Thanks for the link! That is more what I was thinking about price and selection wise. Shame his doesn't come up as one of the links when searching google for tomato plants.

Selected Plants is on page 2, about 1/2 way down the page, of the Google search for 'tomato plants for sale'.

Dave

Bonnie took over the Eastern part of Canada too. In the last few years - nothing but Bonnie's vegetables are sold in all BBS.

Bonnie plants are a monopoly. They illegality set the price here in Nashville, Tennessee. The manager at Lowes told me that if he lowered the price. The Bonnie people said they would not let them sell their plants. The stores used to sell 6 packs and 4 packs of vegetable plants at a reasonable price, now they only sell individual plants at several times the price of a 6 pack of smaller plants. Alabama Co Op bought Bonnie Plants several years ago. I believe the people buying their plants are city folks putting out only a few plants. I will not buy any of their plants. I had rather sow my seed in a cold frame and be a few weeks later getting them out.

All of this season I bought just ONE Bonnie plant. But I bout maybe 5 matoes and peppers from other unknown growers' brands at HALF the price of Bonnie's. ( $1.99 vs $3.65)

I think that as a consumer......I have a choice, plan ahead and plant seeds or wait to the last minute and buy plants from BBS. Locals in my are no longer try to compete.I went to locals this spring looking for seeds and was told to go to WM.

I am not going to knock Bonnies or BBS.....the choice is completely mine

They employee a LOT of people and sell some good product. If the product wasn't any good, people would not buy it. It is a success story, staring out as a small family business.

What Americans are supposed to strive for and respect. They do a lot of good with their childrens programs.

I grow my vegetables from seed these days, but when I didn't , I always bought Bonnie plants from HD or Lowes.
Why? Because those stores move a lot of product quickly and for that reason the plants have not been sitting out for weeks or months. Quick turnover = fresh product.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bonnie

This post was edited by DBrown2351 on Sun, Aug 3, 14 at 17:06

Soooo dissappointed to find four Bonnie Fresnos where actually more like "gypsies". I still had time to get them elswhere , but I thought I was set. Looks like some squash were mislabled as a melon, too.

I thought I would add that I planted the majority of plants from seed, bought some from a local nursery, and ordered 16 cross country from "cross country".......but Fresnos are my favorite.

Bonnie plants appeared for the first time at Walmart, here in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada this spring (2014). Their selection was decent, but different than the suppliers of previous years. Tomatoes, peppers and similar plants sold for $2.98 each in 4" coir pots.

It was the first time seeing Rutgers determinate for sale in Edmonton so I purchased one plant for seed saving purposes. The tray of Rutgers had a brown band from soil level up a half an inch which reminded me of Damping Off, but the tomatoes we erect and looked healthy. I selected the best of the bunch and it is doing fine.

Home Depot had different plant tags and different varieties here in Edmonton, so Bonnie was not their supplier in this market.

plants are usually labeled incorrectly by a careless shopper, not the supplier.

^Maybe, but FOUR of them?

here on the west coast the bbs carry 4 and six packs early in the season before the bonnies arrive- all big box plant vendors do all the work for the stores; setting up displays, stocking, replacing damaged plants no matter what the reason. rather than having an experienced nursery manager the bbs just let the vendor reps do it. their stock is almost totally uninteresting to real gardeners(that's us) but we arent their market.

Same in my area with Bonnie being the one and only choice in BBS. Just don't like paying $4 per plant when I used to get a SIX pack for $1.80. At $1/lb at summer farmers markets, I'm 4 lbs in the hole months before picking any.
I'm more motivated to start my own from seed now; lower cost and I know I'll get the variety I want.

My local Lowes hosts a Bonnie Plants display with about 100 starter tomato plants and they are the saddest leaf eaten yellowest tomato plants I've ever seen. They are $6.40 with tax each. Too bad, they had some Mortgage Lifters, right next to the 42" tomato ring cages LOL Look around for a local nursery for 6-packs. Bonnie Plants pulls a few good varieties out of the hat these days, but they are reshaping the costs of gardening here with a total monopoly.

