Garden Crossings! Another good one is Forest Farm. All online vendors, but excellent, large, healthy plants.

My favorite place to buy almost anything garden related is my local nursery. That is not to say I don't order my seeds and an occasional plant from garden catalogues.

I have made friends with the owner who has a degree in horticulture, and he grows most things from seed. I get a healthy dose of info and advice from him and that and his plant warrantees keep me coming back. I may pay a bit extra but what goes with each plant is worth it.

I absolutly love this nursery i pass on my way home from work, it has so much, and the people there are beyond helpful. The prices are great for things i cant find anywhere else, its actually where i bought my phloxs and geraniums. I went to their open housein october, and bought roses 75% off! I had no room left in my car!
I also shop thebox stores, you cant beat their clearance racks!
I ordered from santarosa gardens website when they had a 2.99 perennial sale. I was very happy with the plants i got! None of them where weak or sickly.

I'll second the votes for santa rosa gardens and bluestone perennials. Great luck with plants from both of those!

Please support your local nurseries...

(and by that I mean an actual NURSERY, not a big box store or a Wally-World-type place)

If, of course, your local nursery does not carry a selection you covet, there are some great on-line nurseries you can turn to (e.g. Forest Farm)

I've never had great luck with Bluestone Perennials. The plants are sooo small, just starters. Hopefully, the ones I planted this year that never grew any bigger than they started out will grow better and bigger next year. Such a shame because Bluestone is only about a half hour away from me.

I'd say I buy the majority of my perennials from Bluestone. They're my first stop when looking for anything.

Locally, in the last two years I've bought many shrubs from Broken Arrow Nursery in Hamden, CT. I live about a mile or two from a nice nursery, but they really are quite expensive. I do try to buy at least one perennial a year from them, since I do believe in supporting local. businesses, but they are just too expensive for me to buy from on a regular basis.

There is also a garden center/feed store where I buy a lot of plants. They have fairly good quality plants at decent prices.

I've also used Forest Farm & Shooting Star. And I have bought daylilies and irises from Gilbert Wild. I've heard that several people have had problems with them (Wild), but I've yet to have any issues with any daylilies or irises that they sent. I've always had success with their plants, and the price is right.

:)
Dee

I second the motion for supporting your local garden centers. I have found that I always get a much bigger plant from them for the same or less money than I do mail order. But, I do order from mail order places for things I cannot find locally.
My faves:
Greer Gardens (Oregon): BIG plants for a decent price. Nice selection.
LazySsfarm: great selection, small but vigorous plants, and reasonable prices.
Forest Farm: by far the biggest selection of anyplace I know. Very reasonable prices, with a choice of small or large sizes. (It definitely pays to buy the larger size on anything that is a "slow" grower.) Very high shipping for my part of the world, but again, a spectacular selection.
Plant Delights: pricey, but plants that are grown in a climate similar to mine. Their plant sizes for the money are nothing to brag about.
I also tried Sooner Plant Farm this year for the first time. I was very impressed with the size of the plants for the price.

All of the above have excellent service.

I've got a few great nurseries near me that I buy most of my plants from. I order perennials from Bluestone if I can't find it locally. They start small but they're healthy and grow fast. I buy roses from Palatine roses who sells the biggest and healthiest and fastest growing roses. I don't buy from Big Box stores anymore because I'd rather spend the extra to support the smaller local nurseries and help them stay in business.

Not much love for "Big Box" stores in this thread, but Lowes and Home Depot are two of my favorite places to buy perennials. Hard to argue with larger plants and lower prices.

Just buy the plants as soon as they come off the truck, before the employees have a chance to kill the plants!