I recently received a delivery of plants I ordered online. Joy! While I try to get my plants locally, I can’t always find certain plants or varieties locally. So then I turn to buying plants online. There are lots of online nurseries, how do you choose?
My recent order came from Bluestone Perennials. I have ordered from them before and have been happy with the size and quality of the plants. They don’t use neonicotinoids (a class of chemicals we know is killing our bees). I have found that companies generally don’t state their policy on neonics, you have to ask. Please ask your nurseries, both local and online, before you buy.
Something else that I am happy about is that Bluestone Perennials has gotten rid of their plastic pots. Hallelujah. According to the Missouri Botanic Garden, there are 350,000 pounds of horticultural plastic added to the waste stream every year in the United States.
Bluestone Perennials is using coconut coir pots instead of the plastic. The coconut pots are sturdy, biodegradable, and the plant roots will grow right through the pots once they are in the ground. I used coconut coir pots this past spring to grow some of my own seeds and was impressed with them. So no plastic pot piles in the garage, or in a landfill. (My local swap shop at our recycling center takes them, but the pile of plastic pots grows nonstop.) Bluestone Perennials has added a plastic film collar around the pot, but they say this can be recycled.
Are you wondering what I ordered? Some bee-friendly flowers of course. They are all easy to grow and have a long season of bloom. Two types of Salvia, Salvia ‘Caradonna’ (a purple one) and ‘Marleau Blue’ (blue). And two types of perennial Geranium, Geranium ‘Bevans’ (magenta) and ‘Wlassovianum’ (purple). They look great.
I did not receive any kind of reimbursement from Bluestone Perennials for this review.