Many plants you find in garden centers have been grown up with chemical tools in heavily heated greenhouses. As a result, you can buy them much earlier, and in a larger size, than what is "normal. A perennial that normally blooms in July can often be bought as early as April.

We call those kinds of plants "squash plants," as much as you have squash chickens. Fluff plants are more fragile. The transition from heated greenhouse to cold garden is too great, and many plants don't make it as a result. Not to mention the chemicals that are harmful to flora and fauna.The solution? Buy your plantings from good, ecological nurseries, or raise your own seed. You will get stronger plants that may take a little longer until they are the same size, but will do much better after that. The plants are given ample time to grow at their natural pace.

Another very important reason to buy from nurseries is that they have special plants in their collection, with many more varieties of a plant species. As far as we are concerned, there is no need to have the same Geranium in every garden when there are still incredibly many beautiful other varieties.

We collect all the good nurseries, stores and web shops we come across on this page -- then the searching is done for you! We also wrote an extensive article on the ins and outs of visiting a nursery and how it works.