Best online plant suppliers?

[heavyp83]

I'm looking to order a few plants and I was wondering what the best online sellers were. I'd like to get the best quality plants for my money with the most reliable service, thanks!

[Don_Lee]

I have heard that aquabotanic.com is a good one, as well as aquariumplantdepot.com. Both have good reputations and have been around awhile, and also have good websites.

Don ;D

[cramramdon]

www.fishvet.com has been strongly recommended to me!! I've visited their site and they do have a great plant selection and very fair prices. They also seem to have a great reputation. They actually sell deal packages with plant species specifically designed for the planted discus tank! ;)

[ChloroPhil]

Aquabotanic.com...hands down. Check out Robert's Discus Habitat or Hard to Kill packages. He can also put something together for you if you let him know how big your tank is and what you need. He's very newbie friendly. While you're there check out his discussion board, it's probably the best current board for plants out there.

Welcome to the Dark Side..enjoy your stay!

Phil

[mas]

for any australians, www.aquamail.com.au is great. plants arrived well an ontime. i called them up to order. :)

.marcus

[jklnbrg]

I can no longer by plants from the only LFS in Dallas that kept a good selection of plants because of the discus they decided to keep in the plant tanks. Tues. I saw some great plants that would look terrific in my new tank but there were multiple sickly and dying discus in the plant tanks.
Soooooo.. the internet route is the way for me. I'm going to be receiving a shipement from an online store in Phoenix. I'll let ya'll know how it all goes.

John

[Ralph]

Please post the results of your order. What is the website address, I live in Phoenix and I'm not familiar with a supplier here?

[jklnbrg]

Ralph,
It's Arizona Gardens. The URL is:
www.azgardens.com

[Wahter]

I've bought some plants from a few on-line sellers (even one from eBay). I've heard mixed reviews (a few bad, mostly good) on many on-line sellers. I think the criteria most people use are:

Do the plants arrive in nice shape?
Good specimens?
Are the orders processed quickly?
Any guarantees?
Decent/ fair price?
Good selection?
Any unwanted substitutions?
Are the plants well packed?
Will they help you on the phone/ email suggestions?

One thing some people don't seem to realize is that some plants ship really well (I actually received a narrow leafed java fern from a penpal in Singapore and it's been doing very well), whereas some plants ship very poorly (rotala macrandra may make your mouth water because it's very pretty, but this plant often turns into mush when it's shipped).

In my opinion, the best source is from other people who already have plants - you get them grown in aquarium conditions (not emersed like many farms), and you can see what conditions they plants are kept in (lights, fertilizers, etc..).

If you're in the Dallas, Texas area, have you checked with the people in this club?

http://www.aquatic-plants.org/

Just some suggestions. Hope this helps.

Walter

[Ralph]

I was actually thinking about organizing some kind of plant supplier evaluation here but after all the problems and arguments about fish suppliers, I'm a little hesitant. It is probably best to keep things on a positive note, like this thread where people recommend online suppliers that they have been happy with.
But I agree with you Walter, I much prefer to get plants locally. I had the same problem with previous shipments, all the stem plants turned to mush, some during shipping and others within days of arrival. Luckily I have two or three LFSs that have good selections. Fish clubs are another source along with trading with friends.

[Wahter]

Ralph,

I think last year ,"Practical Fishkeeping" magazine in the UK did a review of ordering from 4 or 5 mail order plant shops. I've never seen anyone do one in the US, but considering what's happened from one seller (see the links below), I don't think any magazine will be in a hurry to do a review:

http://www.thedefensefund.com/

http://www.petsforum.com/psw/

I think fish club auctions are also good - you can actually get some suggestions/ information on what conditions the plants were kept at, and the plants are usually pretty fresh (I bag mine the night before). Good info before you decide to bid a lot of money on lots of pretty rotala macrandra for your 50 gallon aquarium with only 30 watts of light. ;D

Sometimes you get some real bargains at the auctions too - I'm always shocked how low some of the plants I've submitted sell for; I've sold some giant sword plants that were 24" tall and could easily fill up a 20 gallon tall tank and the winning bid was $13.00 on each of them! Yet a few minutes later, someone will bid $12.00 on a bag of four vallisneria - plants that sell for $1.00 at the local stores! :waaa:

Hope this helps.

