Cheapest Places to Buy Trees and Shrubs Online (2026 Comparison)
Cheapest Places to Buy Trees and Shrubs Online (2026 Comparison)
Last updated: April 2026 | Based on real price tracking across 5+ nurseries
We track plant prices across major online nurseries every day. The same plant — same cultivar, same pot size — can vary by 20-35% between retailers. On a $50 tree, that's $10-$17 you either save or overpay depending on where you shop. On a $100 Japanese maple, the spread can hit $25-$30. Multiply that across a multi-tree purchase and the stakes get meaningful fast.
But here's the thing most price comparison guides won't tell you: the cheapest sticker price isn't always the best deal. A $30 hydrangea with $15 shipping costs more than a $38 hydrangea with free shipping. A $22 arborvitae that arrives half-dead from poor packaging is infinitely more expensive than a $28 arborvitae that arrives healthy and thrives. The cheapest retailer on Tuesday might not be the cheapest retailer on Thursday — nursery pricing is more dynamic than most people realize, with prices shifting throughout the season as inventory levels change.
This guide breaks down the major online nurseries by what they're genuinely cheapest on, where they tend to be overpriced, how their shipping and guarantee policies work, and how to calculate the real cost of an online plant purchase — because sticker price is only part of the equation.
The Retailers at a Glance
| Nursery | Best For | Free Shipping? | Guarantee | Typical Price Tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fast Growing Trees | Trees, large shrubs | Yes (most orders) | 30-day | Mid |
| Nature Hills | Broadest selection, larger plants | No (calculated) | 1-year (10% fee) | Higher |
| Proven Winners Direct | PW branded varieties only | No (calculated) | Satisfaction | Lowest on PW plants |
| Brighter Blooms | Popular trees & shrubs | Yes (most orders) | 30-day | Mid |
| The Tree Center | Shade & ornamental trees | Yes (qualifying) | Varies | Mid |
| Perfect Plants | Southern plants | No (calculated) | Satisfaction | Mid-Low |
Retailer Deep Dives
Fast Growing Trees
Fast Growing Trees is one of the largest online plant nurseries in the United States, and for many categories — particularly shade trees, privacy trees, and flowering trees — they're the first place most gardeners check. Their selection is deep in trees and large shrubs, and their pricing on flagship products (Green Giant Arborvitae, Limelight Hydrangea, Knock Out Roses) is consistently competitive, though not always the absolute lowest.
What sets them apart operationally is free shipping on most orders. This is a genuine advantage, not a gimmick. Many nurseries charge $10-$20+ per shipment, which eats into any sticker-price savings. When you're comparing a Fast Growing Trees price of $34 against a competitor at $28 plus $14 shipping, Fast Growing Trees wins on total cost even though the sticker price is higher. This math trips up a lot of shoppers.
Their plants ship containerized (in pots with established root systems), not bare-root. This means a heavier, more expensive-to-ship product, but also a plant that's already rooted and growing — which reduces transplant shock and gives you a more established starting point. The trade-off is that containerized plants can't match bare-root pricing, so if you're buying in early spring when bare-root stock is available elsewhere, you might find cheaper options at nurseries that ship bare-root.
Where they're priced high: Certain flowering shrubs and smaller plants — particularly hydrangeas in the 1-quart size — sometimes run above what you'd pay at Proven Winners Direct or Brighter Blooms. Their premium is most pronounced on high-demand items during peak spring season. Always cross-reference.
Return policy: 30-day satisfaction guarantee.
Nature Hills Nursery
Nature Hills is the largest online nursery by total selection — they carry everything from 30-foot shade trees to individual perennial plugs. Their filtering tools are excellent (search by zone, sun exposure, bloom time, mature size), which makes them the best nursery for discovery. If you're not sure what you want and need to browse by criteria, Nature Hills' website is where you end up.
The pricing story at Nature Hills is nuanced. They're consistently on the higher end across most categories, which at first glance makes them a poor value. But they also tend to ship larger, more mature plants than many competitors — a Nature Hills "1-gallon hydrangea" often arrives noticeably larger and more developed than a "1-gallon hydrangea" from a lower-priced competitor. You're paying more per plant, but you may also be getting more plant per dollar. Whether that premium is worth it depends on whether you value instant garden impact or long-term cost savings.
