Checklist 

We have rated Washington area nurseries on our Ratings Tables. Several were rated “superior” for overall quality by more than 80 percent of their customers we surveyed, others by just 40 percent or fewer. 

Three big chains—Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Meadows Farms Nurseries—scored, on average, lower than most of the independent nurseries. 

But for the selection of plants they sell, these three big chains look very good for price. In our shopping, prices at Lowe’s averaged 48 percent below the all-nursery average for comparable items; prices at Home Depot averaged 34 percent below the all-nursery average; and prices at Meadows Farms Nurseries averaged 14 percent below the all-nursery average. 

In the nursery business, unlike most types of services and stores we examine, paying more improves your odds of getting better advice, service, and product quality. Most of the nurseries rated highest for quality have higher-than-average prices. But you will find some firms on our Ratings Tables that rate high for quality and also have below-average prices. 

For specific plants, we found enormous nursery-to-nursery price differences. For example, for six Hostas in one-gallon pots, we found prices ranging from $24 to $132; and for a Peace Lily in a 10-inch pot, we found prices ranging from $6 to $62. 

This article will also give you advice on judging plant quality. A few points— 

• Check roots to be sure they have not dried out. You can probe with your finger or look through the drain holes of a container to make sure that the roots are whitish, not brown. 
• Check shrubs and trees to be sure that branches are not weak or broken, that bark does not have scars or holes, that pruning cuts are flush with the branch or trunk, and that there is no dead wood. 
• Check plants for signs of disease, such as browned or grayed areas or spots on leaves or stems. 
• Check for insects. 
• In the growing season, be sure there is new growth. 

When you make your purchases, don’t leave the nursery without— 

• A receipt that shows the common and the Latin names of plants and the size, number purchased, date of purchase, price, and guarantee. 
• Instructions on how to plant—how much sun exposure is appropriate, what drainage, how big a hole, how deep to plant, what to put in the planting hole, and what staking is recommended, if any. 
• Instructions on what pruning, feeding, and spraying will be needed. 

Introduction 

Gardening is an investment—of time, sweat, and money. When things go right, the payoff is terrific—whether it’s a backyard paradise, fresh flavorful vegetables, or landscaping that makes a home a showpiece. When things go wrong...not so much. 

A good nursery can help ensure that all your hard work and hard-earned cash yield the dividends you want. But selling plants is not like selling washing machines or hardware. Since plants are alive, each one is different and each is vulnerable to disease, injury, or death. Running a good nursery takes knowledge, years of experience, organizational skill, and a strong commitment to quality. And since most retail nurseries buy—rather than raise—most of what they sell, there is room for tremendous variation in buying ability and buying standards. 

These challenges are clearly apparent in ratings we receive from area consumers for garden nurseries. On our Ratings Tables, you can see that some operations were rated “superior” for “quality of products” by at least 80 percent of their surveyed customers. At the other extreme, several got such favorable ratings from fewer than 40 percent. 

We also found tremendous price variation—perhaps more variation than for any other subject we cover. Unfortunately, the lowest prices we found were usually at big chains, which for the most part receive poor overall quality ratings from their customers. 

Although paying more improves your odds of getting better advice, service, and product quality, we found some nurseries that were high-rated for quality and had below-average prices. The information on our Ratings Tables will help you single out the best choices. The table includes quality ratings from more than 14,000 Washington area consumers and comparisons of the nurseries’ prices, based on our extensive, undercover price shopping. 

First, Make a Plan 

Before beginning a new landscaping project, start by making a plan for your property. Your plan should take into account the soil type and acidity, drainage patterns, and sunlight exposure. Try to match plant types with areas that will meet their needs. You’ll want a plan that gives you an idea of how your property will look right away and how it will look years from now when your plants have grown. Without a plan, you could find yourself with an assortment of plants that do not complement each other in size, shape, or color. You might end up with shade where you want sun and with the view from, or of, your house unfortunately obscured. Furthermore, you might pay for expensive plants when inexpensive ones would be just as good. 

A rough drawing showing your house, other structures, your property lines, and desired plants is not difficult to create. You can get guidelines and ideas from gardening websites, from friends with attractive gardens, and from the experts listed below. 

If you want professional help with your plan, there are several options. 

One possibility is to have a nursery or landscape contractor send a designer to your home. If you want to do your own buying and planting, you may have to pay a consultation fee for help preparing your own plan or a design fee if you want the designer to draw the plan. On the other hand, you may be able to get a free consultation by simply asking a nursery for a landscaping estimate. 