Walter

[Ekar_Ogrit]

I'm from the Dallas area myself. I bet you are talking about the LFS that just moved into it's new building,right? I ordered online myself. I just received a shipment from floridadriftwood.com. It was my first online purchase of plants, so I can't compare with others. I am hoping to make orders to various other online plant suppliers to compare.

Here is my synopsis of my order.
Do the plants arrive in nice shape?
Yes
Good specimens?
Yes
Are the orders processed quickly?
Yes
Any guarantees?
No
Decent/ fair price?
I thought so
Good selection?
Odered the "Package" Deal. Nice variety
Any unwanted substitutions?
No. They even replaced a plant in the package I was not fond of
Are the plants well packed?
They all survived, so I guess the packing was good
Will they help you on the phone/ email suggestions?
Yep, I always call whenever I order. If you can't talk to anyone to make a purchase. You probably won't get anyone to help you if there is a problem.

[jklnbrg]

Ekar,
Yes, you are correct about which LFS. In the past they have had good plants, right now nothing and the fewthey have have those really sickly looking Discus in with them. Bad bugs just waiting to be imported in the plants!!

Which Discus strains are you keeping? Where did you get them?

John

[Discusgeo]

I used AZGarden for my Amazon Swords and they are nice plants except they came packed with snail eggs and they have been a pain in the neck to get rid of. If you don't want snails look somewhere else or treat the plants before putting them in your tank.
George

[Aquatic-store.com]

i can also help you out with specific packages, large orders always discounted

[ronrca]

Welcome Marc to Simplydiscus! I do hope that members can and will take advantage of your store, http://www.aquatic-store.com.

Are you the owner of aquatic-store?

[Aquatic-store.com]

yes i am and thanks, One of my customers harriet, W directed me to this website. I have discus as well.
Just a quick overview of my site,
I will price match whenever possible.
On large orders i give price discounts.
I am currently located in great lakes ill but will be relocating to st louis Missouri in 4 weeks. If anyone on the site wants to do a large bulk order of say books Kasselman has an awsome one or plants I can give discounts. I would love to get a banner link on this site and provide one frommy site back here. How would i go about doing that?
Thanks again

[ronrca]

Cool! Im glad that we can have you on simplydiscus.

For the banner, contact Al (Brewmaster15) or Ryan Smith. They will be able to take care of you! ;)

[Aquatic-store.com]

GGGGRRRRREEEEEAAAATTTT!

[Paulio]

The best advice I can give is to do a google groups search on any vendor you are thinking of trying. There are tons of reviews from the usenet plant group.
I used trueaquariumplants.com for years as Phyl had the best plants and service hands down. Unfortunately they had to shut down. I tried a few others but Phyl was the best IME. She has recommended aquabotanic.com so if I were going to order I would go with Robert on Phyls word.

HTH
Paul

[aix]

All Europe is using Tropica plants. I am not sure how is it in other places. Check out www.tropica.dk

[FischAutoTechGarten]

I ordered from Tropica (from Denmark) years ago. I was VERY, VERY satisfied with the quality of the plants. Everything was HUGE! Everything was packed very professionally. They were very generous, giving me 4 of something when there was only supposed to be 3, etc, etc.... I ordered 2 or 3 of their Discus Mix Collections. Tolerated the 84degF very well. I had an amateur's approach at fertilisers (had no idea what I was really doing) and employed DIY (yeast brew) C02. Despite that, they thrived and multiplied.

I don't know how they are now. They were very expensive at that time. I'm leaning towards giving Robert @ Aquabotonic a try for my run-in in Aug/Sep of my 120g Planted Aquarium. Robert is well reported on by the folks of the Aquatic Plants Digest.


http://www.tropica.com
http://www.aquabotonic.com

[Harriett]

I have gotten plants from a few of the online stores mentioned but the prices with shipping weren't much better than I can do in town (chicago)...but I have recently been buying a few 'specimen' plants on line and wanted to give two leads. The first, as he already mentioned, is Marc Russo--shipping, packing were excellant, the plants were healthy and robust, the prices were very fair. I'm VERY pleased with my purchases. He'll scout for plants if you are specifically interested in something you can't find as will my other refferal: a guy in NY called Charley Sabatino. Also highly recommended--I got a giganto 24 inch anubias Hastifolia (arrow shaped 3 pointed 6 inch wide leaves) that is growing like crazy and making me very happy! He threw in an extra plant that is totally great that I'd never seen before, as well! Marc gave you his email, this is Charley's: beadgc@nyc.rr.com
Best regards,
Harriett