The warranty advantage: Nature Hills offers a 1-year warranty for 10% of the plant's purchase price. This is the most protective guarantee in the online nursery space. A $60 tree with a $6 warranty fee is fully covered if it dies the following August — long after the standard 30-day guarantee at Fast Growing Trees would have expired. For high-value purchases ($60+ trees, $100+ Japanese maples), the Nature Hills warranty is genuine insurance. A tree that dies 4 months after planting costs you $60 at a 30-day warranty nursery. It costs you $6 at Nature Hills.
Shipping: Calculated at checkout. Can add $10-$20+ depending on order size, destination, and time of year. Always factor shipping into your total cost comparison.
Proven Winners Direct
Proven Winners Direct is the manufacturer's direct-to-consumer store. Proven Winners is the brand behind Limelight Hydrangea, Little Lime, Incrediball, Fire Light, Bobo, Pinky Winky, Oso Easy Roses, At Last Rose, and dozens of other popular named cultivars. When you buy a Proven Winners plant from Fast Growing Trees or Nature Hills, those nurseries are buying from Proven Winners wholesale and marking it up. When you buy the same plant from Proven Winners Direct, you're cutting out the middleman.
The result: on Proven Winners branded varieties specifically, Proven Winners Direct is often the lowest price available. They also sell in quart-size containers that most other nurseries don't carry — smaller plants at lower prices that ship cheaper and grow to full size within one season. If you know you want a Limelight, Little Lime, or Incrediball, checking Proven Winners Direct first is almost always the right move.
The limitation: They ONLY sell Proven Winners branded plants. If you want Nikko Blue hydrangeas, Emerald Green arborvitae, Honeycrisp apple trees, or anything outside their branded lineup, you won't find it here. This is a specialty store, not a general nursery.
Shipping: Calculated at checkout. The smaller quart-size containers ship for less than gallon pots, which adds to the value proposition.
Brighter Blooms
Brighter Blooms occupies the middle ground between Fast Growing Trees and the specialty nurseries. Good selection of fruit trees, flowering trees, and popular shrubs. Competitive pricing — often within a few dollars of Fast Growing Trees on comparable products, and sometimes under.
They're worth checking on every purchase, but they don't dominate any single category the way Proven Winners Direct dominates PW varieties or Nature Hills dominates selection breadth. Brighter Blooms is the nursery that keeps the other retailers honest — their presence in the market prevents anyone else from inflating prices too aggressively.
Shipping: Free on most orders — another free-shipping option that makes total-cost comparison straightforward.
Guarantee: 30-day satisfaction guarantee.
The Tree Center
The Tree Center's strength is exactly what the name suggests: trees. Shade trees, ornamental trees, and evergreens are their core categories, and their selection and pricing in those areas is competitive. Larger-caliper trees ship well from The Tree Center — they've invested in packaging for heavier, taller nursery stock.
Where they fall short: Smaller shrubs, flowering plants, and non-tree categories. If you're buying roses, hydrangeas, or perennials, this isn't your first stop. The Tree Center is the specialist — go to them for what they specialize in.
Shipping: Free on qualifying orders.
Perfect Plants Nursery
Perfect Plants is a family-run nursery based in the South, and their sweet spot is southern plants: hydrangeas, crape myrtles, citrus, and warm-climate fruit trees. They have a loyal following built on good plant quality and customer service that feels personal rather than corporate.
Per-plant pricing at Perfect Plants is often competitive with the big retailers. The catch is shipping costs — they're calculated at checkout and can add up, especially for multiple plants or heavy items. A $28 crape myrtle with $16 shipping is $44 total, which may or may not beat a $36 crape myrtle with free shipping elsewhere. Always run the total.
Price Comparison Findings by Category
After tracking prices across these retailers on dozens of the most popular cultivars, clear patterns have emerged:
Hydrangeas: Proven Winners Direct is consistently cheapest on PW varieties — Limelight, Little Lime, Incrediball, Fire Light, Bobo. The savings can be significant, especially in quart sizes. For non-PW hydrangeas (Nikko Blue, Endless Summer), compare Fast Growing Trees and Brighter Blooms. Nature Hills is typically highest on hydrangeas but ships larger plants.
Fruit trees: Fast Growing Trees and Brighter Blooms compete closely and trade the lead depending on the specific variety and week. Check both before buying. Nature Hills tends to be highest but sends larger, more developed trees — a factor worth considering if you want fruit sooner.