Another possibility is to hire a landscape architect or garden designer. You can get complete service, including consultation, design, assistance in selecting a landscape contractor, and supervision of plant selection and contractor performance. Or, you can get just the consultation or the design. A first conversation with an architect may be free. After that, fees are set in various ways. 

Get to Know a Nursery 

As you are thinking about your plan, a nursery can be a valuable resource. You’ll want to shop at nurseries that have knowledgeable staff, sell healthy plants, offer broad selections of products, will make things right if something goes wrong, and have reasonable prices. The ratings on our Ratings Tables will help point you to a number of businesses that do all of these things well. These outlets receive comments like the following from their customers— 

“Everyone who works [there] is friendly and always ready to answer any questions I have about plants, landscaping, garden products. The atmosphere/location is great, too—a pleasure to stroll around.” 

“Great nursery for hard-to-find vegetables and plants. Excellent growing tips from owner operators.” 

“It’s FUN to shop here. Plants are healthy, personnel KNOW the plants and their applications, it’s enjoyable just to walk through the display yard—everything growing with plenty of room and attractively displayed.” 

“Plants bought from them are always of excellent quality—never had a problem. Very helpful staff, too.” 

“The best customer service I’ve encountered anywhere...” 

“The manager at this location was very helpful giving advice on which plants/flowers to purchase for specific sun/shade areas. The quality of the flowers/plants I bought was excellent and they are thriving.” 

“The place I go when I want to find interesting plants and good information about them.” 

But there are a number of nurseries that tend to fail on several fronts, as evidenced by the ratings and comments we receive from consumers who wished they had shopped elsewhere— 

“They order a great variety of plants, then kill them with neglect. Everything is increasingly full of weeds as the season goes on. I even saw poison ivy growing in a pot. The employees don’t know anything, so they just make things up when you ask a question.” 

“Shopping here is a last ditch option. It’s chaotic, understaffed and often by clueless types. The lines can be long and advice almost completely unavailable.” 

“Good luck getting help of any kind, miracle if you can get knowledgeable help.” 

“Many plants on display are dead or dying.” 

“Too expensive. Staff is combative and unhelpful, particularly when it comes to returns.” 

To find the best nursery choice or choices for you, it’s a good idea to visit several and size up their staffs, plants, and prices. Our Ratings Tables will help you select a few good candidates. It shows results from our surveys of CHECKBOOK and Consumer Reports subscribers and our comparison of the stores’ prices. (For more information on our customer survey and other research methods, click here.) 

Advice 

When buying plants, the advice you get from nursery personnel can be invaluable. Some nurseries have experienced staffs who give helpful advice as to what plants are available, under what conditions these plants will grow well, and how to care for them. 

Our Ratings Tables show how nurseries score on “advice on choice and use of products.” At 13 of the 108 rated nurseries, at the time of our last full, published article, the quality of advice was judged “superior” by at least 80 percent of surveyed customers; in contrast, 40 others got such favorable ratings from fewer than 40 percent of their surveyed customers. 

A nursery also can help you by having plants organized in such a way that it’s easy to find what you are looking for and by having plants well labeled. For each type of plant, there should be a convenient sign, tag, or brochure showing botanical name, common name, care requirements, expected height, flowering and berrying behavior, and price. Our Ratings Tables show how customers rated each nursery for “ease of looking at/testing products.” 

In our surveys of nursery customers, we have found that nursery staff was rated as the most important source of information more often than any other information source—more often than books or magazines and twice as often as friends and relatives. 

There is no reason to limit yourself to one nursery as a source of information—or as a place to buy. Two-thirds of the nursery customers we surveyed use at least three different nurseries each year. A visit to a nursery is free and at the best nurseries can be not only informative but also enjoyable. Many customers go a considerable distance to get to a good nursery; we’ve found that 80 percent of surveyed nursery customers don’t just use the nursery that’s closest to their homes. 

Quality of Plants 

There is tremendous nursery-to-nursery variation in the quality of plants offered. Part of this variation is due to differences in the knowledge, years of experience, organizational skill, and commitment to quality of nurseries’ staff and management. Another reason for big differences in the quality of plants offered is that most retail nurseries aren’t nurseries at all, but rather buy—instead of grow—what they sell, so there is room for tremendous variation in buying ability and buying standards. 

The best nursery operators buy some types of high-cost plants by actually having the buyers visit suppliers and mark by hand each plant they want. It’s cheaper just to let the supplier choose the plants, but the quality won’t be so consistent. 

