There probably isn't something wrong with the cheaper one as long as it isn't root bound (which you can check by tapping it out of its pot and checking) and it is healthy and not wilted. There are many pros and cons to buying from different places.

Box stores, grocery stories pros and cons:
- Pro: Cheaper than nurseries
- Pro: tried and true varieties
- Con: plants may not be taken care of or watered
- Con: plants may be mislabeled
- Con: not being able to find collector or exotic varieties or cultivars
- Con: knowledgeable staff hard to find

Nurseries:
- Pro: Usually more knowledgeable staff
- Pro: Can find harder to get varieties or choice cultivars (Not just the common ones)
- Pro: Usually plants in better condition
- Pro: Less mislabeling or better more accurate labeling with zone information
- Pro: Shopping there often supports local businesses with vested community interest. May preserve a farm stand or land from being developed.
- Pro: May have more consistent selection from week to week in the growing season where a box store gets in a shipment of plants and may sell out
- Con: Prices tend to be higher (not necessarily so though in my opinion)
- Con: Too many selections for beginner. Is this a con!

I am sure others can come up with more ideas...

Sue

Ok, here I go stepping up on to my soap box! I believe large franchises are here to stay even the emerging Chinese market has embraced this style of commerce. The one industry that has yet to be completely swallowed up by the chain store phenomenon in New England is horticulture. The box and grocery stores certainly have made an imprint on the hort. industry in New England, and has made the likely hood of financial success for the smaller nursery more challenging. With this said, I am a person who is in love with plants I am fascinated watching them grow (and most often die) in my yard, I believe I have a responsibility to the trade to encourage a large and free market place, I equate this responsibility to the food that I buy for my family (on the rare occasion that I shop). If I believe that organic food is what I want to feed my love ones and am not willing to spend more money on organic products while this industry is growing and competing with big business then I am not allowing my dollar to speak for me. As Americans we are in love with commerce and the status attained from material items I think we have an added responsibility in contemporary society to support those businesses you believe in not just where you can buy the less expensive plant. Stepping of soap box and headed back outside. kt

I buy plants wherever I find them, and have gotten some stunning and unusual plants at Stop and Shop, at the boutique grocery store, Home Depot, every garden center in town and many elsewhere in New England, from my conservation district, and via mail order from at least 2 dozen different companies. I've also gotten some very bad plants from all of those types of sources, including mislabelled varieties, poorly rooted cuttings, invasives, tender plants labeled as perennial, and just plain dogs.

So, while I agree with Katy and make sure to support my local garden centers (to the point where they *all* know me by name) I also can't resist a bargain and will buy anything almost anywhere - one restriction being that I don't do business with Walmart, but that's just a personal preference.

Buying plants from your local conservation district supports environmental programs in your community.

Buying plants from Home Depot supports the multimillion dollar compensation of Home Depot's CEO (http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/may2006/pi20060523_284791.htm)

Totally agree with others that you have a choice of what to do with your dollars in every purchase...each time you spend money in Wal-Mart, it's money lost by the local garden centers. I hope that as long as there are gardeners, there will always be good nurseries, but it would be shame if all we ever had to choose from were the plants at the big box store..

Although I do confess to buying a few impulse plants at my local grocery store now and then :-)

Thanks to Claire, I just bought $65 worth of plants from the Plymouth County Conservation District - many I've tried to grow from seed & failed (to date. I'm stubborn, LOL). I don't pick them up until 4/21, but assuming they're alive at all, I think I got a great deal.

Drippy - Don't be disappointed if the plants you bought are small - first time I ordered from my Cons District I was shocked (and I had bought lots of mail order plants before that, so it wasn't expecting anything very big). Two twigs I bought several years ago, Magnolia virginiana, are now big trees. It's almost as rewarding as growing things from seed.

Thanks for all the personal experiences...

I do recognize the need to support "our locals"..and the "soapbox" reply from runktrun and others was a welcomed reminder..

The Barnstable County Conservative sale is happening now and I will confess I had decided against it (this is closer to me than the Plymouth one)...only because I'm not sure I have the skill to raise something from a "twig"..but Claire and Drippy have me rethinking that one...I swear I'm getting gray hair fretting over the seeds I've got going! Raising a "twig" may cause a stroke!

(just kidding..I'm not really that fragile!)

My son attends the local tecnical highschool which he informs me sells plants there at their horticultural program.

Again..thanks for the input!

Too cool, DTD - I am one of the local wintersowing "queens" - I start upward of 500 containers a year from seed; my family and friends count on it. I love raising things from small stuff. No, at the prices they were advertising, I wasn't expecting anything very big. But I have been dying for beach plum, and tried to raise it from seed for the past three years unsuccessfully - I'm looking forward to plant "starts".

Malorn, the tech high school is close enough for me to get to if the timing is right...could you feed my bad plant addiction and post when that happens? :)

I'll post the info about the tech sale as soon as I get it..