I don't think it is working out well and I think we have the highest prices of anyone mentioning their Bonnie prices in the thread because Florida is about as hard as it gets on their consignment strategy. I think they are losing three plants to every one they sell, so in the end it is the home gardener who is paying for their monopoly. Support your local nursery if you can!

Bonnie does a reasonable job with their vegetable plants, but they aren't the only growers. Chef Jeff brand is very good but they only deliver as far as Pensacola into Florida. I wish that the big box stores would handle the more than one grower's products. Maybe we would have better selection and a break in the prices. $4 including tax for any Bonnie vegetable or herb plant seems a bit excessive, but the prices are the same regardless of where they are sold.

There are few unknown growers/sellers bu Bonnie is dominants. Now Burpee is also getting into selling plants. But their prices are even higher than Bonnie.

With Bonnie's prices so high the small local growers should be able to compete. But probably the problem is getting their products into BBS.

Sey

I am mystified. Tomato plants, in the UK, are available everywhere. Every greengrocer has a few trays - market stalls, carboot sales, any of those places which employ people with disabilities, all garden centres, even people put tables outside of their houses. And you get a really interesting range. When mine were mangled one year, I rounded up another 4 dozen plants just from everyone on the allotments. And we expect to pay$1...unless we are buying some novelty such as grafted ones (garden centres) and they are more like $4. I have never heard of buying tomato plants online (seeds, for sure). Obviously, the US is massive - 40x bigger than the UK so I am wondering how many outlets we have per capita and what the difference is between US and UK.

I will add, despite our cool summer, pretty much everyone in the UK, even complete non-gardeners, have a tomato (in pots. grobags etc.) over the summer.

" I have never heard of buying tomato plants online "

I've heard of companies selling them, but I suspect buying them is relatively rare here in the US. I am in California, so I can't speak for most, but I imagine most who grow their own are fine with what they get locally, and when they get past those, start from seed.

Peppers, especially the hots and super hots, might be a little different. If the same company grows both, ordering both might make sense. I bought some pepper plants on sale, late season, once. And they successfully overwintered!

Buying online from some of the smaller growers (i.e. Darrel at Selected Plants or Seedsavers or any of several growers that come up when you do a search of "tomato plants for sale") rather than the BBS's or commercial companies like Burpee or Park Seed is a good thing. By supporting the smaller growers who grow and ship more varieties we can help keep these great tomatoes from getting lost. And yes, I do put my money where my mouth is. I've ordered from Darrel for years and am profoundly grateful he is still growing my family's tomato since I had my seed crop wiped out that was the last of the seeds from my uncle's Estate.

Edie

it's really a rip off what their charging for transplants these days. i completely stopped buying once the transplant suppliers started getting greedy and only providing one transplant for $3.50-$4.00/ea. about 5 years ago i could easily buy a "six pack" which were 6 vegetable plants in a plastic tray for around 2-3 bucks. i now grow from seed and save so much money. their profit margins must be huge.. i hope they all go out of business because there is no reason a single veg plant should be selling upwards of $4..

i think they are catching on and see people buying less and less transplants and starting from seed instead, perhaps Bonnie is getting tired of picking up racks and racks of dead plants no one is buying... got back from Lowes today and see they have a "deal" where you buy 5 for $10. still a bit expensive, but a lot better than paying $4 per plant.

I'm thinking the cost of all the dead plants is factored in.

FWIW, I grow from seed for me and many others, but I'm fairly certain I'd spend less on a few six packs, especially given what I consider my bottom line hourly wage. Good thing it's a labor of love, and not a living!

