The best places to buy plants online for 2022 – CNET

Even if you don’t have a keen eye for design, adding live plants to your home or office is an easy and instant upgrade for any space. Plants add natural color and a breath of fresh air, quite literally. Buying plants online is not a wholly new idea but your options for scoring houseplants, window greenery and even outdoor plants on the web have grown significantly in the past few years. There are plant subscriptions, specialty plant markets and those with budget-friendly plants and flowers. 

If you have access to a greenhouse or plant store that you love, great! But not all of us do and that means getting your plants from an online market may be the best option to secure the exact flora you desire. 

Buying plants online means a bigger selection

Depending on what sort of access you have to plant shops, buying your houseplants online may mean a much bigger selection. With so many varieties available from online plant stores, you skip the meager selection at the hardware store and scan an endless virtual garden of potted plants, ferns, ficuses and flowers guaranteed to brighten a corner, window, shelf or room. 

When you buy for your flora on the web, you can choose from common or exotic plants, mini cacti and succulents, hanging plants, flowering plants, planters, faux plants, air plants and large indoor floor plants that anchor an entire room. Better yet, popular online plant markets such as Bloomscape and The Sill provide specific advice for plant care to help your new green stay green. Most of these online plant retailers also carry a wide range of stunning pots and planters to display your new verdure in a myriad of styles and colors.

Buying plants gives you access to more info 

Shopping with one of these online plant marketplaces also makes it easy to find pet-friendly potted plants that are safe for your pup or cat. And if your thumb isn’t as green as you’d like it to be, you can find easy-care plants that are darn near impossible to kill with many sites offering easy-care or low-maintenance plant sections filled with rugged flora in all sizes and styles. 

These online markets and vendors offer meticulous information on how to care for your new plant, so even if it’s not low-maintenance, you’ll have a better chance of keeping it alive when armed with planting, watering and sunlight recommendations.

You can buy outdoor plants online too

Beyond indoor plants, we dug up a solid option for buying bigger outdoor plants online including fruit trees, vegetable plants, vines and shrubs for landscaping in case this is the summer you’re finally turning the backyard into a natural wonderland. And if you’re looking to grow fresh herbs inside without having to touch a single grain of soil, we’ve got you covered there too: Check out CNET’s list of best indoor pod gardens in 2022.

While we haven’t yet tried each and every plant delivery service on our list, we called out the ones we have. Beyond that, we’ve based these selections on a particular service’s overall selection and plant varieties offered to help you find the best plants for your style and space.

Plants make excellent gifts for a new homeowner, sweetheart on Valentine’s Day or as a pick me up for someone feeling the winter blues. Whatever your greenery goals are as a plant parent, these are our picks for the best places to buy plants online in 2022.

Read more: The best seed delivery services and subscriptions for your garden in 2022

Bloomscape

I ordered a big Chinese fan palm from Bloomscape and I’m happy to report a year later that it’s still healthy, green and kicking butt. 

Whether you’re looking for indoor or outdoor plants for the home or garden, there may not be a better selection than Bloomscape. Find plants that’ll add loads of life and texture to any space, like palmsbird of paradise, succulent varieties or those trendy fiddle leaf figs. You can shop by categories, including “low-maintenance” and “pet-friendly,” and each comes with a clay pot and saucer so it’s ready to go upon arrival. Free shipping is available on all orders over $75.

Plants.com

If you’re looking for a specific plant or just want to scroll through greenery and flora for hours, head over to Plants.com. The online retailer has pages and pages of plants of every size and species including ferns, bonsai trees and bamboo, cacti and succulents, air plants, hanging plants, floor plants, trees and tropical plants. You can search by plant type, size and price or peruse Plants.com’s extensive selection of plant gifts.

The Sill

Great gift alert! 

The Sill is another online plant marketplace with a massive selection of indoor houseplants and outdoor plants, including ferns, figs, air plant options, snake plant varieties, orchids and succulents. 

The Sill also offers subscriptions: The Plants for Beginners subscription sends one easy-care indoor plant to your home each month, fit with an earthenware pot in black, blush or mint. There’s even a subscription for Pet Parents where you’ll get monthly potted plant deliveries that are perfectly safe for Fido and Garfield. 

Read more: The best indoor garden for every type of gardener in 2022

Leaf & Clay

Succulents are as easy as plants get and give you a little dessert charm without having to worry about watering them daily, or even weekly. Leaf & Clay is the online succulent specialist with endless varieties in all shapes and sizes. You can snag bundles starting at $25 or join the Plant Mail Club and have a shipment of mini cacti show up to your door each month.

Nature Hills

If you’ve got plans for some serious gardening or landscaping, the plant collection at Nature Hills is a good place to start for blooming plants, potted plant options and more. It’s got everything from houseplant options and perennial flowers to literal trees, shrubs and vines. You can find fruit trees and plants here too, including apple, citrus and stone fruit trees along with a wide range of berry bushes.

Leaf’d Box

If you’re trying to get your garden in shape, Leaf’d Box may be the easiest way to do it. My box of small veggie plants showed up on time and in healthy condition, ready to go into the soil. 

The garden service will take an order for whatever it is you want to grow — veggies, herbs, lettuce and other produce. Then the gardeners grow ’em for you up to the right size for planting and send a box four times a year with plants that thrive during that season, and in your climate. 

Plant subscription kits start at $45 and are available through the website.

Léon & George

If you’re looking for a big showstopper of a monstera deliciosa or braided money tree to anchor a corner of your living room, try this San Francisco plant delivery service. Léon & George has a huge selection of statement plants and some sleek, modern pots to house them. Shipping costs vary depending on the size of the plant and they offer chic pots to really show off your new plant.

PlantX

This online marketplace likes to think of itself as a vegan version of Amazon. PlantX carries a sprawling inventory of plant-based products, including a variety of indoor house plants and succulents. It’s all reasonably priced too, with most clocking in under $50 and some small plants for as little as $6. What’s nice about PlantX is you can tack other items, including ready-to-eat, plant-based meals to your order.

More tasty subscriptions and online buying advice

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