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Find, rate, and compare home-improvement contractors, health-care providers, repair shops, financial services, veterinarians, stores, dentists, and more than 100 other types of service providers.
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Where to Shop for Plants
Since most garden centers buy—rather than raise—most of what they sell, there is room for tremendous variation in buying standards and the quality of plants being sold. The opinions we collected from consumers on garden centers reflect these big differences.
Where to Find the Best Prices for Plants
Our undercover shoppers found huge price variation among garden centers—perhaps more than in any other subject we cover. Unfortunately, we found the lowest prices at big chains, which receive poor ratings from their customers.
Before Buying Plants, Make a Plan
Do a rough drawing showing your house, other structures, property lines, and desired plants. Get guidelines and ideas from gardening websites, friends with attractive outdoor spaces, and experts.
Florists that Offer the Best Services and Prices
Buying a floral arrangement is like buying art. You’ll want a florist whose use of color and flower types fits your individual taste. This is even more important if you are spending thousands of dollars on blooms for a wedding or other special occasion. Here’s how to pick the best.
Where to Buy Flowers for Less
If you want delivery, exotic flowers, or need advice, your best bet is a florist. But if you’re willing to pick up the posies yourself and want to save a lot of money, you have several other options.
Need to Have Flowers Delivered Out of Town?
When you need to send flowers to someone outside the area, what do you do? We review the options, and advise you on how to deal with each to ensure you and your special someone on the other end are happy with the results.
Selecting a Lawn Care Service
Kermit the Frog once crooned “It’s Not Easy Being Green.” If you have a lawn, you can relate: It’s not easy keeping things green. Here's how to plot a course, whether you call in the pros or go it alone.
Do Lawn Care Services Know What They're Doing?
The proposals Checkbook's undercover shoppers get from lawn care services rarely agree on identification of weed species, presence of disease, need to correct soil acidity, and recommendations on core aeration.
What Do Lawn Care Services Do?
Lawn care services work with different products and techniques, but the results they promise are similar. Companies usually offer customers a selection of “packages” that include specified treatment plans to take place over the course of a year.
How to Choose a Tree Care Service
On occasion your trees might become shady characters, done in—and perhaps ultimately brought down—by disease or damage or both. Here's how to find a great branch manager.
How to Save on Tree Care Work
Once you have chosen a company that can do the work well, price becomes your primary consideration. Our undercover shoppers found huge company-to-company price differences for the same jobs.
How to Tell If Your Trees Need TLC
You don’t have to be an expert to spot many potential tree problems. Like most plants, trees have ways of indicating distress. Examine your trees several times a year for these signs of trouble.
