Welcome to Delaware! You will find our clay soil is very difficult to garden in. Get ready to put a ton of ammendments in it! :)

Depending on where you are located, there are quite a few reputable nurseries in Delaware: Richardson's, Countryside, Willey's, Ronnie's.

What part of Delaware are you located?

Nancy

Also Gateway in Hockessin. And if you are in Newark, there are some great places in PA that are worth the drive.

Dorothy

Gateway is pretty good but they are small, and expensive on some items. Only a little further afield is the "new" Styers in Concordville, PA. Now owned by urban outfitters and called "Terrain at Styers"! It's not as good as the old Styer's - more frou-frou & crap for the house imported from china and less rare plants at reasonable prices - but still worth a visit. And having the best selection of subtropicals. They used to be much bigger than Gateway but turned about 1/3 of the nursery into parking.

If you feel like a drive or happen to be in the area, I HIGHLY recommend a visit to:
Triple Oaks Nursery in Franklinville, NJ. Fantastic display gardens started over 25 years ago, the likes of which are vanishing from the world in this era of big box stores. A range of plants that approaches that of a specialty mail order nursery, but they are a garden center. And a few stops further north on the NJ Turnpike Express - Rarefind in Jackson, NJ. Prepare to be blown away if you visit in mid-May by 4 acres of blooming rhododendrons. These 2 are in a class by themselves.

Richardson's is fine for fairly run-of-the-mill & bedding plants and I stop there every spring. They are well grown by the area's large wholesalers but they are only a slight step above what you can get at HD or Lowes and depending on the whims of the buyers and brokers, the selections are going to overlap. I see alot of roses and shrubs from "proven winners" there and at the big box stores.

Although I don't have a great regard for the Styer's buyout, they are, as far as I know exclusively, carrying a large selection of somewhat rare subtropicals from Dennis Schrader's Long Island wholesale nursery. (the writer of "Hot Plants for Cool Climates") That's why I recommended to the poster over the others. Many of them are in other wholesale channels though, and could show up anywhere.

It's funny how in 1990 Musa basjoo was the ultimate collector's item selling for $100, now it's in every zn 6, 7, & 8 HD & Lowes for 9.99.

So, it's probably a toss up at this point between the 2.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.landcraftenvironment.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=lc_retail

Hi! Newbie here and I just saw your post. There is a great nursery in MD-- Priapi Gardens. Nice facility, lots of variety and healthy plants. It's down RT 213 about 20 south on Elkton so I don't know if that's too far for you.

Here is a link that might be useful: Priapi Gardens