> I'm thinking the cost of all the dead plants is factored in.

probably, but the way i see it is if they priced them reasonable, people would buy them and the racks would be emptied instead of being full of root bound/dead transplants no one is buying. what's better, sell 1000 plants at $4 or sell 5000 at $1.50? i bet those that are buying the transplants would certainly be grabbing a few extra plants if they were cheaper.

last year the racks at homedepot were all full of transplants (very late in the season to be transplanting) it wasn't until then when they finally realized no one is buying them and they lowered the price by half.. a bit too late for that.

i took a quick look at the seed display, half of the seed cases were empty already so it definitely looks like people are opting for seeds.. funny because while at the store i heard a lady mumbling "wow they're expensive for just one plant" ..lol..

I think the racks are full because the Bonnie reps see to it that they stay that way. I do agree that it can be good to support independent growers (there don't seem to be locals close to me) but in my experience the Bonnie plants are good quality plants and I buy them, they are green and healthy and do well for me. The single plants are a little pricy, the six packs are more economical.

I no longer start from seed for veggies, I am getting older and buying the plants is one of the little luxuries I indulge in to make life a little easier.

I may next year order online from some of the smaller company vendors mentioned. I'm doing much less driving, so trekking out to further away small local growers isn't an option.

No good experience with Bonnie's here. I will never buy them again. Last year their stuff was all pretty terrible looking at my Home Depot. Aside from the tomatoes you don't even know what variety you are buying (though this is the tomato forum and tomatoes are probably the easiest to have luck with of their stuff.) They bring it out well before LFD, sometimes badly rootbound, sold with frost and other damage. The plants I see people buying, overgrown plants with rotting fruit on the vines, half dead from frost, it blows my mind, and they fight like hyenas for it weeks before last frost.

Anyway, I really love growing my own transplants.

I'm pretty sure I saw Burpee at Lowes.

Peter,

From the huge description difference between the plants you saw and the Bonnie plants at my local Home Depot, I'm thinking that the poor plants are a local problem. That of course can happen with independent local growers as well, some are good, some are not.

I feel fortunate that my local Home Depot has nice healthy plants.

I had to drive my Mom to Walmart (I never shop there myself,) and they had Bonnie Original Tomatoes, and a few other plants with such nondescript names. I have rarely bought transplants from stores, does anyone know if these are truly 'exclusive' and what they are comparable to? Not that I do, or do not want to buy them, it was a curiosity.

Right now , this early in the season in my area , they are selling just a handful of most old popular varieties for the general public like:

Sun Gold, Early Girl, Bonnie's Original, Bradywine, .. and few other.

I have already more than enough of my own, but I might get one or two that I missed to grow from seed.

Sey

I have never bought bonnie plants but I may have to soon. After several weeks of my starting trays and transplants around the house my wife said " I don't know why you can't just buy plants like a normal person".

I learned to grow my own transplants. I buy good seed and get the best plants for my garden this way. In the long run it pays off. I found that the plants being sold were not the correctly named plants. they all tend to be sloppy with seeds and they do not sell F1 plants under the name. they might use f2 or later and call them by name technically all the genetics came from that variety but they are poor substitutes for size and production. I learned this by planting store purchased plants along side my correct plants from correct seeds. BIG DIFFERENCE. the store plants had half the production and smaller tomatoes. waste of time and rip off. forget it. I grow my own now.

Peter,

The plants you saw at HD were being sold weeks prior to the LFD and yet were covered with rotten fruit and half dead from frost damage? Come on now...

ncrealestateguy,

Absolutely. They are shipped from a greenhouse far, far away.

They start selling them here in March, despite LFD not being until late April.

> my wife said " I don't know why you can't just buy plants like a normal person".

tell her the "normal" people start from seed and don't like to be spoon fed, and like to have extra money in their pocket :)

seed starting at home is how it was done for hundreds of years before big corps like walmart and the big chains came into the picture.

sure it's nice to have the option to buy transplants and i've bought them before, not going to lie, but that was under certain circumstances where it was too late to start from seed, or some rodent decided to eat my seedlings.

> I think the racks are full because the Bonnie reps see to it that they stay that way.

yeah as in, they are full because people aren't buying them :P
you can tell it's the same plants sitting on the rack day after day because they keep growing in the small peat pot, become root bound and leggy. it's very easy to tell the difference between replenished racks and racks of plants that have just been sitting.

