Where is the best place to get inexpensive plants/trees?

[bonds]

I was looking to get some aloe vera and lemon plants for indoors, and maybe an apple and pear tree for outdoors.

Can anyone help... what places are usually the least expensive?

Thanks

[anisa]

try and sign up for emails about sales and promotions from your local nurseries.
even home depot will email you about weekly gardening promos.

for a lemon tree, try planting a seed, you never know! my dad planted mandarin seeds and grew them indoors. you need a nice sunny and warm spot.

[bonds]

thanks for the tip!

[Ciel]

You might like to look out for local horticultural society plant sales (late April or May) to see if you can get some aloe vera. As for fruit trees--well, aside from planting your own seeds, you will be looking to pay at the nursery unless you become a friend of a neighbourhood gardener wanting to share plants, branches/grafts, etc. Maybe you can help at an orchard to gain those fruit trees? I'm assuming you want actual trees so you don't have to wait a few years for fruit to come in?

My father has a liking for fruit trees and knocked on someone's door where there was a quince tree on the property. He offered to prune the tree in exchange for a couple of branches to use to generate his own tree. It was around for 20 years though the bark had issues about 15 years along. Fruit was fair to middling in size but some were small or unsightly. Tip-don't plant a tree under a hydro wire going to your house-branches do like to reach for the sky.

[Cocovanilla]

I think I remember seing small aloe vera plants at Wal Mart but I don't know if they have them on a regular basis.

[bonds]

Does anyone know what my chances of growing an apple tree straight from a seed are? Would I start it indoors then transplant it outside after a certain point?

[Natalka]

Definitely go to a local nursery for fruit trees; they will know what's best for your zone and yard.

Yes, you can grow an apple tree from a seed - you can plant it right in the yard but it takes forever - we did it over 10 years ago and have a nice tree almost up to the roof in the yard. However, it just started producing apples the last two years and they are yucky! We were so disappointed; they weren't even good for cooking.

Turns out that things just don't work that way - when you plant a seed from an apple, and other fruit, you don't get the exact fruit you got the seed from! They need to cross-pollinate.

http://www.umanitoba.ca/afs/hort_inq...appleseed.html
http://lifeonthebalcony.com/save-you...ees-from-seed/
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/ext/pollination.html

[Shwa Girl]

OP, ask at work. There's bound to be one gardener or they know of a friend or relative.
Where I work, they had a swap of plants and cuttings one year. They did this for one week. Maybe you can start it as a team building or social committee exercise.


Question for the green thumbs here: can I start a rose bush from a cutting? On You Tube they show how to cut and root a new rose bush from an old one. I am planning to use climbing rose bush cuttings from a friend. Thanks.