home depot has great prices. i got a spider plant (maybe ten inches big?) for only 2 bucks! and there is a lovely place called "farmer johns" and they have everything you'd want. house plants, shrubs, soil, tools, seeds...i just got a beeaaaauuuutiful purple wandering jew from there. it's right on the corner of haggerty and twelve mile. it's right by the freeways (275, 696, 96...why are all our freeways just numbers?) so it's quick to get to from most places. and there's a "home depot" about 5 miles south, down haggerty. it's lovely so you only have to make one trip...if your car is big enough to fit all the stuff you're gonna buy, that is! hehe, happy hunting!!!

I frequent a good nursery in Roseville for most of the commonly grown perennials in Mi. Semerau's on Gratiot betweek 9 and 10 mile roads. Wait til late April/mid May as they usually have everything out by then.

Good selection of vegetables/annuals as well. Prices are quite good, excellent after the 4th of July.

It depends on what you like growing. 90% of what I now want I only find online. (unusual edibles and Clematis varieties that aren't the top 20 most commonly found)

~Chills

Other choices near me (St Clair Shores) include: English Gardens $$(Kelly Road), HD and Lowes (Gratiot) and Evergreen (8 Mile)$$.

Telly's nursery on John R in Troy has more variety than any other nursery in the area. I used to work there, as well as just about everyplace else, and it's the best.
Also, The Farmers Market in downtown Detroit is an absolute must. Open weekends. Wholesale prices or less, TONS of fun! Must see to believe. Take a friend, it's a fun day.

Oakland county has 2 farmers markets - Royal Oak and Pontiac. They are open Tues, Thurs and Saturday as Farmers markets - produce, flowers and plants. Sundays are flea markets - at least Pontiac is. My wife works for a grower at Pontiac through the summer who has allowed us to convince him to expand his selection of woody stuff as well as interesting perennials. The markets including the above mentioned Easter market are a lot of fun. Get there early for the best selection. I know 6:30 - 7:00 on a saturday morning sounds early, but think of the rest of the day to relax in the garden.

We usually get our stuff from the big three: Bordine's, Telly's and English Gardens. Of those, I prefer Telly's (great perennial and herb selection) and Bordine's (decent prices, helpful people). EG is good but a shade too pricey for my taste.

I'm not sure why, but the plants you see at our local Home Depot (15 and Coolidge) tend to look a little scruffier than average. You can occasionally find good stuff for cheap (we got some great hostas for $5 a pot a few years back), but I can't recommend it as a main source. Your store may vary.

Pontiac farmer's market can be hit or miss, but I have yet to find a better deal on annuals by the flat. Royal Oak is decent, and so is Ann Arbor if you don't mind the drive. A2 is also more likely to have unusual plants and heirlooms.

If you or a friend are in the landscape business, there's also Christiansen's, which is a commercial nursery (open to the trade only) off M-14 at Gotfredson Rd.

Hope this helps!

Went out to Telly's today. It was further away than I thought, but it was a beautiful day and I had the time, so I figured I'd go for it.

Ok selection, didn't find what I was looking for, though. Its selection included many things I don't find at the nursery I listed previously, but also there were many things that they didn't carry that the nursery I listed before does carry. I found hardy cyclamen, which I have just recieved from mail order after not being able to find it anywhere locally. Telly's also had a large selection of Hellebores. I also found quite an interesting selection of Clematis vines, but unfortunately none of the 5 I am currently searching for were available. Inside there was a large selection of non-hardy fruiting trees (& Passionflower Edulis). It was a good pleasant trip, but I went home with nothing as the items that I may have considered were a bit more than I would be willing to pay.

I may have to go back if the cyclamen corms I purchased and have planted don't make it, but other than that I will likely not return there anytime soon.

~Chills

Maybe we should start a thread where people request items they have been looking for and can't find locally. I know I looked for those cyclamen all last year before ordering them online. Had I known about Telly's having them I would have gladly gone there.

Telly's used to have a location between Howell and Brighton. It's now a Bordines. Telly's always struck me as a collectors nursery with a lot of unique and different plants. I actually preferred it to Bordines and the same, safe selection. I do have the distinct advantage of living very close to Arrowhead Alpines and Gee Farms, so don't need to rely on the big outfits to find what I want. You are not going to find much in the way of edibles at these places either. I too have gone to mail order for those things.