Privacy trees (arborvitae, cypress): This is the most price-sensitive category because people buy in bulk. Prices are competitive across retailers, and the winner changes frequently. The real savings strategy here isn't picking the cheapest nursery — it's buying the smallest size you can tolerate and letting growth do the work. The difference between buying 15 two-foot Green Giants and 15 four-foot Green Giants dwarfs any price difference between retailers.
Japanese maples: Nature Hills and Fast Growing Trees both carry good selections at competitive prices. But for rare cultivars, specialty nurseries like Maples N More, MrMaple, and Conifer Kingdom often have better selection and surprisingly competitive pricing. Japanese maples are the one category where the big-name online nurseries don't always have the best option.
Roses: Proven Winners Direct (for Oso Easy, At Last) and Fast Growing Trees compete closely. Brighter Blooms is worth checking. Bare-root roses in early spring are 30-40% cheaper than containerized from any retailer — if bare-root is available in your timing window, it's almost always the best value.
The Shipping Cost Trap (And How to Avoid It)
Sticker price tells half the story. Total cost to your door tells the whole story. A lot of smart shoppers comparison-shop on sticker price and forget to calculate shipping — which can turn the "cheapest" retailer into the most expensive.
Free-shipping retailers: Fast Growing Trees, Brighter Blooms (most orders), The Tree Center (qualifying orders). At these retailers, sticker price IS your total cost. Clean math.
Calculated-shipping retailers: Nature Hills, Proven Winners Direct, Perfect Plants. At these retailers, you need to get to checkout (or call customer service) to know your real cost. A $26 hydrangea plus $14 shipping is $40 — more than a $34 hydrangea with free shipping elsewhere.
The bulk purchase exception: When buying 5+ plants, calculated-shipping nurseries sometimes win on total cost because their per-unit pricing is lower and shipping costs don't scale linearly. Five plants might ship for $20 total, not $20 per plant. Run the numbers for your specific order size at checkout before deciding.
Cheapest Isn't Always Best Value
Price matters — that's why this site exists. But the cheapest plant in the cheapest pot from the cheapest nursery isn't automatically the best deal. A few factors that affect the real value of your purchase:
Plant quality varies between nurseries. A "1-gallon" container is technically the same volume everywhere, but some nurseries ship recently potted-up plants with sparse root development while others ship well-established root systems that have been growing in that pot for months. The second plant costs more to produce, and the difference shows up in the sticker price — and in the growth rate after planting.
Packaging quality matters, especially for trees. Plants travel in cardboard boxes via ground shipping for 2-5 days. Some nurseries package meticulously — staking, wrapping, and cushioning plants to prevent damage. Others cut corners. A tree that arrives with a snapped leader because the box wasn't packed well is not a bargain at any price. Check reviews and gardening forum discussions for real-world packaging reports on specific nurseries.
Your local nursery is a legitimate competitor. Online shopping gives you price transparency and the convenience of delivery. But your local garden center lets you hand-pick the healthiest specimen, avoid 3-5 days of shipping stress, and get advice from people who know your soil, your climate, and your growing conditions. For common varieties — Limelight Hydrangea, Knock Out Roses, Emerald Green Arborvitae — local nurseries are price-competitive more often than you'd expect, especially when you factor in shipping costs from online retailers that charge for delivery.
The smartest approach: use online prices to establish what a fair price looks like for the plant you want, then check your local nursery. If they're within 10-15% of the best online price, buying local may be the better value when you account for plant quality, no shipping risk, and the ability to hand-select your plant.
How We Track Prices
We check prices across major online nurseries regularly and display them side-by-side on our product comparison pages. Every plant on this site shows the current price at each retailer that carries it, the cheapest option highlighted, and stock availability where we can detect it.
No retailer pays us to rank higher or to recommend them. We earn a commission when you click through to a retailer and make a purchase — that's how the site sustains itself. But our revenue model only works if we send you to the best deal, because that's what builds trust and brings you back. Steering you toward a more expensive option to earn a higher commission would be short-term thinking, and we're building this for the long term.
The prices you see are the actual prices the nurseries are charging at the time of our most recent check. Prices change — sometimes daily during peak season — so if you see something you want at a good price, don't assume it'll still be there next week.