Where to Buy Plants in the GTA: Garden Centres Worth the Drive

A garden centre earns the drive when it can tell you what the plant tag cannot: who grew this, and what happens if it dies. Four GTA retailers say they grow much of their own stock: Sheridan Nurseries, TERRA Greenhouses, Valleyview Gardens in Markham and Vandermeer Nursery in Ajax. Each backs its plants with a written guarantee whose conditions decide whether it is worth anything. Native plants are a separate trade with a shorter season. The cheapest trees in the region are not sold at a garden centre at all.

Grower or reseller: the distinction that decides the drive

Most garden centres buy in finished plants and sell them. A grower raises them. How each of the four describes itself:

Sheridan Nurseries started in 1913 near Sheridan, Ontario, now part of Oakville. It farms over 900 acres at Glen Williams and Norval, grows over 1,200 cultivars (named plant varieties) of perennials and hardy nursery stock, and ships over 1.8 million plants a year. Seven of its eight garden centres are in the GTA, the eighth in Kitchener. It calls its Southdown Road store one of the largest combined retail and trade garden centres in Canada. Watch the names: the store it lists as "Etobicoke" has a published address of 2069 Burnhamthorpe Road East in Mississauga.

TERRA Greenhouses runs five acres of growing space behind five retail garden centres. Shoppers, it says, "can shop directly from some of the benches we grow on." Three of the five are in the GTA, counting Burlington in Halton. The two nearest Toronto are Vaughan at 11800 Keele Street and Milton at 12800 Britannia Road, which TERRA calls its largest store.

Valleyview Gardens has been in Markham since 1970, now at 8636 Reesor Road on the north side of Highway 7. It grows all year from tissue culture, grafted branches and hand-cut cuttings, and is unusually specific about what. It claims to be one of Canada's largest growers of calamondin citrus. It raises over 30,000 hot pepper plants a year from seed, and grows pothos in bulk from its own mother plants.

Vandermeer Nursery sits at 588 Lake Ridge Road South in Ajax, run by the same family for more than 60 years and now into a second and third generation. It says it grows most of what it sells at its Ajax greenhouses. It hardens perennials and shrubs off first, leaving them outdoors to get used to local weather.

The guarantee is the part you can actually check

All four publish a plant warranty. We put four questions to each: how long it runs, whether a pot counts, when you can claim, and what you must bring back. The headline number stops being the interesting part.

Beyond trees and shrubs, Sheridan gives roses a year and non-flowering houseplants three months. Annuals, hanging baskets, herbs and vegetables, bulbs, seeds, bonsai and flowering houseplants, orchids included, get nothing. Two discount rules are easy to blur. Manager's Specials, seasonal clearance and anything cut by 50 per cent or more stay covered. But you get the price you paid on a gift card, not a new plant. Farm Sale items and prices ending in .00 are final sale and not covered at all.

Vandermeer's two years cover hardy evergreens, deciduous trees and shrubs, and hardy vines, except boxwood, clematis, Japanese maples, rhododendrons, azaleas, pieris and anything marked tender. Those drop to September 30 of the year you buy them, and so do perennials, roses and hardy water plants. It also rules out plants never taken out of their first pot, frost damage, bad planting, too much or too little water, and animals.

Valleyview's year applies to a named list of 45 plants, cedar, spruce, magnolia, hydrangea and lilac among them, which it calls select perennials with woodier stems. Annual, tropical and perennial stock is not guaranteed. Roses, rhododendrons and azaleas are not covered over winter, only to the end of October in the year you buy them. Discounted and wholesale buys are excluded, and stock is replaced once.

TERRA last updated its policy on November 29, 2023, and it covers trees, shrubs, evergreens and vines for one year from purchase. Roses, perennials and ground covers run only to December 31 of the year you buy them. Anything bought under the Landscaper's discount programme is excluded.

Native plants run on a shorter calendar

The growers above stock some natives, but the specialists are separate businesses with short seasons. The Halton Region Master Gardeners' March 2026 list of Southern Ontario native nurseries opens with advice worth repeating: "Contact the nursery in advance. Many have limited hours, or are open by appointment only."

Three that serve the GTA:

• **Toronto Plant Market and Native Plant Supply**, 327 Bering Avenue in Etobicoke. Open April to October, Wednesday to Friday 11am–6pm and weekends 9am–2pm. Stock comes from local growers and verified seed, per the Bee City Canada nursery directory.
• **Native Plants in Claremont**, 4965 Westney Road in Pickering. It sells Ontario wildflowers, trees, vines, shrubs and ornamental grasses, and couriers boxed potted plants by FedEx within Ontario. The sources disagree on the days. The Halton list gives late April to mid-October, Wednesday to Saturday. The nursery's own site gives Thursday to Saturday 9am–3:30pm and Sunday noon–3pm. Trust the nursery: the Halton entry's own comment reads "Check out website".
• **Ontario Native Plants** sells online only, shipping within Ontario by UPS in two to seven days. Its plants are grown from seed collected in Ontario (the ferns from Ontario spores). The FAQ is pointed about why: seed-grown plants are not clones, so each has its own genetics. Most start as a plug, a small starter plant 2.5 inches wide and 5 inches deep, trimmed to ship in a 2.5 by 2.5 by 3.5 inch pot. A few, mostly trees, ship in a 2 by 5 inch cloth or coco fibre plug instead. Wild ginger and the fern packs come in 4 by 4 inch pots and are pick-up only, from its nursery near Hamilton, on orders of 8 or more plants. Stock sold between July and September was grown this year, roughly 4 to 5 months old and 15 to 30 cm tall. Its own banner sets the last day for orders this season at September 18, and preorders for next year open February 27, 2027.

