenty of perennials that they have failed to water, or stuck a shade plant in full sun, or done some silly thing to. Then they mark the poor abused babies down to ridiculously low prices. I take them home and baby them and they bounce right on back.

I've gotten clematis, pots of lilies, roses, hibiscus, african mask elephant ears, and much more for around fifty cents each.

Just realized I finally am off their mailing list for printed catalog. It was fun to flip through and get ideas and see pretty pictures. Guess I finally hit the milestone for "haven't bought anything in a long time".

One time long long ago I went to WFF in person and, being a brand newbie, spent a fortune on Stella Dora daylilies. What a doofus!!! THey are long gone.

I am very fortunate to have a large local grower a pleasant 5-10 mile ride. They have 6 or 7 large greenhouses that they sell direct from. Kinda inconvenient and it may not ALL be locally grown, but prices and selection can't be beat. Mostly annuals and veggies. Its great to pick up seasonal local produce at the same time.

I will go to BB store to pick up some fillers here and there. But most of my gardening dollars are still in the local garden centers.

I don't know what other people's beef is with big box stores, but here's mine:

Two years ago I went to Lowes. I was very new to the flower gardening thing (still am, but learning quickly) and saw blue hydrangeas, rainbow KOs, and wine and roses weigela on sale. I bought them and planted them.

The blue hydrangea: Might be hardy up here, but you'll never see a flower. Mine died, but HAD it survived the only thing that would have lived would be the roots. They would grow every year into a measely bush with no flowers. From what people have told me, the flowers come from the previous year's growth - which would die each winter.

The KO: Dies to the ground every year. Slow to grow back and only produces less than a handful of malformed, non-scented, unattractive roses. I only bought it because a lot of people were bragging about them on a (different) gardening board. I'm giving the durned thing away this summer.

The weigela: Love it. Luckily I planted it somewhere that gets lots of sun and is somewhat protected by the porch in the winter. I get a lot of die-back, but I also get a lot of blooms. Other locals can't seem to get anything out of them from the die-back.

So, the lesson is - unless you REALLY know what you're doing you'll probably wind up buying things that are "technically" hardy for your area but will likely die. And if you are a seasoned gardener you will probably be turned off by the things they have in stock.

Local nurseries carry what they grow - meaning it will grow, and well! It's been tended to by a handful of local gardeners that didn't unload them from an overheated stock truck where the plants have been sitting overcrowded for days - probably collecting mold.

However, truth be told, if I can get a pallet of near-dead annuals from Lowes for a couple of bucks - I think it's money well spent. :-D But I'd never buy anything full-priced from them.

When I called one of the local nurseries and asked a question about what they had in stock that could do this, that or the other thing, the man on the phone told me that they landscaped a local place with (name of plant here) two years ago and when they made a service call to fertilize and clean up in the spring that everything was still growing beautifully. Local places stand by their products. They have to. They don't have the resources or money to re-do jobs.

White Flower Farm made its name forty or more years ago when few people had even heard of perennials. They had gone out of fashion. The catlog offered a wonderful place to buy things you just couldn't find anywhere. It was written in an intelligent, literary style and given a huge boost by the small group of passionate gardeners of the time who also wrote for publications like The New Yorker.

That was then.

Sadly, over the years, WFF has been sold and re-sold. It's still an attractive catalog but they lost my business many years ago when their plants got ever smaller and prices ever higher. And their plants are almost all available locally.

There are so many catalogs with truly unusual and new plants. I too love Plant Delights, to name but one, but there are also many specialists. We are lucky to be living and gardening right now.

I wish any legitimate business well but WFF is living on past glory.

On the subject of big box stores and hardiness:

A facebook friend of mine was telling me how he found these cool palm trees that were HARDY! Home Depot had them, and they only had a few. The small ones were $30, and the big ones were $60.

We live in TN, so I couldn't imagine...I googled it, and sure enough, zones 9-11. I didn't have the heart to tell him.

On the other hand, I've bought plants at nurseries at an annual price (Verbena Bonariensis, Black and Blue Salvia, etc.) that are actually perennial in our zone.

