Sam’s Club has become a popular destination for home gardeners and plant enthusiasts. The warehouse club offers a diverse selection of plants, often at competitive prices, making it an accessible option for enhancing indoor or outdoor spaces. This guide helps you make informed purchases.
Plant Selection and Availability
Sam’s Club typically offers a rotating inventory of plants that shifts with seasons and holidays. Shoppers can often find a range of houseplants, including popular options like orchids, roses, ferns, and various tropical foliage plants such as snake plants, ZZ plants, and philodendrons. These indoor selections sometimes come in larger sizes or multi-packs, providing more substantial greenery for home decor. For example, orchids may be available for around $12.98, while other houseplants range from approximately $12.91 to $17.98.
The outdoor plant selection also varies significantly by season. During spring, customers might discover hydrangeas, petunias, and various bulbs like tulips, hostas, and elephant ears. Summer and fall may bring in mums and other seasonal annuals or perennials. Beyond ornamental plants, Sam’s Club frequently stocks fruit and vegetable plants, including berry bushes (blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries), fruit trees (peach, plum, pecan, apple), and even bulk quantities of seed potatoes and onions. For instance, fruit plants are often priced around $13.48, and roses can be found for $11.68 to $12.
Assessing Plant Quality and Value
When selecting plants at Sam’s Club, a thorough visual inspection is beneficial to ensure health and vitality. Look for plants with vibrant, unblemished foliage and strong, upright stems. For flowering plants like hydrangeas, healthy specimens will exhibit vibrant blooms, and roses should have green shoots. Avoid plants with yellow, mottled, or brown discoloration on leaves, as these can indicate stress, disease, or pest issues.
It is also important to check for signs of pests by inspecting the undersides of leaves, stems, and crevices for insects like mealybugs, aphids, or whiteflies. Mealybugs, for example, appear as cotton-like masses and are easily visible. Gently poking the soil can reveal fungus gnats, which are small black flies that indicate overwatering. Additionally, assess the soil moisture; it should be moist about two inches deep, not completely dry or waterlogged, and should not have any foul odors. Sam’s Club often provides a strong value proposition due to its competitive pricing and ability to offer larger or more mature plants at lower costs compared to specialized nurseries, often benefiting from economies of scale.
Tips for a Successful Sam’s Club Plant Purchase
It is advisable to understand the store’s return policy, which generally offers a “100% Satisfaction Guarantee” on most items, allowing returns with a receipt or membership account lookup. While perishable items typically have a shorter return window, the overall policy is generous.
Planning for safe transport of your new plants is another consideration, particularly protecting them from extreme temperatures during transit. Avoid leaving plants in a hot or cold car for extended periods. For larger or multiple plants, ensure they are secured in your vehicle to prevent damage.
Upon arriving home, allow the plant a period of acclimation to its new environment, typically a week or two, before undertaking significant changes like repotting. Check the soil moisture and water if needed, and consider repotting if the plant appears root-bound or is in a poor growing medium. A preventative spray with insecticidal soap can also be applied.