What Plants Cost at the Nursery in 2026

Every article on what a landscape costs reaches the plants and guesses. The plants are the one line that need not be guessed: American wholesale growers publish their prices, and the HortOS price pages set them side by side into a median at each container class, a range across growers and a median for each state. The idea that matters most is that the trade price of a plant is knowable, that it climbs with the container far faster than the gallon count does, and that it is the smallest part of what a planting costs once freight, installation and care are added.

This page is the general reference behind those articles: what the most-priced plant at each class from #1 to #100 sold for at the nursery gate on the live price pages on 24 September 2026, the spread across growers on the lines every grower carries, the difference between states, what a nursery-gate price leaves out, and worked figures for a foundation planting, a mass planting, a street tree order and a giveaway. It draws on the USDA's 2024 Census of Horticultural Specialties for the size of the industry, on the American nursery stock standard for what a class means, and on Florida's sales tax rules as the worked example of ex tax. It is compiled from growers' published availability on HortOS, a free directory of American wholesale plant growers with their published availability and trade prices, and it is not a quote.

Quick facts

The ladder	Live medians ex tax on 24 September 2026 for the line most growers price at each class: #1 $3.00, #3 $6.00, #7 $16.00, #15 $40.00, #25 $85.00, #30 $115, #45 $265, #65 $350, #100 $550.
The spread on one plant	Pink muhly grass in a #3 ran from $3.75 to $11.00 across 163 pricing growers around a median of $6.00; wax myrtle in a #3 from $4.50 to $14.47 across 86.
The state effect	The same #3 pink muhly grass had a median of $5.00 in Florida, $8.50 in Georgia, $11.00 in Texas and $11.50 in North Carolina on the same day.
What is left out	Sales tax unless the buyer is exempt or reselling, freight, installation, water and the contractor's own lines.
The industry	Horticulture operations sold $18.3 billion of floriculture, nursery and specialty crops in 2024, nursery stock $5.34 billion of it, up 17 per cent on 2019, across 23,060 operations (USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service).
Where it is grown	California, Florida and Oregon led the nation in horticulture sales in 2024 (USDA); Florida holds most growers with a current trade list on HortOS.

The ladder: what each container class costs

American growers price by container class, written #1, #3, #7 and so on, and a class is a range of volume in the nursery stock standard rather than a measured gallon; the pot sizes guide explains it. The table gives, for each class, the plant that the most growers price at that class on HortOS and its median on the live price page on 24 September 2026, with the number of growers pricing it. It is the ladder as the trade sells it, not a survey of every plant.

The ladder is the finding. A #3 is twice a #1, a #7 nearly three times a #3, a #15 two and a half times a #7, and each class above roughly doubles the one below, because each carries the cost of every rung beneath it plus another season of media, water and bench space. A plant is not priced by the gallon; it is priced by the years. What a tree costs by container size and caliper follows seven trees up the whole ladder and shows the price per nominal gallon staying flat to #30 and climbing above #45.

The spread across growers

A median is the middle of a wide field, and the live price pages print the field: the low and the high are the 10th and the 90th percentile across pricing growers once five price a size. On 24 September 2026 pink muhly grass in a #3 ran from $3.75 to $11.00 across 163 growers, nearly three to one; wax myrtle (Myrica cerifera) in a #3 from $4.50 to $14.47 across 86 around a median of $8.00; dwarf yaupon holly (Ilex vomitoria 'Schillings') in a #3 from $5.00 to $10.85 across 87 around $7.00; and live oak in a #15 from $45.00 to $80.00 across 69 around $65.00. The lines every grower carries in volume have the tightest spreads and the feature plants the widest, and the availability list guide explains how to price a line against that spread.

The state effect

The same plant at the same class costs different amounts in different states, and the difference on the shrubs of the Southeast is large. On 24 September 2026 the pink muhly grass page printed a #3 median of $5.00 in Florida, $6.88 in Louisiana, $8.50 in Georgia and South Carolina, $11.00 in Texas, $11.50 in North Carolina and $12.50 in Virginia; wax myrtle in a #3 was $6.28 in Florida and $11.75 in North Carolina; live oak in a #15 was $48.50 in Louisiana, $58.50 in Georgia, $60.00 in Texas, $65.00 in Florida and $77.50 in North Carolina. Florida grows the Southeast's shrubs in volume and prices them lowest; a state with a dozen growers on a line prices it higher and the range is wider. The USDA's census puts the geography the other way for the whole industry: California, Florida and Oregon led horticulture sales in 2024, at $3.07 billion, $2.15 billion and $1.29 billion. Price the line in the state the job is in.

What a nursery-gate price leaves out

• Sales tax. Every trade price is ex tax. Florida's rule 12A-1.048 treats ornamental nursery stock sold to the final consumer as taxable and a sale for resale as exempt on the buyer's resale certificate; every state has its own rule and rate.
• Freight. Never in the list price. Plugs and #1 stock travel by the tray; trees in a #45 travel by the truck, and getting a #100 tree from the truck to the hole can cost as much as the tree.
• Installation and care. The plant is the cheap part. The USDA's census found industry expenses up 33 per cent since 2019, with labor 36 per cent of them, and the contractor's own labor, soil, mulch, irrigation and warranty sit on top of the plant line.
• The contractor's lines. Labor, materials, equipment, overhead and profit are the contractor's own and are not on any list. This page prices plants, not landscaping.

Worked figures

• A foundation planting. A hundred dwarf yaupon holly in a #3 at the live median of $7.00 on 24 September 2026 is $700 ex tax.
• A mass planting. Five hundred pink muhly grass in a #3 at $6.00 is $3,000; in a #1 at $3.00, $1,500.
• A street tree order. Twenty live oaks in a #45 at $265 is $5,300; in a #30 at $132.50, $2,650; the species the trade grows at those sizes are on the street trees guide.
• A giveaway. A thousand live oaks in a #3 at $10.25 is $10,250, and a thousand bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) in a #3 at $10.00 is $10,000.

Every one of those figures can be checked against the live price pages, and a bid you have been given can be set against the current medians with the price check.

What to watch for

• Reading a median as a quote. It is the middle of a range across growers on one date; a grower's price sits anywhere in the range.
• Carrying one state's price to another. A Florida #3 median under a Carolina job is wrong by half.
• Treating a class as a gallon. A #3 holds less than three gallons; the class is a range in the standard, not a measure.
• Pricing the plants and calling it the job. Freight, installation and care are the larger part of any planting budget.
• Quoting a figure without its date. The live pages move as lists arrive; a 24 September 2026 median is a 24 September 2026 median.

Getting it right

1. Start from the median at the class the plan names, in the state the job is in.
2. Check the plant's own price page for the spread and the number of growers behind it, and price against three growers where the money is.
3. Add sales tax as the client's status requires, then freight, then the installation and care lines that are yours.
4. Label every figure with the date the live page was read.

A word of caution

The medians on this page are what the live price pages printed on one date; they change as lists arrive, so a figure there may differ from the ones quoted here, and the first United States edition of the HortOS Plant Price Index will replace them with a monthly reference. Sales tax is each state's rule and an accountant's question; Florida is the worked example. The census figures are the USDA's. On stock, sizes and ship dates, the grower's word is the one that counts.

Sources

• USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, 2024 Census of Horticultural Specialties release: sales, operations and expenses.
• AmericanHort, American nursery stock standards: what a container class means.
• Florida Administrative Code, rule 12A-1.048: tax on nursery stock.