So, I guess it's like someone said above, it helps if you are a somewhat experienced shopper. But, who hasn't gotten suckered at some time in our lives? :p Especially before the internet...man, how did we learn about plants before the internet?? :D

Oh...and those prices for iris are truly ridiculous!!

The previous owner was a regular customer of WFF, and liked to buy their assortments of daylilies, Iris, and Peonies. She was an older, wealthy widow and money was not an object. She planted the starts randomly around the yard, mostly in the shade and in the middle of Vinca minor. Needless to say, they were struggling to compete with the Vinca, and few if any were blooming.

In the first year or 2 living here, I spent a lot of effort creating beds and moving the WFF plants to better locations. When they started to bloom, they were pretty, but most of the cultivars were identified to be very common. Also, I ended up with about 5 'Festiva Maxima' peonies, 5 yellow daylilies (with minimal differences), etc.

I ended up keeping only my favorites of the WFF plants. Not only do I not buy from them, but I don't buy many plants at all anymore, as I'm going through a phase of enjoying starting a wide variety of plants from seed (including shrubs and small trees).

Donicaben, I live in zone 7 and have had more Macrophylla Hydrangeas die than any other plant. Some plants, and this is one, are tricky; location is a huge factor and late winter freezes after a warm spell can kill it to the ground. I had to learn that one or two degrees on a slope does make a difference, planting against an east wall makes a difference and that no one is responsible for my garden but me. Even info in books are just guides.

We all have micro climates in our yard and it would be a boring place indeed if all nurseries sold plants that were hardy only to the beginners. I have learned lots over 15 years of planting hydrangeas and watching them not bloom.
I learned where to plant them.

Many gardeners like to experiment with the bounds of their zone too. So finding a plant that might live is a thrill and challenge.

The box stores here sell plants, not manuals (although they do have some fine books) and the variety is often equal than what I find in some of the great nurseries.

Lowes and Home Depot both have one year guarantees. The nurseries do not.

WFF lost any chance of ever getting my business when I saw them selling Verbena Bonariensis in 3in pots for $7.95 each! That plant is basically a weed and anybody can grow it from seed. OTOH, this is a sampling of what I have picked up from my local HD this year, for about $6- $7 each. I divided most of the perennials into 2-3 plants and all are florushing. And no mislabeling either.

Aurinia Saxatilis Summit
Buxus Variegated
Campanula persicifolia Takion Blue
Campanula persicifolia Takion White
Delphinium Elatum "Guardian Blue"
Gaura lindheimeri Belleza Pink
Lamium Anne Greenway
Lamium Aurea
Myosotis sylvatica ÂSnowsylvaÂ
Phlox Divaricata "Blue Moon"
Phlox Divaricata "Chattahoochee"
Phlox Divaricata "May Breeze"
Phlox subulata "Emerald Blue"

I also ordered from Fairweather, Plant Delights, Meadowbrook, Brent and Becky and of course local nurseries as well. Just never, ever, from WFF.

I am quite sure all the Lowes and HD stores are different with the inventory and where they get their plants from. I do know the Lowes and HD in my area get their perennials from local growers. The Lowes near me has VERY nice quality plants that are VERY healthy, WITH A 1 YR. WARRANTY! I would be crazy not to buy from them! Their stock is alot nicer than a nursery right down the street.

I second the motion for Lowes. The store in our town has a long-term accomplished gardener as the garden center manager. What I love is that everyone is helpful and NO ONE is afraid to say "I don't know." They carry an awful lot of plants that I seldom/never see in our local garden centers and the one year guarantee is no questions asked.

Wal-mart, is another story. The last time I bought plants from them, the tags said "melampodium". They were obviously grown from seed that had been saved from previous year's hybrids. They were every size from six inches to two feet tall. Lesson learned. Never again.

As for WFF, their prices are high, but my biggest gripe with them is the minute size of the plants. I don't mind paying more for something I really want, but for goodness sake, give me a root system large enough to go into the ground and survive!!!

LOL Lowes! Unless you know what you are buying, be careful! I am in Minnesota, but the closest Lowes is in North Dakota. Earlier this year I was in the garden center, and started looking at the shrubs. I swear EVERY shrub in the place had a sticker on it that said "Not hardy in North Dakota"......um why then were they trying to sell them?