Diane's Seeds - good amount of seed for good price and great germination Johnny's Seeds - found a few things I wanted all in one place for a change Hardy Plants - family run operation that gets a little behind at times but with a nudge or two mails out seeds and they have extensive selection I can buy Burpee in stores so don't like to pay for shipping unless I need 10 packs for free shipping on Watersuntogether. I've purchased from Park and T&M but expensive unless on sale. Heard from grower that T&M seed aren't always the freshest but don't think they could stay in business all these years if they had a huge problem. Valueseeds is a good buy if you want their limited inventory at the time they're having blowout sale. T&M has changed their website and it's a pain to navigate easily now. When I click on particular seed from internet search I don't get to specific page and have to navigate from their left sidebar. Their search function isn't working dependably either. Maybe it's my computer if no one else is having a problem. Not buyer friendly site for me right now...even to browse and check zone info and pics. Bad thing about online seed purchasing is I end up using 3 or 4 different vendors and paying shipping to each one instead of being able to purchase what I want/need from 1 or 2 vendors. Once the seeds hit the stores I end up impulse buying a little of this and a little of that from any vendor...some of which I never sow or promptly gets eaten by some critter. Select Seeds has a lovely assortment of seeds and plants. Haven't ordered from them yet although if I find a few seeds I can use I'd probably break down. Have no idea what their germination is but I'm genuinely seduced by their site photos and descriptions. I'm so easy.

My favorite shop is is Great Finds and Designs a lovely high end- no junk here-consignment shop. The furniture and accessories are arranged in wonderfulroom settings which are always changing because things are always flying out of there. I overheard a designer picking up goods there to use at the symphony showhome a few years ago. Their prices are reasonable, I think because they do such a tremendous business, furniture being dropped off and being picked up every time I shop there. They were on Greenspring in Timonium, MD but they moved right before Christmas, I think- across the street or nearby but not sure. Need a shopping day soon I think. There are so many antique shops in the area I can't just pick one. There is antique row in Baltimore. A new fav of mine is the Good Life Market in Ellicott City MD. 2 buildings both incredible. Any shop in Ellicott City is not to be missed if you visit the area.It is an historic mill town and is quite charming.Home decor, antique, shabby chic, bakeries restaurants, new age shops,railroad museum. I am lucky enough to be able to hike down the historic trolley trail and visit( not for serious shopping though)

Have also been very happy with the two Mara already mentioned. Can also check for (or make) comments about particular suppliers on the GW Rate & Review Vendors forum. Almost Eden in LA and Mail-Order Natives in FL are two others that have delivered nice plants from interesting inventories. Dogwooderitternet in AR sells a variety of good quality starter-size plants through their ebay store; though do have to hunt harder for their natives as they've added more exotics over the years. Shipping really hurts cost for larger size plants, so shrubs and trees we could only obtain by mail have easily been 3 or 4 years behind sizes we'd have bought if available at a local nursery. Good suppliers will know when/how they can reliably ship to your address; slower (lower cost) options might be available for larger items in the cooler months, but most of the small stuff now does fine year-round with 2 or 3 day delivery. Edit: Have had 3 plant orders misrouted or lost over the years and the suppliers have made good on all but 1. That was for a gift tree someone sent us from an Amazon partner that would never disclose their physical address. Unfortunately you can no longer submit a USPS insurance claim without the sender's address and the replacement they claimed to have sent never showed up at the address we confirmed. So, would be very cautious buying online from anyone not established enough to either disclose physical contact info or work through an enforcing intermediary like ebay.

This post and responses certainly takes me down memory lane. I've done most of what was mentioned, running the gamut from buying the "cheap" seeds to special ordering online for special items, paying ridiculous prices and S&H. After almost 60 years of gardening, I now go to local places that have bulk seeds and buy what I want. Less selection, but there are only two of us now and we don't do as much canning, etc. as we once did. The most amusing thing I ever saw was a display of "Martha Stewart" seeds at KMart. I was amazed, and took one packet of peas out of the display to look at and almost tossed it to the ceiling, it was that light. The price was $3.49 and that was about 15 years ago. :-)