The 8 Best Places to Buy Plants Online for 2023
Find the perfect plants from the comfort of your home by shopping online.
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There's really no reason to go outside to scan picked-over and neglected shelves when looking for the perfect plants for your place. Instead, you can just buy plants online. Sure, shopping online for plants might seem peculiar, but it's actually more common than you think. It's also the perfect way to find exactly what you want without driving all over town. The sheer number of quality options makes it an attractive and affordable way to snare some ficuses and ferns for your living space or home office. And adding live plants to your home is an easy way to upgrade any space -- just make sure you put them in the right place to keep them alive.
If you have access to a greenhouse or plant store that you love, great. But not all of us do and that means you may have to consider getting your plants from an online marketplace. In fact, if you have specific needs, buying plants online may be the best option to secure the exact flora you desire thanks to the large selection available. It's also worth noting that a lot of retailers offer free shipping if you make a large order. There are a number of plant subscriptions and specialty online plant vendors, perfect for those in need of house plants, flowers, small trees, and shrubbery. Plus there are plenty of low-maintenance options that are easy to care for, even if you don't have a green thumb.
Why buy plants online?
Buying plants online means a bigger selection
Depending on what sort of access you have to plant shops, buying your houseplants online may mean a much bigger selection. With so many varieties available from online plant stores, you skip the meager selection at the hardware store and scan an endless virtual garden of potted plants, ferns, ficus, and flowers guaranteed to brighten a corner, window, shelf, or room.
When you buy your flora on the web, you can choose from common or exotic plants, mini cacti and succulents, hanging plants, flowering plants, planters, faux plants, air plants, and large indoor floor plants that anchor an entire room. Better yet, popular online plant markets such as Bloomscape and The Sill provide specific advice for plant care to help your new green stay green. Most of these online plant retailers also carry a wide range of stunning pots and planters to display your new verdure in a myriad of styles and colors.
Buying plants gives you access to more info
Shopping with one of these online plant marketplaces also makes it easy to find pet-friendly potted plants that are safe for your pup or cat. And if your thumb isn't as green as you'd like it to be, you can find easy-care plants that are darn near impossible to kill with many sites offering easy-care or low-maintenance plant sections filled with rugged flora in all sizes and styles.
These online markets and vendors offer meticulous information on how to care for your new plant, so even if it's not low-maintenance, you'll have a better chance of keeping it alive when armed with planting, watering, and sunlight recommendations.
You can buy outdoor plants online, too
Beyond indoor plants, we dug up a solid option for buying bigger outdoor plants online including fruit trees, vegetable plants, vines and shrubs for landscaping in case this is the summer you're finally turning the backyard into a natural wonderland. And if you're looking to grow fresh herbs inside without having to touch a single grain of soil, we've got you covered there too: Check out CNET's list of best indoor pod gardens in 2023.
While we haven't yet tried each and every plant delivery service on our list, we called out the ones we have. Beyond that, we've based these selections on a particular service's overall selection and plant varieties offered to help you find the best plants for your style and space.
Plants make excellent gifts for a new homeowner, sweetheart on Valentine's Day or as a pick me up for someone feeling the winter blues. Whatever your greenery goals are as a plant parent, these are our picks for the best places to buy plants online in 2022.
Read more: Best Seed Delivery Services and Subscriptions for Gardeners in 2023
Best for buying palms and indoor tropical plants
Bloomscape
I ordered a big Chinese fan palm from Bloomscape and I'm happy to report a year later that it's still healthy, green and kicking butt.
Whether you're looking for indoor or outdoor plants for the home or garden, there may not be a better selection than Bloomscape. Find plants that'll add loads of life and texture to any space, like palms, bird of paradise, succulent varieties or those trendy fiddle leaf figs. You can shop by categories, including "low-maintenance" and "pet-friendly," and each comes with a clay pot and saucer so it's ready to go upon arrival. Free shipping is available on all orders over $150.
Best overall selection of indoor plants
Plants.com
If you're looking for a specific plant or just want to scroll through greenery and flora for hours, head over to Plants.com. The online retailer has pages and pages of plants of every size and species including ferns, bonsai trees and bamboo, cacti and succulents, air plants, hanging plants, floor plants, trees and tropical plants. You can search by plant type, size and price or peruse Plants.com's extensive selection of plant gifts.
Best for a plant subscription
The Sill
Great gift alert!
The Sill is another online plant marketplace with a massive selection of indoor houseplants and outdoor plants, including ferns, figs, air plant options, snake plant varieties, orchids and succulents.
The Sill also offers subscriptions: The Plants for Beginners subscription sends one easy-care indoor plant to your home each month, fit with an earthenware pot in black, blush or mint. There's even a subscription for Pet Parents where you'll get monthly potted plant deliveries that are perfectly safe for Fido and Garfield. All subscriptions have currently been paused, but you can still join the waitlist so you can join when it starts back up again.
Best to buy succulents
Leaf & Clay
Succulents are as easy as plants get and give you a little dessert charm without having to worry about watering them daily, or even weekly. Leaf & Clay is the online succulent specialist with endless varieties in all shapes and sizes. You can snag bundles starting at $36 or join a subscription and have a shipment of three mini cacti show up at your door for as little as $25 a month. There are also lots of pots and planters for sale to house your succulents or macrame to hang them in windows.
Best for buying outdoor plants, trees and bushes
Nature Hills
If you've got plans for some serious gardening or landscaping, the plant collection at Nature Hills is a good place to start for blooming plants, potted plant options and more. It's got everything from houseplant options and perennial flowers to literal trees, shrubs and vines. You can find fruit trees and plants here too, including apple, citrus and stone fruit trees along with a wide range of berry bushes.
Leaf'd Box
Best for garden plants and seedlings
If you're trying to get your garden in shape, Leaf'd Box may be the easiest way to do it. My box of small veggie plants showed up on time and in healthy condition, ready to go into the soil.
The garden service will take an order for whatever it is you want to grow -- veggies, herbs, lettuce and other produce. Then the gardeners grow 'em for you up to the right size for planting and send a box four times a year with plants that thrive during that season, and in your climate.
Plant subscription kits start at $45 and are available through the website.
Best to buy a statement plant
Léon & George
If you're looking for a big showstopper of a monstera deliciosa or braided money tree to anchor a corner of your living room, try this San Francisco plant delivery service. Léon & George has a huge selection of statement plants and some sleek, modern pots to house them. Shipping costs vary depending on the size of the plant and they offer chic pots to really show off your new plant.
Best for buying plants and plant-based products
PlantX
This online marketplace likes to think of itself as a vegan version of Amazon. PlantX carries a sprawling inventory of plant-based products, including a variety of indoor house plants and succulents. It's all reasonably priced too, with most clocking in under $50 and some small plants for as little as $6. What's nice about PlantX is you can tack other items, including ready-to-eat, plant-based meals (which is set to debut soon) on to your order.