Best Bay Area garden centers

Running a good garden center or nursery takes knowledge, years of experience, organizational skill and a strong commitment to quality.

[...] since most garden centers buy — rather than raise — most of what they sell, there is room for tremendous variation in buying ability and buying standards.

The opinions Checkbook collected from Bay Area customers on garden centers they use reflect the big variation in quality among retailers.

Surveyed consumers gave Home Depot, Lowe’s and Orchard Supply low marks for quality — their stores scored, on average, lower than almost all of the independent stores.

Checkbook’s undercover shoppers found that Home Depot’s prices averaged 40 percent below the average of all stores for comparable items, Orchard Supply averaged 24 percent below the all-store average, and Lowe’s averaged 22 percent lower.

Unlike most types of services and stores Checkbook evaluates, paying more for plants at garden centers does slightly improve your odds of getting better advice, service and product quality.

Checkbook found that many of the stores rated highest for quality charge higher-than-average prices, but some stores that rate high for quality also have below-average prices.

Probe with your finger or look through the drain holes of a container to make sure the roots are whitish, not brown.

Fortunately, even though many plant deaths are the result of improper planting or care—in other words, the buyer’s fault—Checkbook found that most garden centers nonetheless offer broad guarantees.

The Chronicle is partnering with Bay Area Consumers’ Checkbook magazine and Checkbook.org, a nonprofit consumer group with a mission to help consumers get the best service and lowest prices.