Directory policy
How shop listings are chosen
By the Plantshop.com Editorial Team · Updated · How we research · Report an error
Published so the answer to any question about this directory is a lookup, not an argument. Free entry, order not for sale, optional express review and labeled featured placement.
Nobody pays to be listed
Listing is free and stays free. No shop has paid to be listed, no shop has paid for its place in the unpaid order, and no shop can. Entry and order are the only two things a reader has reason to trust, so neither is for sale.
On where to buy plants online, shops with usable independent reviews are sorted by rating weighted by review count; shops without enough reviews are grouped by category, then A to Z. If that unpaid order rule ever changes, it changes here first.
Every application is judged against the same criteria below. A free application is reviewed in the order it arrived. Express applications are reviewed ahead of free ones. There is no time promise for a free application, and the queue can be long.
What you can pay for
The paid options are express review and a separate featured placement. Both are paid through PayPal to [email protected]. A request is not proof of payment or a promise of publication.
- Express review ($9.99). A decision within 3 US business days of payment. If the shop is not approved on that first attempt, you get written feedback on what would need to change. The fee is not refundable once paid. It never buys entry, a position, a rating, or a softer standard. The same criteria apply, and a shop that fails them is not listed. A listing that used express review says so where you read it: “Express review.”
- Featured placement ($99.99 / 30 days). For shops already in the directory (new shops: submit free or express first, then request a feature). A labeled Sponsored slot above the main list on the best-shops page (up to 2 slots). Featured slots never change what a listing says or where it sits in the unpaid order. An empty featured slot shows “Feature your shop here” and links to the sponsorship page.
Wherever a featured shop appears in a paid slot, it carries the word Sponsored, and every link to that shop’s site in that slot carries rel="sponsored nofollow". That matches Google’s rule for paid links and the FTC’s for a material connection.
Every outbound link from a shop listing to the merchant’s own site also carries rel="nofollow", including free and express listings. Affiliate links additionally use rel="sponsored nofollow". Educational sources (for example ASPCA, university extensions) and Wikimedia photo-credit links are not treated as paid merchant links; they keep the markup already on those pages.
What a listing is, and is not
A listing summarizes what a shop publishes about itself, on a date recorded with the entry, plus independent review-site ratings where we found them. It is not a lab test and not an endorsement. There are no invented star ratings from us.
What gets a shop listed
- It is a real, live online shop with a public catalog that sells live plants to US customers.
- The company behind it can be identified (about, contact, or clear brand presence).
- It has reachable shipping / guarantee information a buyer can read before paying.
- Its claims can be checked against its own public pages.
What does not get listed
- Dead, parked, or “coming soon” sites with no live plant catalog.
- Multi-level marketing and get-rich schemes.
- Lead-generation shells with no product behind them.
- Wholesale-only or non-US shops that will not sell to US retail buyers.
- Anything that cannot be verified from its own public pages.
What gets a shop removed
- The site is dead, or the company was acquired and the shop retired.
- The shop pivoted away from selling live plants online.
- It was misrepresented at application.
- It has gone twelve months without a successful recheck when we attempt one.
Corrections
If something is wrong, say so and it gets fixed, whether you work there or not. Write to partners [at] plantshop [dot] com, or submit a shop that is missing.
Plantshop.com also earns affiliate commissions when you buy through some shop links (for example The Sill) and Amazon. Commissions never decide directory entry or unpaid order. Affiliate disclosure.
Apply: Submit a plant shop (free or express $9.99) · Feature a listed shop ($99.99/30 days).