Even if they don’t hand pick plants, they rely on years of past buying relationships and the promise of future purchases to get the best quality. They make sure suppliers know their standards. A supplier will tell these nurseries if the supplier’s material is not up to par because the supplier knows the nursery will spot (and care about) any deficiencies when the shipment arrives. 

Although this kind of buying skill and concern is important, most experts agree that even more important in determining the quality of nurseries’ plants is the care the plants get after they arrive at the nursery. 

You can visit nurseries and judge the quality of plants they sell. Consider two main aspects of quality. 

First, check whether plants are “true to type”—whether they look as plants of their types are supposed to look. If they are supposed to be symmetrical, are they? If they are supposed to have full foliage, do they? If they are supposed to be dark green in color, are they? 

You can learn how plants are supposed to look by visiting several nurseries, by checking plant catalogs and garden books, by talking with experts (listed below), by taking garden tours, and by visiting public gardens. 

Second, you’ll want to examine the condition of the plants. Some aspects of condition you can easily judge by looking at the plants themselves; other aspects you must deduce from what you observe and are told about the firm’s plant care practices. 

The condition of plants is important not only because healthier plants are more likely to survive, but also because they will require less effort from you and will grow up looking better. You don’t want a plant that will lose foliage or branches and become a scraggly specimen. Stressed plants can also attract insects and diseases, which can spread to neighboring, healthy plants. 

Here are points to check when evaluating a nursery and, later, when selecting individual plants at whatever nurseries you use. 

• Be sure the plants have not dried out at some time. Check for moisture around the roots with your finger, and be sure the root ball is not cement-hard. You don’t want plants that have been sitting on hot pavement; the best nursery practice is to keep the root ball covered—usually with soil, sawdust, or bark. Many plants—particularly the broad leaf evergreens—should be kept under a lath structure or otherwise protected from continual direct sun. Good nurseries have a good sprinkler system. 
• Be sure the root ball of “balled and burlapped” plants is not cracked or loose—that dirt is not torn away from the roots—as it might be, for instance, if nursery personnel carelessly drop plants when unloading them from delivery trucks. Check that the ball moves as you gently tip the tree, but don’t rock the tree from side to side since that might separate the tree from the ball. 
• Check the roots of containerized plants; you can usually see them through the drainage holes. Live roots are whitish. Dead ones are brown. Be sure the plant has not outgrown the container and become rootbound. In a rootbound plant, the roots are tightly wound around one another; they may eventually strangle the plant. 
• Be sure the plants have root balls large enough to sustain them. The rule of thumb for deciduous trees is that the ball should be nine to 12 inches in diameter for each inch of trunk diameter. Balls for evergreen trees can be slightly smaller. 
• Check the drainage holes of plant containers; excess white residue is an indication of overfertilization. 
• Examine trees and shrubs for branches that are weak and declining, scarring, pruning cuts that are not flush with the branch or trunk, dead wood, indications of disease or infestation, and holes. 
• Be sure trees and shrubs have strong branches that are growing out from the center. 
• Be sure trees don’t have a “V” crotch. Such a crotch is likely to split when the tree is older. 
• Check that foliage is not unnaturally yellowed or faded and that it is not bruised or injured. 
• Look for signs of disease, such as browned or grayed areas or spots on leaves or stems. 
• Examine plants for insects. Look in the tight areas between leaf and stem, on the underside of leaves, and on leaf stems. Check the foliage for insect damage such as holes chewed in the edges of leaves or tunnels visible between a leaf’s layers. 
• In the growing season, be sure that there is new growth (which is usually a lighter green) and that leaves are not wilted or brittle. 
• Ask whether plants were dug in the wild. When plants grow in the wild, their roots spread, so that root material is lost when the plants are dug up. Plants cultivated in nurseries, on the other hand, are likely to have their roots pruned several times in transplanting or otherwise contained during their development, forcing a more compact root system, which can be dug up largely intact. The Federal Trade Commission’s “Guides for the Nursery Industry” make it an “unfair trade practice” to sell plants collected from the wild without disclosing that fact. 
• When buying plants sold with bare roots (for instance, most young fruit trees), check that the roots are not shrunken or shriveled and that they have been kept moist. Check also that the buds are firm, not crispy and dry. And look for a lot of fibrous roots, which indicate that the plants have been cultivated and dug carefully. 

Our customer survey ratings on our Ratings Tables regarding “quality of products” show what many consumers thought of the condition of plants they found in the nurseries they used. Of course, our raters in many cases had a chance not only to look at plants in the nursery but also to see how they performed when brought home to the garden. 

