paghat

I'd say it depends on what you're after. If you want plants that OTHER
THAN ultra-common growing in just about every other commonplace garden in
the same neighborhood, then you have to look for a quality nursery with a
larger variety of plants, as Lowe's & Home Depot only sell basic products.
But if you do need a fairly standard rhododendron or climbing vine,
there'd be no reason to pay more for a specimen the exact same size from
somewhere other than Lowes. Or if you're just kind of financially
strapped, and were only needing something like a butterfly bush that grows
rapidly from a small start that only costs a pittance from Lowe's, might
as well go for the Lowe's.

Sometimes a common plant is exactly what suits a location. The best
independent stores sometimes pay less attention to their "common" stock
because they know they can't beat the prices of the chains. Some while
ago, I wanted a rigidly upright rosemary for a dry hot area of the garden.
I did look at rosemaries in my favorite independents before buying it
vastly cheaper at Lowe's, in that case because Lowe's really did have the
best upright specimens as well as the best price, the independents had
strange twisty creeping varieties that are less "ordinary" but in this
case I wanted an ordinary rosemary.

On the other hand if you wanted a clematis that would be substantial in
size rather soon, you might not want to go for the cheap starts at Lowes,
which won't look like much for two years. A nursery that sells larger
older specimens charges more, but the plant is worth more. Standard
perennials that establish & spread with great speed, like penstemons or
campanulas, a little on-sale pots from Lowe's really is a bargain.

Now if you'd said Walmart, I'd say forget it. Not only are the plants
commonplace, but they're poorly cared for so apt to be doing poorly if you
don't get them the day they arrive at the store, & the price is the same
price or even more highly priced than at independent nurseries. At least
that's true of the Walmart in my county. But Lowe's, Home Depot, &
especially Fred Meyers, I'm sometimes impressed with the age & appearance
of some of the things they sell for half or a third what the same product
costs at an independent nursery.

If one isn't strapped for funds, there are good reasons to generally just
go to the nicest nurseries with the most varied stock, even if on some
days you end up getting stuff Lowe's carries cheaper. Because you can
wander through the Lowe's plant section a hundred times and see pretty
much the same stuff always, maybe once in that hundred visits spot
something rather unusual for a change. But at a really nice nursery, if
you stop in regularly, at least half the time you'll spot new stuff, some
of it unusual or rarely offered stuff not being mass produced for market,
some of it very new cultivars not yet widely distributed, some from very
small specialty wholesalers who don't service chains. Some of it is
offered in such small quantities you'll never even get a chance to look at
one before it's sold out, if you spend too much of your garden-shopping
energy at a Lowes and fail to check the specialists & independents at
close intervals.

Also as a generality, advice is more reliable & knowledge is greater at
independent nurseries than at Lowe's. There can sometimes be a
knowledgeable person working in one of the chain stores, who'd be great
nursery managers if allowed to be, but they seem to have very little
control over whether they have to work in the electrical department
instead.

Finally, staff & owners at quality independent nurseries are apt to
remember you as a customer, whereas the big chains will for the most part
never remember nor much care about your gardening tastes & choices. There
are pay-offs ranging from friendships to special bargains for patronizing
favorite nursery companies. There's a lot to be said even just for being
on first-name basis with some high-end nursery people, as I know in my
case, I have even been handed free plants. Owners have gone out of their
way to help me find scarce things I was after, & have even driven out to
visit my gardens -- not because I'm a big-money customer either -- I'm
actually rather poor. Even if there were no "perks" like the occasional
free plant or first-dibs on stuff that is a bit rare, the mere fact of
being known & of knowing people by name, it's nicer than always dealing
with mutually anonymous faces.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/