In my opinion, I hope they keep up with that trend. Makes my small business aspirations that much more promising. Right now I sell veggie starts for a charity and they are basically flying off the shelf with very little advertising and at a similar price to the big box stores. I’d love to see more local greenhouses take advantage of the competition’s laziness.

Look on Craigslist and small independent garden centers for plants. That a where I sell my vegetable transplants. But I can't compete with big stores on pricing. Input cost are all volume based.

Bonnie does dominate the home garden market. They have done so by catering to backyard gardeners looking for a quick fix. They have a good feedback system for what sells in which areas. Vendors love them because there is no muss and fuss on their part. The plants arrive and they sell them. Even nursery operations have gone that route. Big pricey single plants is not cost effective but is appealing to many. Bonnie offers 50 varieties of peppers, including 13 varieties of bells. Yellow, Orange, Red and Purple. They do not offer a white bell. Red, orange, and yellow are ripe colors, all are green bells until they ripen. Purple bells start purple but ripen to red.

[https://www.houzz.com/discussions/bonnie-plants-a-monopoly-dsvw-vd~2203234[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/bonnie-plants-a-monopoly-dsvw-vd~2203234)

An older discussion on this same topic. My thoughts on this can be found there.

Rodney

I agree with digdirt. They are in all the Big Box Stores so why not find alternatives. I was out this weekend and yes $4 for a plant is highway robbery but it wont' stop until consumers get some sense and stop buying them. But sadly like dig said, most don't even know the difference or want to find out.

There are still some nice small markets around me, a very nice greenhouse on the East side of Madison, WI that grows a huge selection of heirlooms. Yes it's a 50 min drive for me but worth it. There are also a couple small greenhouses west of Madison about 35 mins out of the city, totally worth it as you can still get 6-packs, yes I said SIX PACKS for just under $2 each! And the plants looks great. I always special order several flats of wave petunias from them, I can get full flats of 6-packs of waves for $18. That's 38 cents a plant, try to find that anywhere else!

My local HD had 4" Bonnie vegetables on sale for $1.89. It was a special one day sale, but I found an Indigo Rose tomato, Thai basil and a few peppers. For a greater variety, the local colleges with hort. departments have sales every spring, as does the local organic gardening club. They are the resources for more unusual varieties, as are some small independent nurseries. There's always the option of starting from seeds. Fortunately, I live where we can grow vegetables year round.

It doesn't seem to be a big deal in my area. I tend to not buy plants from HD anyway - really inferior quality and care and gross mislabeling - and veggie starts are available everywhere.......most grocery stores, Rite Aid, the local Ace Hardware. And my local nursery, which starts a lot of their own, especially tomatoes, and brings in organic starts (usually 4 paks) from local growers. There never seems to be a shortage of anything, although locating patty-pan summer squash can take some hunting :-)

Sorry about this, but I'm just upset how choices have become so limited. Bonnie have pushed out other sources, and now have cut their variety and raised their prices. They are priced as a premium product, but do not offer anything to justify. Little choice, mediocre to terrible quality, high prices. $3.78 in May for one damaged Spinach plant, or one Collard plant, or one overgrown Romaine is not very good value. Damaged plants are typical. They could at least seem like they are trying other than trying to get customers to spend twice the money. Restaurants try this same tactic, try to get the customer to pay more each visit for the same product, and then they end up with less customer volume.

Since they only seem to sell a few type of plants, and the early spring plants are usually damaged, the next step will be to reduce what they offer to only a few items, and spread their sales system even thinner. Good for real garden stores hopefully, but will less people get interested in gardening?

If you have a problem with Bonnie then don't buy them, then go to a local nursery that grows there own plants. Pay a little more for those and quit complaining.