Stevie, perhaps that is true there, but not here. There seem to be significant differences between the store you visit and the one I visit.

Took these photos about 30 minutes ago at Home Depot. I wouldn't consider planting any warm season plants until at least mid-May. Yet they are selling them now. The tomatoes they had front and center looked good surprisingly but they had some further back that looked awful (worker was near and I didn't take a pic of them).

These peppers were representative of their entire stock although the Gypsy peppers they had looked much worse.

Misc. · More Info

Again, these eggplants were representative of their entire stock. (You can actually see a few Gypsy peppers in the bottom of the pic on the next shelf down.)

Misc. · More Info

Oh, and they were selling "patio" tomatoes in 2.5 gallon pots that had fruit on them.

Rodney

They had something new at Home Depot this year. Something organic. They actually looked pretty good. Bonnie's didn't look as terrible as last year either, last year it was worse than those photos here Rodney. I saw a sign saying they got a local greenhouse here in NY.

I start all my own seeds so it doesn't matter. I wanted to buy a rosemary plant, but they were all badly rootbound into the peat pots, so I will get one from a garden center.

At $4/plant I would go broke buying all my plants.

Must confess--my black krim is a Bonnie plant, it's my only tomato I didn't start from seed. It's lovely and doing great. When I bought it, it looked really good and very healthy. So, maybe the problems are just local. The Lowes down from me always has a nice selection of Bonnie heirloom varieties but the Home Depot never does.

I would bet the plant section quality varies from store to store. Some stores have people who know what they are doing caring for their plants, some don't. We have a bunch of big box stores with garden centers within a half hour drive and the difference between them can be amazing, even though they probably all get their plants from the same vendors.

I have noticed the "good" Home Depot in my area has been carrying more and more heirloom plants - lots of tomatoes, some peppers - that you normally don't see outside of a seed packet. I've been thinking about waiting until they do their 5 plants for $10 sale and picking some up just to get some seeds for myself.

Peter- Yeah, I've seen worse Bonnie plants at times as well. My original thoughts/feelings about Bonnie are still the same now as they were when I made my first comment on this thread back in 2014. And the prices for Bonnie plants are still a few times more expensive than what plants sell for at local nurseries, markets, and whatnot. Around here you can get a 4 pack of healthy, young plants for $1. A good sized (as in not too big or too small) single plant in a 4-inch pot goes for $1. In my area there is no reason to buy overpriced, unhealthy Bonnie plants a big box store, yet people do.

Rodney

The peppers and eggplants they sell, aside from typically being rootbound in a peat pot, and the frequent damage issues including frost and sunburn, are not suited for this climate for that matter. You don't even know what variety the "red bell" or "orange bell" is.

Unfortunately the local garden centers here are all just as or even more expensive, the real estate alone is $$$ here in NY so.... I am definitely happiest starting all my own chosen varieties from seed myself, and it scratches the gardening bug in the winter too.

Confession: )

I bough one Bonnie plant the other day.

I was just checking plant stands @ HD. I saw this little 5" tomato plants with half a dozen tomatoes and lots of blossoms on it ; Couldn't resist at $2.50 price tag.

It was pretty much root bound in that 5" peat pot. Right away I re potted it to a gallon pot temporarily.

Tidy Treats (F1): is the name . ( cherry tomato)

Has anybody grown it ?

Bonnie's site says it grows 3 to 5ft. But I doubt it very much. It looks almost like a micro dwarf.. I am gonna give it a 4-5 gallon pot.

Tidy Treats grows like a determinate/dwarf, but with indeterminate traits. meaning plant stays compact, but keeps producing throughout the season.

I didn't look at all the posts, but think I noticed a trend. The Bonnie plants here in southern 8b are nice. I want to be a good grow-from-seed gardener and will use Bonnie's as a benchmark. I think the northern zones are getting the long in the tooth leftovers, the shelf sitters from warmer zones that are being moved north to sell. Would explain why the plants look good in my area and so road weary and root bound in New York.

