New to Vancouver! best/largest selection indoor plants/tropicals?

Hi everyone, My wife and i recently moved to BC in the last year, we live 6 hrs from Vancouver and are planning to visit the city next week, looking for nice houseplants, and tropical trees... Im sure there are quite a few nurseries and garden centres, but would like to hear which one would be the best for us to visit.

We are not looking for anything in paticular, however, would like to see as much of what is available as possible.

Thanks everyone for the help!

Troy Sinclair

 

In Burnaby, just outside Vancouver:

• GardenWorks (Lougheed Hwy)
• Home Depot (Henning Dr just off Lougheed Hwy)
• GardenWorks (Mandeville just off SE Marine Dr)

In Vancouver:

• Southlands Nursery (off SW Marine Dr)
• Art Knapp Urban Garden (downtown)
• Home Depot (Terminal)

 

I bet that we should not be engaging in commercial talk but for indoor plants I think that you want Mandeville in Burnaby or Art Knapp's in Vancouver - the latter may be the better store of the two but the former has MUCH better parking.

 

Parking is not bad at Art Knapp ever since they turned Hornby into a one way street. The OP should know there's pay parking in the adjacent lot. GardenWorks on Lougheed would be the place to visit if there's only time for only one stop.

 

I hope the inclusion of Home Depot in the above listing does not indicate the other places suggested are on the same level. If so, then pickings there must be slim indeed.

 

These particular Home Depot stores incorporate large greenhouses stocked with a decent selection of common houseplant varieties. Not all stores are like that. Is the arrangement not similar with the stores in your area?

 

Big box stores (Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Lowe's) often have houseplants, but the quality varies enormously. One Home Depot near me is literally the last place I would ever go to buy a plant; the nearest Lowe's is usually about as good as anywhere else. I've been told that the situation is the opposite, in other parts of the country.

 

The quality of plants depends on the employees responsible for them and on the inventory's turnover rate. So a blanket statement cannot be made for any type of store.

 

. . . which is why I didn't make one?

 

@mrsubjunctive,
I was making a general statement; it was not directed towards anyone in particular. Sorry for the confusion.

 

Perhaps Hawaiian Botanicals in Richmond would be more to your liking ?

http://www.hawaiianbotanicals.com/index.html

 

Employees don't set store and corporate policy. I see little variation in big box plant departments here.

 

Employees will probably determine how well the plants are treated after they arrive at the store.

I assume that the department manager has some choice as regards what (s)he stocks, but I am not sure of this. I once managed a store in a large chain of booktores and was told each week how many copies of what titles I would receive; requests to stock a title that was not prescribed by head office required virtually a resolution of the Board of Directors.

 

Definitely. It makes a big difference. There are places where neglect is evident through lack of watering - dry soil, wilting plants.

I believe this is the case as well. One time I overheard a supervisor in Home Depot asking an employee for input in ordering some plants that would be appropriate for a festive occasion.

 

Lowe's plant area here was being stocked by workers wearing vests identifying them as vendors by probably a few years ago now. I saw one shopper get the brush off from a man working the tropical plants section. I am also aware of supermarkets here renting shelf space, instead of ordering and stocking their own goods. Adds a further level of disconnection between the purchaser and the supplier.

So, again, I wouldn't count on a place operating in such a way to be offering a really nice selection.

 

Vancouver's last Frost date is in 8 weeks. So you should start to get better and better selection of plants very soon. There are flower plants at Canadian Tire available for sale already.

 

With a name like that they should be featuring Ficus elastica.

 

Years ago, before Canadian Tire expanded out West, I needed to buy some fiberglassing material in small-town Quebec. People kept telling me to go to Pneu Canadien. I kept saying "Mais je n'ai pas besoin de pneus". Two solitudes indeed. But as we say, a rose by any other name requires potash.