A New Series: Where Do You Get Your Plants?

Where do Alert Gardeners get their plants? And more and more plants? I've been pondering that question and mulling it over with my gardening buddies and I've got five categories, each of which warrants its own discussion, each of which has its own pros and cons. Here they are, roughly in order of the number of plants they move from greenhouse to the vast global public:

1. Big Box Stores
2. Small Box Stores
3. Local and specialized nurseries
4. Online
5. Plant/Garden shows and friends.

I've found plants through every one of these venues, so I can speak to each from personal experience, as well as dig up some intriguing, journalistic factoids for y'all. But first, any categories that I've missed? I'm not going to include collecting from the wilderness, of course, because so many useful and beautiful plants are disappearing from the wild, it's become a very complicated subject and way beyond the scope of this blog.

Girasole, MR

This is SO Wrong....

These poor little guys are actually GLUED INTO THEIR POT. The pot is a very shallow dish filled with gravel which has been glued. There is no way to get these guys out without just smashing the whole thing on the cement they are sitting on, then trying to remove what's left of the plants to see if they will recover. Apparently this is the new way big box stores are selling cacti sets. They ship well, the plants survive a month or so, then the buyer or giftee just chucks the whole thing in the trash. Rinse and repeat.

I have seen this "disposable plant" mindset appearing with cacti, succulents, and orchids. It used to be done only with annuals, and perennials were given more respect. You can have a cute little plant on your desk or window, then chuck it when the hot new thing appears at the store. As Droopy says, "You know what?? That makes me mad...."

I'll probably rant more on this later, after I think through more of the philosophical/cultural ramifications. Yesterday I was just shocked and had to put this photo up ASAP. Have any of you seen these in your stores? What do you think?