Another way to look at the quality question is to ask nurseries what guarantee they offer. A nursery that offers a good guarantee must believe its plants are healthy or at least be prepared to compensate you if plants turn out to be unhealthy. 

Guarantees vary in the length of time covered, the proportion of the plant’s price that is covered, the proportion of delivery and planting costs that is covered, and other factors. In general, you get a broader guarantee if the nursery does the planting than if you do your own. 

Other things being equal, you might as well choose a nursery with a broad guarantee. But there are sound reasons that some quality nurseries don’t offer especially good guarantees: the fact is that most plant deaths result from improper planting or care, not from problems the plant has at the time of sale. A nursery simply may not want to put itself much at risk for the performance of its customers. 

Selection 

If you are a sophisticated gardener with a taste for the unusual, you may care as much about the availability of unusual plant specimens as you do about plant health. Even if you are a novice, you may want a choice of sizes and shapes so that you can find a plant that is right for the space you have available and that fits your budget. 

Our customer survey scores provide one measure of variety. But keep in mind that our “variety” question on the survey no doubt meant different things to different respondents, depending on which nursery they were rating. A firm specializing in annuals might have been rated high in variety because of its wide annuals selection, and not have been downgraded for the fact that it is not strong in shrubs or trees. 

To find out whether a nursery has the types of plants you want, you’ll have to visit. 

Special Services 

Many nurseries will do more than just sell you plants. Most will deliver. Nurseries frequently also provide landscaping advice and will do your planting, build retaining walls, remove stumps, and provide various other services. 

Standing Behind Their Products 

You put a lot of effort, emotion, and money into the plants you buy. You’d like to be sure the nursery will replace plants that prove to be defective. We asked customers to rate nurseries on “reliability.” Our Ratings Tables show the percentage of each nursery’s surveyed customers who rated it “superior.” 

Price 

With the information on our Ratings Tables and visits of your own, you’ll find top-quality nurseries. Our Ratings Tables also will help you figure out which will give you the best prices. 

We checked prices for 18 different plants, such as a two- to three-foot-high Common Lilac and a Chinese Evergreen in a six-inch pot. 

As you can see on Table 1, we found tremendous firm-to-firm price variation—possibly more price variation than for any other type of business we cover. For almost all of the 18 different plants we shopped for, the highest price we found was more than three times the lowest price, and in some instances, the highest price we were quoted was more than six times the lowest price. 

The price index scores on our Ratings Tables show how each firm’s prices for the items it had in stock compared to the average prices of all surveyed nurseries for the same items. (For chains, we found generally consistent prices, so we used a single chain-wide average price for each item in our calculations.) The scores are adjusted to a base of $100. Thus, a nursery with a price index score of $110 had prices for the items we checked 10 percent higher than the average of all nurseries’ prices for the same items. 

For the selection of plants they sell, three big chains—Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Meadows Farms Nurseries—look very good for price. In our shopping, prices at Lowe’s averaged 48 percent below the all-nursery average for comparable items; prices at Home Depot averaged 34 percent below the all-nursery average; and prices at Meadows Farms Nurseries averaged 14 percent below the all-nursery average. Unfortunately, each of these three low-priced chains received ratings that were below average from their surveyed customers on our question on “quality of products.” 

It is important to note that in this field, unlike most we look at, there does appear to be a relationship between price and quality. As Figure 1 shows, a firm with high ratings on our customer survey for “quality of products” is more likely than not to have a higher-than-average price index score. Fortunately, however, there are some firms that rated high on our quality measures and also had below-average prices. 

Figure 1—Relationship Between Price and Quality of Plants

When using the price index scores, keep in mind that we couldn’t compare prices on identical products; although two firms might have the same type of azalea with the same spread, for example, the plants might differ in how healthy they are or in the fullness of the foliage. 

Also, keep in mind that by shopping, you sometimes can find good prices even among the firms with high price index scores. Prices can be checked by phone, but be sure to ask the right questions— 

• First, have the right name for the particular variety of plant you want; the Latin name is usually more precise. 
• Second, specify the size in a meaningful way. To talk about the height of a Kurume-type azalea means little. Since it is a semi-spreading evergreen, its price depends on its spread (say, “18 to 24 inches”), not its height. Trade practice with blue spruce, on the other hand, is to price according to height; and large shade trees are priced by the height, container size, and diameter of the trunk. You can simply ask the nurseries you talk with what terms to use, or you can download a copy of the “American Standard for Nursery Stock” by visiting the American Nursery & Landscape Association’s website at www.anla.org. 
• Third, get a general picture of quality. Ask the nursery personnel whether the prices they are quoting are for “specimen” plants, “standard” plants, or “culls” (below-standard plants). These terms should mean about the same to personnel at any nursery, and most will give you a straight answer rather than incur your anger if you come in and find that they don’t have what they have promised. 