Where can I purchase the plastic pots that have the round plastic cage attached to the pots. Thanks Scott

You'd have to be much more specific in your description Scott. Have you looked at all the various containers available from the many greenhouse grower suppliers. If by cage you mean the plant support or trellis, most are sold separately.

Dave

Bonnie's seems to have changed some of their practices. The last time I went to my local Home Depot, they had plants grown in a local greenhouse rather than down south.

Bonnie Plants keeps getting bigger and bigger, and driving the local entrepreneurs out of business, and has sewn up the market with exclusive contracts from Walmart, Lowes, and Home Depot nationwide. A few years ago they introduced Late Blight to New York by shipping plants there from one of their two Georgia greenhouse complexes and caused a major uproar.

In order to grab all their market share and squeeze out the little guys who's heart is closer to business, they offer the big retailers the plants on consignment, so the Walmarts of the world have not a responsibility when the plants aren't taken care of, so it is so easy for disease to spread on the outside displays on weakened plants, and after the plants are beat, Bonnie comes to pick up the fallen from their battlefields if they had no time to care for them or a heat or cold wave hit, sometimes they delay and that is when people notice how bad the quality can be.

All of this would be fine if they offered a benefit to the consumer, but instead they use their monopoly status to drive up the prices, give the Big Box stores a a large commission and plenty of hapless consumers get sick plants or terrible quality depending if they come when the shipment arrives or after the plants have been a while.

Single plants in a 3 1/2" bad pot are $3.73 here. The same size in 4" nursery pots are $1.50 - $2.00 in the last planting nursery left here. Close to the same prices also apply to the 4 or 6-packs of seedlings. Last year we lost a major nursery here that raised tomatoes and always had interesting varieties, due to its inability to compete. Of the two major nurseries left, one only has a tiny table of varieties (interesting ones) in the back which really shrunk and was de-emphasized this year, amd the other nursery for the moment a large selection but buying the plants from out of town from the same source as Ace. Ten years ago we had 10 nurseries to serve our large southern city. Ace still is not Bonnitized here, but they order from out of state anyway. Bonnies has grown to have over 60 greenhouse complexes covering most states and will ship anywhere they have to to meet their contractual obligations though of course in-state is cheaper to ship for them and more profitable.

I do not buy Bonnie Plants because I plant seeds myself, but when the opportunity comes up I am very glad to support a local independent, if nothing less, for the experience of walking around the nursery instead of seeing a mix of sick and some decent plants in the hot sun on modular shelves too big for their pots, filled with Septoria, drying out or just plain sickly, in a hot Home Depot parking lot. More fun at an independent than paying for a $10 movie ticket :-)

Cheers

PC

Not sure what to say. This is really sad. My livelihood does not depend on sales of seedlings, but if yours does, this is a hardship. If it's any comfort, I grow my plants from seeds that I buy online from heirloom tomato places. I think my neighbors do too. Not sure, but they have a greenhouse... little but mighty.

very old thread but bonnie has gotten even worst . when i first bought the small cup was 99 cents or less. then that size disappeared, but latest they carry only 19.5 cup and 5.50+- few cents . and if lucky they deliver a tray of tomatoes or peppers. at theses prices and if you buy 6 your bound to lose 1 or 2 so barely economical to grow your own for families

so today seeds also gotten higher from the 2 big suppliers . some id from buyouts

and both parties no longer believe in anti monopiles and government itself will rather have one or 2 big companies to regulate for not pro consumer reasons example the 2 enormous blood testing labs but anyone who finds a local source buy there

i moved away from one believe it was just inside philly from bucks near the big mall

but they retired and closed even though i could no longer get there it saddened me

you could buy so many varieties even if you only wanted 1 of each or a full sheet

and they were nice to boot they must be fairly old so kids might not wanted the business

although businness in the city is extremely hard 0ne creek distance would make world of difference