Of the hundreds of nurseries on the Internet, these online nurseries made it to the top five.
There are hundreds of sites on the Internet where you can buy plants.
Desert Gardens just completed a survey and picked the top 5 sites.
The top five were:
Categories included:
- Xeric and desert plant availability
- Website design and layout
- Site Navigation ease
- Accurate, up-to-date information
- A newsletter
- Practical information in the newsletter without a lot of sales fluff.
- Large plant selections
- Online ordering capabilities
- Print Catalogue
- No-hassle plant guarantees (Customer’s choice of money-back or plant exchange, with e-mail or phone notification. No drawn-out contracts, no legalese, simple plain language).
- Links to pertinent information and non-profits.
Up to 10 points could be made in each category.
A final five points could be made by general helpfulness of the site, information, and articles about gardening.
High Country Gardens, has an excellent newsletter with lots of practical information. Past issues are easy to find and informative. Some include info from plant lectures made by horticulturalists and top gardeners. Their catalogue is also exceptional, printed on high quality glossy paper with beautiful color photos. The company continues to create new xeriscape varieties of plants, and maintains very high standards.
American Meadows has a great looking website, along with some very up-to-date information on xeric gardening and xeriscaping. Although there doesn’t seem to be a newsletter available it might be something to consider making available.
Both of these sites have great xeric plants, and no-hassle guarantees on their plants. They also both have links to non-profit organizations, such as master gardeners, native plant societies, and plant conservation groups.
Arriving in third place is Guzman's Greenhouse. The site design is good, if a little simple, but it is a little more difficult to navigate. They do have great information on the site, including an “Ask Gary" section, through which you can email questions and have them answered on the site. They also have an online newsletter, and a large plant selection. Their plant guarantee seems a little complicated, but other than that, it’s a pretty good site. They do not have non-profit links.
The final two that made the top five, Wayside and Gurney’s, are good sites. They are easily navigable and well-designed sites. Both have no-hassle plant guarantees, and both have pretty good newsletters, although they are somewhat more sales-oriented than the top three.
Neither have links to other helpful and/or non-profit sites, and most of their articles are sales pieces. Perhaps they could take a hint from the top three sites and offer less sales-oriented, more garden-friendly articles both on their sites and in their newsletters.
Additionally, these two do not have specific links to xeric plants, and one must look for specific criteria when searching for xeric plants.
The copyright of the article Top 5 Sites to Order Desert Plants in Desert Gardens is owned by Robert Dailey. Permission to republish Top 5 Sites to Order Desert Plants must be granted by the author in writing.