The North American Native Plant Society runs a native plant sale each year at the Toronto Botanical Garden. Its site still shows the 2026 date, Saturday May 9, which has passed, and marks advance online ordering finished. Watch the page for a 2027 date rather than treating it as a live listing.

The cheapest trees in the GTA are not at a garden centre

If you want a tree, start with the subsidised programmes. No retailer comes close on price.

The Toronto Free Tree Program gives Toronto residents up to two free native trees or shrubs per household each spring and fall. They come in 1 or 2-gallon pots and stand 1 to 4 feet tall. You sign up first, then collect at pickup spots that move each season. The plant has to go on land you own. The City warns that part of your front or side lawn may be road allowance, the city-owned strip beside the street, which does not qualify. As of the page's July 19, 2026 update, spring pickups had ended and fall dates were not yet posted.

Next comes LEAF, the non-profit the City works with on subsidised planting on private property. Full service buys a 30-minute site visit from an arborist, a tree specialist. You also get a 5 to 8 foot native deciduous tree or a 2 to 4 foot native evergreen, plus delivery, planting, mulch and a care guide. Full service covers backyards and fenced side yards only. The do-it-yourself option swaps the site visit for a video call. It drops the tree and mulch at your door, covers front and unfenced side yards, and leaves the digging to you.

Three conditions decide whether this is for you.

First, where you live. LEAF's private-property service area covers Toronto, nine York Region towns and six in Durham. No Peel or Halton town is on the list, though LEAF runs a separate Halton Hills native tree and shrub sale.

Second, what your town adds. Markham residents pay $100 for a deciduous tree and $50 for an evergreen from a select species list, capped at five trees per property per year. Newmarket adds a $100 rebate, though not for business properties. Ajax adds $150 on full service or $100 on do-it-yourself. Both run one rebate per property per year, first come first served, space permitting. Toronto residents in eligible low-canopy, equity-deserving neighbourhoods may get free trees and shrubs outright.

Third, and easiest to miss. The site visit is not free unless you buy a tree. Leave without one and LEAF charges $100 (+HST). That fee comes off a tree order "provided no species or location changes have been made". Ordering only shrubs or cedars does not win it back: their cost is added to the $100 you have already paid.

The low and high Ontario Native Plants figures are ours, not the nursery's. On its shop page on 26 August 2026 its 121 single plants ran from $7.00 for Little Bluestem and eight other grasses and sedges up to $11.50 for Pawpaw, at regular price. Budget for LEAF's condition too: its guarantee expects you to water each tree or shrub twice a week, roughly six gallons, for the first two years.

When to go, and how the plants get home

Timing decides half of it. The Toronto Master Gardeners' seeding dates for Toronto put frost-hardy crops such as lettuce, peas and spinach in the ground from April 15 to 25. Tender transplants (cucumbers, peppers, squash) wait until May 25 to June 5, so anything tender bought earlier has to live somewhere frost-free until then.

Hours are the other planning problem, and they vary by store, not by chain. Valleyview opens every day of the year except Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day, but says its hours change with the season. Vandermeer runs 8am to 8pm on weekdays and 8am to 6pm at weekends. It opens on every holiday except Christmas Day, New Year's Day and Family Day. TERRA's Milton store posts 10am to 7pm Monday to Friday and 10am to 6pm at weekends. Other TERRA stores publish their own.

If the plants will not fit in the car, Valleyview delivers anywhere in the GTA from $95 plus HST. It usually arrives within two weeks, with no guaranteed date in spring and summer. Vandermeer delivers larger orders from Cobourg to downtown Toronto to Uxbridge, but asks you to come and choose the plants in person first. Both repot free, with conditions: Valleyview when you buy the plant, pot and soil together, Vandermeer when you buy a houseplant and a decorative pot at once. Orchids, bonsai and carnivorous plants count as specialty work and cost extra. Valleyview also gives 10 per cent off to anyone over 65 on Wednesdays, and to garden club members any day, on non-sale items, if you ask before paying.

Check the listing before you drive

Garden centre round-ups go stale fast, and Humber Nurseries is the cautionary case. It closed its Brampton retail operation after 59 years, final day October 31, 2019, and reopened in Caledon as a wholesaler. It now trades as Humber Nurseries 2020 Ltd. at 14905 Bramalea Road, calls itself a wholesale grower and supplier, and takes retail inquiries by email. The humbernurseries.ca domain belongs to a different firm, Humber Nurseries Limited in Corner Brook, Newfoundland. A search result under that name is not the business an old list is sending you to.

One destination costs nothing to browse. The Toronto Botanical Garden keeps its outdoor gardens open daily from dawn to dusk, and admission is free. It posts hours of 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday to Sunday. Parking is $4 per hour to a maximum of $16 per day, and free for members. Memberships start at $60 a year. It is the cheapest way to see mature plantings labelled with the botanical names the native nurseries want you to order by.