I USED To buy more plants online, but SHIPPING is ridiculously expensive now, plants themselves being sold are also much smaller than back in the day.. It's a good thing my "acquisitions" phase is largely OVER!

my "acquisitions" phase is largely OVER!

I think mine is too, and yet, there are plants I can't resist buying LOL. Of course I am an obsessive collector, with a 3 tries rule. Meaning, if I really, really want something I will try it 3 times to grow it. Had to try 3 times with Camellia 'Mieko Tanaka', but it's finally fully established and it was worth it. In mild winters here I will have deep, true red flowers from November to April. And yes, shipping continues to go up.

As much as I feel like I missed buying from some great nurseries in the 1990s, I feel VERY lucky to have gotten into rare plants when I did. I can't imagine starting now, without: Oikos, Seneca Hill, Song Sparrow, Porterhowse, Rarefind (they have yet to prove they will ever be anything like they once were), Greer, although TBH, quality of their plants was often so-so. And several others I'm surely forgetting.

Yes, shipping is up, but i continue to be awed by the ingenuity in packing i see from my favorite nurseries. No more plastic pots, styrofoam peanuts! just well gown plants in natural pots packed brilliantly in csrdboard Nothing crushed and nothibg wilted. The only plastic is the label and , and I’m sure theyre working on that.

Yeah, it’s called inflation of the dollar due to the government non-stop“printing press”. How many TRILLION in the last year and a half? 10? 20?

I was listening to a podcast with 3 wholesale nursery owners, they mention prices of plants have not tracked with inflation over the past 2 decades, plants should be even more expensive than they are. Local kids are advised not to go into the nursery/horticulture business, and a lot of nurseries closed when the next generation didn't take over the business. Less supply = higher price.

I am definitely not out of the "collection" phase as I am pretty young and new to gardening. Lumber is starting to come back down. I imagine plants will, too.

Skip -

I actually don't find any plants expensive except for the summer/fall annuals , eeks. Trees or shrubs... Someone has nurtured it, watered it , fed it. Someones gotta pay for the H20 for all the care it's received, whether it be 3 years, 4 years, 5etc. It's interesting on your comment cause often when I pay the price, I often just say it's cost X amount per year for this to be sold.