Plants by Mail..is it Worth it?

I am a frequent visitor to our local Lowes, Home Depot, and several nurseries. I love to visit and see what's new or on special. We have a flower garden and vegetable garden, so local nurseries and garden centers are at the top of my to-do list...monthly.

I love just looking around and getting ideas on decor or plants I didn't know about. I do the same online always searching gardening sites, reading articles on gardening, and watching videos. I recently came across a plant I absolutely loved. I went to my local stores and couldn't find it so when I returned home I researched and found it could be ordered by mail. 

I was very skeptical. Don't get me wrong I have ordered seeds online, but something about ordering a live plant just seemed like a disaster waiting to happen. I read reviews and plenty of people said it worked for them so I said okay count me in (my mother would have said so if everyone starts jumping off bridges are you going to try that too).

I decided my online plant buying adventure would just be, an experiment of sorts.  First, let me say One company did impress me with delivery and condition and I highly recommend them.

I was looking for hydrangeas. I wanted a kind different than my local nurseries had at the time. The first was the QuickFire hydrangea (proven winner). Some of the things I admired about this plant was the claims of

• Quickfire is the earliest of the hardy hydrangeas to bloom, setting out flowers a full month before older varieties of hydrangea paniculata
• If you are a flower arranger, a planting of these hydrangeas would keep you in beautiful, full bouquets all summer and fall
• Quickfire flowers open White but rapidly turn to their signature pink, darkening to a deep pink by fall. The pH of the soil doesn't affect the flower color
• mature height ( 6-8 feet ) -- mature width ( 6-8 feet ) -- exposure ( full sun to partial shade ) -- hardiness zones ( 3-9 )

One reason I choose this plant

Amazon plant is on the right, Home Depot plant is in the center Store purchase from Lowes on far left

And this is what happened after I placed the order.

They cost 19.99 with free shipping for Prime members. I placed the order May 23 and received it May 29. Delivered by UPS. Below is how it arrived.

Amazon plant on the right and the box is from the Home Depot Shipment

Amazon plant is on the right with red tag 

I was totally impressed by the delivery. I hope by next year it is blooming. The plant in the Southern Living container was a store purchase. As expected it has plenty of blooms developing. The only problem I had with the store purchase is there were select varieties.

The plant in the middle was a purchase from ParkSeed. I was also very impressed with their shipment. It arrived through USPS, which amazed me that the plants were in such good condition. 

Shipment from Home Depot

I was disappointed in the plant from Home Depot because it looked fine when I unpacked it, but the leaves began to fall off within hours, by the next day the leaves were shriveled and brown and only 3 remained by the end of the second day after receiving the shipment. If the plant had made it just a little sooner the plant from Home Depot would have been fine.