Why Gardeners Are Buying Bulbs Online Instead of in Stores

The way people shop for flower bulbs has shifted dramatically. The global gardening and outdoor living market reached $120 billion in 2025, with online sales growing at 15 to 20% annually. That figure alone should tell you something: the garden centre trip, once a weekend ritual, is being replaced by a far more convenient alternative. For many home gardeners, ordering tulips, dahlias, and hyacinths online now makes more sense than loading up the boot of the car on a Saturday morning.

In my experience, the first time you order bulbs online and receive a perfectly packed box of Dutch tulips directly at your door, timed precisely for the right planting window, there is no going back. The shift is real, it is growing, and there are very good reasons behind it.

Key Takeaways

• Variety is incomparable online: An obvious benefit to shopping online is the broader range of products available, since online retailers are limited by the space of retail premises, online stores stock products in higher quantities and offer a larger range. Seek out specialist online suppliers for unusual cultivars you will never find locally.

• Younger generations are driving the trend: 80% of Gen Z's shopping occurs online (Statista), while 75% of Millennials prefer online shopping (eMarketer). If you are a younger gardener, online bulb shopping fits naturally with the way you already buy everything else.

• The global bulb market is healthy and expanding: Suppliers are investing in better variety, logistics, and packaging, making online orders more reliable than ever.

• Online spending per order tends to be higher: Online purchasers spent more on average for both online and in-store for plants

Start here if you are:

• A new gardener: Buy a curated beginner bulb mix from a trusted online retailer like Holland Kertészet, the variety descriptions, planting guides, and fixed delivery windows remove all the guesswork.

• An enthusiast with limited local choice: Go directly to specialist online retailers for rare, heritage, or Dutch-sourced varieties your local centre simply will not stock.

• Short on time: Set up a seasonal delivery to arrive precisely at the optimal planting window, so you never miss the planting season again.

A Market on the Move: The Numbers Behind the Trend

The numbers are clear. Global online sales of gardening goods doubled during the Covid pandemic. That was the tipping point, but the momentum has continued long after lockdowns ended. The pandemic created 25 million new gardeners, and over 80% continued gardening post-pandemic. Millions of people who discovered the pleasure of growing things in 2020 and 2021 simply kept going, and they had already formed the habit of buying their supplies online.

The Shift Away from In-Store-Only Shopping

Before the pandemic, in-store shopping was practically the only way to buy flower bulbs. Prior to COVID-19, a small percentage of sales, approximately 5%, were made online. That figure has multiplied many times over since then. Around 15 to 20% of Hungaries garden sales now happen online. The trajectory is unmistakeable: online is no longer a niche channel for gardening, it is a mainstream one. For anyone still making every bulb purchase in a physical store, the practical advantages of online shopping are being left on the table.

The Bulb Category Is Leading the Way

Bulbs and tubers are particularly well-suited to online retail. They are dormant when sold, which makes them easy to package, ship, and store. The most popular gardening items bought online were plants, seeds and bulbs, popular with 80% of shoppers in a HU survey, outperforming every other gardening category. This is worth acting on: if the data shows that bulbs are what online shoppers buy most, it is because the channel suits the product exceptionally well.

Pro Tip: Order your spring-flowering bulbs online in August or September, well before they appear in local garden centres. The best online suppliers sell out of popular and rare varieties faster than shops do. Early ordering guarantees you the pick of the selection.

The Variety Advantage: Finding What Stores Cannot Stock

Walk into any garden centre in October and you will find tulips, daffodils, crocuses, and hyacinths. They are lovely, reliable, and entirely predictable. What you will rarely find is a black parrot tulip, a foxtail lily (Eremurus), a blue hyacinth cultivar from the 1920s.

Rare and Heritage Varieties

Consumers are increasingly interested in distinctive, heritage, or hard-to-find bulbs, including black tulips, blue hyacinths, and parrot daffodils. Specialty catalogues and online platforms are enhancing the accessibility of these varieties, thereby fostering market premiumisation and niche growth. Online retailers can hold enormous virtual catalogues without the physical shelf space constraints that limit what a garden centre can display.

Whereas many garden centres will have popular flower bulbs available such as tulips, daffodils, crocus and more, online retailers have a wider selection, meaning bulbs can be mixed with lesser-known varieties, creating dazzling displays. For gardeners who have mastered the basics and want their borders to look genuinely different, an online specialist is the only realistic option.

Subscription and Curated Collections

E-commerce platforms and flower bulb subscription boxes are becoming more popular, providing curated selections along with planting guides and seasonal delivery. This is a significant shift in how gardeners engage with buying bulbs. Rather than wandering the aisles of a garden centre and picking up whatever catches the eye, gardeners can now receive a thoughtfully chosen seasonal collection, selected by experts, delivered at the right time. Holland Kertészet is among the online retailers offering wide selections of carefully sourced bulbs, with the depth of variety that physical stores simply cannot match.

Convenience, Timing, and the End of the Weekend Drive

One of the practical realities of buying bulbs in a store is that it requires you to be in the right place at the right time. Bulbs appear in garden centres for a narrow seasonal window. If you miss it, or if the variety you want sells out, that is it for another year.