Advice for When You Buy 

After you have selected your plants, there are a few final precautions to take. 

First, get a receipt. The receipt should show— 

• The common name of each plant you buy and the Latin name. 
• The size and grade of each plant. 
• The number purchased. 
• The date. 
• The price for each plant. 
• The guarantee (how long it runs, whether it covers costs of delivery and planting, what percentage of the cost it covers, whether this percentage is figured on the original purchase price or the price at the time of replacement, and what you have to do to keep the guarantee in force). 

If you plan to have the plants delivered, the receipt should show the delivery date and the fee for delivery. If they are to be planted by the nursery, planting charges also should be indicated. 

If plants will be delivered, it is a good idea to have the nursery put a tag on them. To be extra cautious on major purchases, you may even want to photograph your selections. Otherwise, it is hard to argue that you have the wrong specimen when the delivery truck arrives. 

Before you leave the nursery, be sure you have the following information on each plant you buy, and keep it as long as you have the plant— 

• The Latin name as well as the common name of the plant; without the name you will find it hard to get advice on the plant months or years later. 
• How the plant should be planted—how big a hole, how deep to plant, whether to fertilize, whether to stake, what kind of soil to put in the planting hole. 
• How much sun the plant should have and how good the drainage must be. 
• How to care for the plant—pruning, feeding, and spraying requirements. 
• Whether you can expect fruit or flowers. 

Planting Properly 

The information you get from your nursery on planting procedures and plant care can be supplemented with information from a good gardening book. Your plants will survive and prosper only if you know how to treat them. The few general tips listed below should help you avoid some of the most common planting errors made by consumers. 

• When transporting plants with foliage, don’t expose them to the wind. It will dry them out rapidly. If plants are loaded into your trunk with foliage protruding, cover them with burlap or similar material. 
• Keep your plants in the shade. Have your holes ready before you uncover the plants. Then plant quickly, before the plants can dry out. 
• Carry plants by the root ball or container, not the stem, so that the weight of the soil and root mass will not cause it to break away from the plant. Don’t drop plants; the ball might split. 
• Don’t plant too deep. Plants like azaleas and rhododendrons should be planted so that the root ball is slightly above grade, with the soil built up around them. If a plant of this type is put in a deeper hole, feeder roots may be smothered. In addition, the hole serves as a cup; it holds water around the roots and drowns the plant. When planting any tree or shrub in a hole that you have dug deeper than the root ball, allow for the fact that the plant will settle as the soil is compacted. You should avoid placing soil on top of the root ball. 
• For most plants, the hole should be three to five times as wide as the root ball so that the roots have an opportunity to spread into the well-aerated, soft soil that is backfilled into the hole. Otherwise, depending on the soil type, the untilled soil may act like a pot, containing the roots and forcing them to wrap around themselves. 
• In general, natural burlap should be left on a “balled and burlapped” plant while you place it in the hole, then folded back when the planting hole is half full so that it is not exposed above the ground. Ropes, wires, and fabrics containing plastic fibers should be removed. 
• If container-grown plants come out of pots with a tight ball of fibrous roots growing in a circle around the inside of the pot, cut the roots to allow growth to go outward. Otherwise, the roots will continue to grow in a circular pattern; years later you will be able to pull the plant out of the ground just as if it were still in the pot—and eventually the plant may strangle itself. A good approach is to cut a deep “X” in the bottom of the root ball, extending the cuts about one-fourth of the way up the ball; then pull the four sections of the bottom out to the sides, forming four legs. In addition, it is a good idea to make two or three cuts with your knife about one-half inch deep down the sides of the ball to break the circular flow of the root fibers. 
• There is some controversy regarding the best approach for backfilling planting holes. One approach is to use a mix of soil to which you have added about one-third organic matter, such as compost, composted manure, peat, or shredded bark. But some argue that plants do better if you simply backfill with the same soil you’ve removed so that the roots will grow into surrounding soil rather than preferring a rich backfilled mix. The most important point is to be sure not to add too much organic matter since such matter may become soggy, absorbing water from denser soil around the hole. 
• When planting, fertilize with high phosphate fertilizer to stimulate root growth. Small amounts of nitrogen can be helpful in sustaining vigor in root development but high nitrogen fertilizer can force too much leaf, shoot, and branch growth before the roots are ready to sustain it. 
• Prune away dead or diseased branches. 
• Before watering, firm the soil in the hole. Build a circular dam outside the root periphery forming a “saucer” three to four inches deep. Fill the saucer with mulch. Then water thoroughly and slowly. After that, only water as the soil dries out. You can check with a soil probe or a moisture meter, which you can buy at a garden supply store. Consistent, even watering is one of the most significant factors in plant survival and success in the first two or three years after transplanting. 
• The best planting times are spring and fall when air temperatures are cooler, the sun is less intense, there is more consistent rainfall, and cool soil temperatures encourage root growth. 