You’re paying for the pot, the dirt, the water, and the energy (lights) to grow the plants and then the transportation in temperature controlled trucks to get them to you so it’s not really highway robbery. If you don’t like it, the answer is to buy seeds and grow whatever you want yourself. Much cheaper. But much more work. Then maybe you won’t find four dollars so expensive for a plant!

dirtguy50... Bonnie is more expensive than the local nurseries and usually much lower quality. If you prefer that, you can buy their $4 "Green Bell" and "Red Bell" plants and have the choice of "both" types of peppers. You can get basic peppers and tomatoes much cheaper at nurseries.

am i missing somthing if you dont like bonnie or big box stores dont use them

I’m always impressed how reasonably priced and good condition the plants are locally. Most stock vegetables run about $.50 apiece, And go up from there. Exotics like grafted tomatoes or some wacky watermelon are more expensive, but I don’t think I’ve seen anything over five dollars. Perhaps more importantly for me, the fruit trees seem very reasonable. There is a fairly decent selection of excellent condition grafted trees, most are $10 apiece. Only real caveet so far is some varieties I like are unavailable (ie jalapenoes) and I have to order them in privately. As long as it’s domestic, the shipping rates are not too bad. I do this sparingly though.

Generally speaking, the quality standards are quite high here, which is a good thing for consumers.

It's ok to rant because sometimes it's a wake-up call for some people. I start some tomatoes and peppers but I also buy from a local backyard grower who offers a wonderful variety and sells single plants, even as seedlings. Annuals are 70 cents each which makes them more expensive than buying 6 packs at a larger place but a great deal if you'd rather have six different varieties than 6-of-a-kind. The local mall is dying but I saw limited selections (thank you, inventory control accountants) so I'm not surprised that people stopped going there. I'll probably make a stop at Lowe's and Home Depot for a look see and possible purchase but I'd rather support the small nursery in town. I didn't even realize how many pepper varieties I was missing out on until I bought seed on-line but I also told the owner about a great variety of pepper that's good for northern gardens that she will consider growing next year. Mostly I'm bored with the same old marigolds and tomato varieties at most nurseries. My favorite marigold is Lemon Gem Tagetes which I originally discovered at a local backyard grower (since passed away). I can sometimes find it at the place that's 45 minutes away or drive even further to a larger greenhouse operation. It's a fun day trip so worth the gas $. It doesn't matter what the product, the big boxes have a limited selection of the most popular sellers. Fine for their bottom line but not mine. I want the benefit of a bell pepper that turns red in our short summer so I can roast for the freezer and I enjoy the lemon fragrance and dainty foliage of the Lemon Gem. I suspect a lot of gardeners don't even realize there are other places out there. Maybe they are fine with a limited selection but maybe they'll discover the small nursery with a great selection some day.

My issue is all the mislabeling. Bee Balm, lemon balm, not. I no longer trust them.

I did not notice anyone mention how Bonie managed to pull off getting exclusive deals with all the big box stores, which explains a lot about why things are the way they are.

Bonie delivers the plants and the store pays for what they sell. Bonie eats any theft or loss

I was not happy with plants I go from Wally World last year and complained to the company. Walmart had left their plants outside to early and many of them looked ok but died within a few days of bringing them home.I then bought some Bonnie plants from Home Depot and those plants did very well. The Bonnie company reimbursed the money I spent on the plants that died, with a coupon to replace the plants. I'll try again this year but will not buy them from Wally World again..

They and the public that buys them have ruined home gardens. Run the local greenhouses out of business. Can nolonger find flats 24 48 plants for my vegatble garden.

They have turned vegatable gardening into a sport, not for feeding people.

What worries me about so much of the seedlings coming from one source is that if they pick up some blight, or other problem, everyone in the country will have it. Even if you start your own seedlings you'd get it from your neighbor.

There's a huge green house near here who last year sold Bonnie's plants. If glad to see that this year they apparently grew there own. They offer grafted tomatoes and beefsteaks like Pink and Red Brandywine, Mortgage Lifter, German Johnson, and Old German. The last I never grew so I'm trying that one this year.

It is possibleto find local growers at least in my of NH. some are at farmers markets. i've been buying from one for years. they send out their plant lists and ask for pre orders. i like being able to buy 12 different tomato plants. unfortunately this is last year for Rusty's Heirloom tomatoes and i never got there. he is retiring to FL. try joining a facebook gardening group to find local growers.

Oh my gosh! We have many many organic nurseries in this area that either start their own vege starts, or buy from local, organic nurseries! We're spoiled! Then there are very large sales put on in the spring by non profits (one is so popular you sometimes have to park 1/ mile away!) There's also the farmer's markets (you can find at least one every day of the week in Sonoma County!)

Do some of these places cost a bit more? Yes, but it'd worth it to me to get quality.