# plant 'packages' from online nurseries



## limno-geek (Mar 22, 2005)

Hi all!
I'm getting ready to convert my 75g from fish only to planted with fish. I have noticed that many of the online nurseries have preselected plant packages with a wide assortment of plants in them. Since I'm new to the planted hobby, I don't have a familiarity with many plants and thought this would be a good way to get exposure to many of the plants available.
Has anyone out there purchased one of these plant packages? What was your experience - did they send a good variety? Were the plants good specimens? worth the money or not? Oh yeah, and where did you buy from?

If you're not sure what I'm referencing, here's links to a couple nursery deals:
http://www.azgardens.com/newhabts2.php
http://aquariumplant.com/cgi-bin/cart/as203.html

thanks for the replies!
Trey


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

I did the same thing as you are doing a little more than a year ago! I ordered my plants from : http://www.freshwateraquariumplants.com/

I gave Don my tank info and he sent me some plants that would be appropriate for my tank and skill level. All of the plants arrived healthy and Don was a big help at identifying the plants he sent. I would recommend him highly!

However, now that I have more experience, I don't order much from online plant vendors any more. I usually buy from or trade with other hobbyists. The plants I get are usually in better condition and almost always larger than those I have received from online vendors.


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## thaerin (Dec 12, 2004)

I second that Mat. A lot of times the best quality plants will come from other hobbyists. Or Aquabid, my personal addiction. Once you get more confident in what your doing and want plants for cheap, it's a wonderful source. You can get hundreds of stems of some plants for maybe $15 with shipping.

But online vendors do have their uses. If your looking for something rare in large quantity, you might not be able to get it from a single hobbyist or even a few. In that case it's more economical to get it from a store. Not to mention, many of them have terrific selections.

Those plant deals are a wonderful idea though, for the new aquarium keeper. I thought about getting them when I first started but my tank wasn't very large. 
Keep in mind what fish you have though when planting the tank. Some fish love to nibble and might reduce your plants to skeletons or uproot them when they dig at the substrate.
If you ask the store what plants would be compatible with your fish, they'll likely be happy to help.


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## Sugarnails (Feb 7, 2005)

I'm not sure if plant assorments are a good idea. I thought about getting one once, too. I think the 'cons' of getting an assortment would be (1) you might end up with quite a few plants dying and (2) if most live, it would be pretty hard to form a nice aquascape from that many varieties of plants. Half of them may end up dead or thrown out if you can't find someone to sell to or trade with.

I think if you want a positive experience you're best off doing a lot of research first. I mean, do you want to waste $1-- on hornwort, vallisneria, cabomba, hygro and java fern to find out you really wanted riccia, rotala, and hairgrass?

I'm not even sure you could fit a 120 plant assortment into a 75g. I really think that plant places are trying to get you to buy more plants than you need. I mean, I looked at azgardens.com's 'Easy Life' package for 50-60 gallon tanks, and it said it includes '4 Dwarf Lily Plants' and '3 Large red-spot Ozelot swords'. Many people use those particular plants are large centerpiece-type plants in thier tanks. So really, all you need is one of each, but they make you get several others. It's pretty much the same with stem plants. If half of aquariumplants.com's 120 plant assortment is bunched plants, you won't end up planting 60 stems, but about 300-420 stems!!! Think you can honestly fit that many stems in only _half_ of your tank? Remember, you'll still have 60 rooted plants to deal with! ;-)


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

Very good points Sugarnails! 

That is why I suggested the online retailer I did. Every plant I was sent survived and I did not get a bunch of crypts, apons, lilies, or swords to fill my tank. Instead I got some very nice stem plants (E. stellata, R. macrandra to name a few), a couple crypts, one sword and some dwarf sag. All easy to grow plants and not a big mass of stuff that was on it's last leg. I still have most of the plants and they have definately paid for themselves (many times) in trades and sales with other hobbyists.

However, it does take some research on the part of the person placing the order. If you can find somewhere with a staff that will work with you on the plant selection, you have found a good source! Again, that is why I recommended Don and his website instead of one of the other online retailers. 

When you are new, you need all the help you can get in selecting plants!


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