A Guide On Where To Buy Plants

aaronnorth

www.ukaps.org
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Where can i buy plants online?? This question comes up every week, so hopefully, this guide will answer your questions!
I have added all the retailers i know of, if i have missed any, please tell me and i can add it to the list. I shall give credit to those who help.

UK

Aqua Essentials
They sell Individual Plants and "plant collections" which is a selection of plants to get you started on a particular scape. Quality is of a very high standard, with quick delivery, usually recieved in 1-2days after payment.


The Green Machine
"TGM" sell tropica plants, which are renowned for their quality. However, the price reflects this, with pots coming in at around £5-£9. Each pot usually contains a minimum of 9plants, however this varies with species, for example Crytpcoryne Wendtii you can get about 20plants out of 1 pot, but with echindorous bleheri you only get 1.
XL plants are available, which are worth the extra money, at about 4x larger than the regular tropica pots.
AquaDecor is avaailable, which is basically plants atached to wood & rocks.

Again, service is good like Aqua Essentials.

Planted Box

Planted box stock the Aquafleur range, although they currently only sell in batches of six but they are hoping to remove this so you can buy individually in the future.
However, the XL plants can be bought singly.
Quality is very good as it is straight from the suppliers, and deleivery is very quick. Great Service.



FluidSensor Online
Fluidsensor are not surrently selling plant on their official website whether that will change i am unsure, but they are selling quality plants on ebay, which are at a good price, similar to aquafleur. Delivery is quick, and well packaged.


Plants Alive
Plants Alive offer cheap plants to those on a stricter budget, some of the species are not of great quality, but you get what you pay for.
Delivery takes about 5 days, and packaging is suitable.
I once order some plants that were covered slightly in spyrogyra, i emailed them with a picture, and they explained why this was, and sent out an immediate replacement. They stick to their motto "If we wouldn't like to recieve it, we won't send it"
Well, i suppose they stick to it slightly! But still I reccomend them.

Plants Alive has very good prices as you said but plants are small and maybe not best quality. I ordered 5 "stems" of a plant, I can't remember what it was but it was similar to Wisteria, and when they came, each "stem" was only about 5cm long. The Amazon Sword I got from there had a couple of dead leaves on but with them pruned off it is now putting out lots of new ones.
I guess you just get what you pay for
- hensonc4098

I brought plants from plants alive.
The 18inch collection.
Some were ok but others were not of the best qaulity. Postage taken about 10 long days!
replacements were sent out asap, They were excellent, much better than what i had first recieved!
- betta_246


Java Plants
Java Plants is another budget plant retaler, similar to Plants Alive. I have not used these, but from the reviews i have read, They are about equual with Plants Alive regarding quality, but customer service is quite bad with people often not recieving a reply.

Charterhouse Aquatics
- jmkgreen

Aquarium Gardens



Ebay
The trouble with ebay is that you generally receive non-aquatic plants, and a too wide variety of species, with about 5 of each specie, meaning you have bits and pieces rather than being able to create a decent sized group/ bush.
Another problem is that you may get plants that are hard to grow, taking red plants as an example which most people will struggle with without the right setup.






USA - edited by lljdma06


Aqua Botanic - I have used this site several times. The overall quality is very good. I had a mishap in my last order, but that was a fault of UPS, not of Aqua Botonic. Be sure you know their ordering rules. For an order to go through for shipment, you have to order the usually the Friday before by a certain time.

Aquarium Plants - I haven't used this site in a few years. During the Summer months, if you live in a warm climate, make an effort to invest in the fastest shipping. In my experiences, sometimes wrong plants were given.

FreshWater Aquarium Plants - I have not used this site.

Bobs Tropical Plants
- mgamer20o0

Live Aquaria
I reccomend Liveaquaria.com for plants (and fish). They have a decent selection and prices. Shipping... hurts. It's expensive, but everything is packed extrememely well, and they have great customer service.
- n3ont3tra

Thanks, Aaron
 
Java plants - I waited 2 weeks for delivery then recieved the wrong plants. The first time i cancelled my order as they were taking so long.

Also another good ebay seller is aqua*range but their stock seems a little low at the moment.
 
i was thinking of using plants alive, but they don't sound that good from what you said. should i still go for them?
 
I just bought a load of plants from last trading post on ebay, the plants arrived within 2 days & well packaged. All look great, I contacted them afterwards to ask which plants certain ones were & they were very helpful with the advice given. Defo recommend! Buying again from them next week :)
 
someone PIN THIS! its a good guide and saves people trawling through old posts to find it!

well done by the way lol

thankyou, i have asked for it to be put in the PARC centre but llj is going to update the US sites for obvious reasons!
 
Perfectly time Aaron! I'm just getting ready to order some plants myself. It'll be nice to be able to shop around and get a better price!
 
good guide mate will help alot of people out buying online for the first time
scot :)
 
Charterhouse Aquatics recently added live plant collections. Not for the budget-conscious! I've not used them but if you have let us know your experience.
 
Plants Alive has very good prices as you said but plants are small and maybe not best quality. I ordered 5 "stems" of a plant, I can't remember what it was but it was similar to Wisteria, and when they came, each "stem" was only about 5cm long :/ The Amazon Sword I got from there had a couple of dead leaves on but with them pruned off it is now putting out lots of new ones.
I guess you just get what you pay for :)
 

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