Visitors to Cornell Botanic Gardens who are inspired by the diverse, beautiful plants in our cultivated gardens, arboretum, and natural areas now have a way to bring those plants to their own garden spaces. ShrubBucket, distributor of high-quality perennials from the region’s top producers, has launched the Cornell Botanic Gardens online store.
ShrubBucket currently serves gardeners in parts of New York State and Connecticut. Cornell Botanic Gardens’ visitors living in those areas can now choose from hundreds of plants reflected in Cornell Botanic Gardens’ collections, order them online, and have them hand delivered to their home or business within several days by ShrubBucket.
“Having visited the gardens since I was a young child, I felt that the one missing element was not being able to purchase plants you were excited about discovering,” said Rick Hedrick, founder and CEO of ShrubBucket. “This partnership is a win- win for everybody—especially those who are inspired by the plants at Cornell Botanic Gardens. It brings the visitor experience to the gardens full circle.”
ShrubBucket is one of several local and regional garden centers that partner with Cornell Botanic Gardens to provide benefits to botanic gardens members and the public. These include Ithaca Agway, Baker’s Acres, Cayuga Landscape, Der Rosenmeister, Magic Garden, GreenTree, The Plantsmen, or R.C.’s Plants & Produce.
Plants available for purchase through the Cornell Botanic Gardens online store on ShrubBucket are selected by the botanic gardens’ expert horticulture staff to best reflect the spirit and values of the gardens and natural areas. Home gardeners can search and filter plants by numerous criteria, including those that attract pollinators, butterflies, and birds, drought tolerance, and season of interest, among others.
“ShrubBucket has supplied us with unique, high-quality plants for our areas for several years,” said Christopher Dunn, PhD, Elizabeth Newman Wilds Executive Director of Cornell Botanic Gardens. “It was the logical next step to partner with ShrubBucket so that our visitors benefit from the firm’s enormous network of excellent growers, both locally and regionally.” ShrubBucket’s business model ensures that plants ordered from the online store arrive at the customer’s doorstep within five days and in fresh-from-the-grower condition. Plants are procured from producers only when ordered by customers, and are hand-delivered by ShrubBucket.
“More than anything else, the partnership with Cornell Botanic Gardens brings together growers, homeowners, and public garden visitors to promote and celebrate the best of American horticulture,” Hedrick said.