I’ve gotten several from amazon- my fiddle leaf fig, snake plant, zz plant, and some astilbe bulbs for the garden. They were all pretty good. Ordered some garden plants from Homedepot.com and the packaging was HORRIBLE. But I called and they gave me a discount.

I second jurasico's comments. Mail order in my experience is a gamble. I've receive some top quality material and I've gotten some manure.

There are some very good nurseries that sell online. I have received good plants from Almost Eden and Accents for Home and Garden (Pepper's Greenhouse). Natural Selection Exotics is expensive to buy from, but they have some very cool rare tropical plants and have always sent good, healthy plants.

It can go either way, really, as others have said. Look for places with good reviews, especially on outside sites. Read the negative reviews for a place you want to buy from, and judge whether you are okay with the downsides if you see a pattern (for example, some stores ship slow, but offer healthy plants and will get a bad review for shipping speed, others may ship usually healthy plants, but have bad customer service if something goes wrong, others may ship well in the summer, but not protect the plants for winter, etc.)

I find that ebay/etsy sellers can be hit or miss - NEVER buy plants from a shop which offers "discount", low-quality goods ad well as plants, or anything else shady (selling obviously photo-shopped plants, selling common invasives as herbs, etc) . If they only sell a particular type of plant (oxalis, scented geraniums, cacti etc.) they will often be of high quality, from my experience.

Make sure you know what you are getting - is it in a 2" plug, 4" pot, or larger? Is it bareroot is moss? And know their shipping and DOA policy -- how liable are they if the shipping goes poorly? Do they only cover DOA plants if you choose expedited shipping/extra packaging etc.?Basically, since you can't scrutinize the plant before you buy it to check it for signs of problems, you have to instead scrutinize the shop.

I like a couple that are a state or 2 away, quick shipping is a plus with plants.

Pepper's in New Jersey & 'Taylor's greenhouse' in New York.

i buy on ebay , no issues, i make sure to read the reviews. i also research the plant care and the area im in to make sure i can take care of it.

also note if you buy on ebay and only want plants and not seeds type something like: sunflower -seed -seeds