Top Garden Nursery Gripes 

Below is a summary of the various kinds of complaints surveyed CHECKBOOK subscribers expressed about garden nurseries they had used. 

• Poor customer service—Store’s staff was rude, unhelpful, unavailable, or disorganized. Mentioned in 40 percent of complaints. 
• High prices—Mentioned in 30 percent of complaints. 
• Inferior product quality—Mentioned in 20 percent of complaints. 
• Poor advice—Store’s staff was not knowledgeable or was untrained. Mentioned in 17 percent of complaints. 
• Limited selection or variety of products—Mentioned in 16 percent of complaints. 
• Inefficient store layout and/or products were inaccessible—Products were displayed in such a fashion that items were hard to find or difficult to assess. Mentioned in five percent of complaints. 
• Store too crowded/checkout lines too long—Mentioned in four percent of complaints. 

Should You Buy Plants Via Catalog or Online? 

You don’t have to buy all your plants at nurseries. Various firms offer websites and catalogs selling plants by mail. Should you deal with these firms? 

There are two main advantages to buying by mail. First, plants are sometimes cheaper (although you should be sure to take into account costs of shipping). Second, with some catalogs and websites, you can find unusual plants not available at the local nursery. 

But there are also disadvantages to buying by mail-order or online. First, you usually get bare-rooted plants, which can be planted only during the dormant season (before trees’ buds begin to swell). Second, you usually can’t get large plants. Third, if you are dissatisfied with a plant, it is some trouble to repackage it and send it back. Finally, and most important, you can’t see in advance what you will be getting, or select the particular specimen you want. The plant you get may bear little relation to the beautiful picture in the catalog or on the website. 

If you decide to deal with Internet or mail-order firms, your best bet is to deal with the firms that have the most precise descriptions in their catalogs or websites. Catalogs in which the only information on size and fullness of plants is a reference to the plants’ ages leave a lot to be desired. 

Expert Advice 

Cooperative Extension agents will give you advice by phone or at their offices and will help you diagnose plant problems if you bring or send them specimens. Each Cooperative Extension office also offers a publications catalog listing guides you can send for (some of which are free) on plant-related topics. The addresses and phone numbers of the local agencies are listed below. 

Extension Offices 

Alexandria
1108 Jefferson Street
Alexandria, VA
703-519-3325 

Arlington County
3308 South Stafford Street
Arlington, VA
703-228-6400 

District of Columbia
4200 Connecticut Avenue NW
Washington, DC
202-274-7115 

Fairfax County
12011 Government Ctr. Pkwy. #1050
Fairfax, VA
703-324-5369 

Howard County
3525-L Ellicott Mills Drive
Ellicott City, MD
410-313-2707 

Loudoun County
30-B Catoctin Circle SE
Leesburg, VA
703-777-0373 

Montgomery County
18410 Muncaster Road
Derwood, MD
301-590-9638 

Prince George’s County
6707 Groveton Drive
Clinton, MD
301-868-9366 

Prince William County
8033 Ashton Avenue, Suite 105
Manassas, VA
703-792-6289 

Brookside Gardens
1800 Glenallan Avenue
Wheaton, MD
301-962-1400
www.brooksidegardens.org

Horticultural Society of Maryland
410-821-5561
http://www.mdhorticulture.org

Kenilworth Park & Aquatic Gardens
1550 Anacostia Avenue NE
Washington, DC
202-426-6905 

National Arboretum
3501 New York Avenue NE
Washington, DC
202-475-4845
www.usna.usda.gov

University of Maryland Home and Garden Information Center
12005 Homewood Road
Ellicott City, MD
800-342-2507 or 410-531-1757
www.hgic.umd.edu