The Convenience Factor for Younger Gardeners

A recent study indicates that more than 70% of 18 to 35-year-olds are interested in gardening, with 83% of young people describing gardening as 'cool'. This is a generation that plans, discovers, and buys online as a matter of course. In the latest GoDaddy Consumer Pulse survey of 1,500 consumers, half of Gen Z (54%) and Millennials (50%) prefer shopping methods that allow them to avoid other people, like Buy Online, Pick Up In-Store, self-checkout or online shopping. Expecting these gardeners to drive to a retail park to browse a limited shelf of net bags is simply unrealistic.

In 2024, 50% of Gen Z respondents said they spent 50% more time in the garden compared to 2023. Another 15% reported increasing their time in the garden by 100%. The upward trend in younger gardeners is real, and they are bringing their online-first shopping habits with them.

Pro Tip: If you are ordering bulbs for a specific planting window, such as autumn tulip planting in October, use online retailers that let you choose a delivery week. This removes the risk of receiving bulbs during a heat wave or before you have prepared the beds.

Quality, Freshness, and Direct-from-Grower Sourcing

A common concern about buying bulbs online is whether you can trust the quality. The honest answer, in my experience, is that reputable online suppliers frequently offer better quality than the average garden centre, not worse.

Why Online Bulbs Can Be Fresher

Garden centre bulbs often sit in warm, dry display conditions for weeks before purchase. Online specialists, by contrast, ship bulbs at precisely the right moment. Top quality flower bulbs from online retailers come directly from selected growers and are carefully stored in climate-controlled rooms and professionally inspected at various stages of the process, before being delivered directly from a warehouse. This cold-chain approach means the bulb you receive has been handled far more carefully than one sitting in a net bag under store lighting.

The Netherlands Connection

Flower bulbs play a vital role in commercial floriculture, particularly in Europe and Asia. Nations such as the Netherlands are at the forefront of bulb exports, providing global markets with premium varieties utilised in floral arrangements, events, and decorative gardening. Many of the best online bulb retailers source directly from Dutch growers, cutting out the intermediary steps that reduce freshness. Many quality online suppliers ship bulbs directly to your doorstep from family farms in Holland. Suppliers like Holland Kertészet specialise in precisely this kind of direct-sourcing approach, connecting Hungarian gardeners with top-quality Dutch-grown bulbs.

Customer Reviews as a Quality Guide

Online platforms allow you to read the experiences of thousands of other gardeners before you buy. This collective wisdom is something a garden centre cannot replicate. If a variety performs poorly for others, you will know before you order. Easy product comparison, customer reviews, and frequent discounts make online platforms a preferred choice for both new and experienced gardeners.

Pro Tip: When buying bulbs online for the first time, look for suppliers who offer a growth or flowering guarantee. Reputable online bulb retailers stand behind their stock in a way that most physical garden centres do not.

Price, Value, and Planning Your Budget

Online bulb shopping also tends to be kinder to the budget. Physical retail carries overheads, rent, staff, in-store display costs, that are reflected in retail prices. Online retailers operating directly from growing facilities or warehouses can often offer more competitive pricing.

Planning Before You Buy

Online shopping encourages more deliberate garden planning. You can browse a full range, compare varieties, read planting guides, check bloom times, and build a wishlist, all before spending a penny. Ordering online allows you to plan your flower displays before you buy and gives you access to a large range of unique flower bulbs, rarely found in garden centres and shops. This considered approach typically leads to better-planned, more cohesive planting schemes than impulse purchases at a garden centre.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are bulbs bought online as healthy as those from a garden centre?

In most cases, yes, and often healthier. Reputable online suppliers store bulbs in climate-controlled conditions and ship them at the optimal time for planting, whereas in-store bulbs can sit in warm display areas for weeks, drying out or deteriorating. Always choose a supplier that offers a growth or flowering guarantee for added peace of mind.

How do I know when to order bulbs online?

The general rule is to order spring-flowering bulbs (tulips, daffodils, hyacinths) in late summer for autumn delivery. Summer-flowering bulbs (dahlias, gladioli, begonias) are ordered in late winter for spring planting. Autumn is the best time to plant spring-flowering bulbs, and it helps to plan ahead so you have your selection ordered and delivered in time for planting.

Can I find unusual or rare bulb varieties online?

Unusual bulbs you simply will not find at a regular store are the speciality of many online retailers. From rare heritage tulips to butterfly daffodils to foxtail lilies, the online marketplace has access to varieties that would never appear on a garden centre shelf due to limited demand and shelf space constraints.

Is it safe to pay for bulbs online?

Established online bulb retailers use secure payment systems and clearly stated returns and guarantee policies. Look for retailers with SSL-secured websites (the padlock symbol in your browser address bar), verifiable customer reviews, and a stated postal address. Well-established suppliers like Holland Kertészet have clear, transparent trading policies.

What if my bulbs arrive damaged or do not grow?

Reputable online bulb suppliers offer a guarantee, often a full flowering or growth guarantee, meaning they will replace or refund bulbs that fail to perform when planted correctly. This is a significant advantage over in-store purchases, where you typically have little recourse if a bulb fails to flower.

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