How many vendors should we bid?

Three is the right number for most properties. Fewer and you have no comparison; more and you are reading proposals instead of evaluating them. Run every bidder through the same written questions — guarantee, cadence, staffing, insurance — so the answers compare cleanly.

What is a fair monthly price for office plant service in Atlanta?

Real care programs start around $500 per month — roughly $250 per visit — and most run $500 to $2,000+ depending on square footage, plant count, and visit frequency. A quote far below that floor usually means fewer visits, no replacement guarantee, or both.

Should the vendor walk the space before quoting?

Always. A quote written without a site walk is a guess: light levels, traffic patterns, and access decide which plants survive and what care costs. A vendor who prices from a floor plan alone is planning to replace plants later — on your invoice.

Can a new vendor take over plants we already own?

Yes. A good vendor will assess the existing collection, quote a monthly care program, and flag the plants that are wrong for their light. One honest caveat: replacement guarantees typically cover plants the vendor selected and installed, so expect swap recommendations for anything already struggling.

Vendor evaluation · October 2026

How to evaluate an office plant vendor in Atlanta

Three proposals, the same promises, prices within twenty percent of each other. Here is how to tell them apart before you sign — and before month four does it for you.

Why proposals all look identical

Every interiorscape proposal promises healthy plants, scheduled visits, and guaranteed replacements. The documents are interchangeable because the promises are cheap — the difference between vendors only shows up in the operating details, and it shows up around month four, when the honeymoon install starts declining and you find out what the guarantee was actually worth. The fix is to evaluate the operating details before you sign. These are the questions that do it, in the order we would ask them.

1. Is the replacement guarantee in writing?

This is the question that ends most evaluations early. Ask what triggers a replacement, who decides a plant has declined, and how fast the swap happens. If the guarantee is verbal, it does not exist. Ours is in the service agreement: a plant that declines on our watch gets replaced, period.

2. What does a service visit actually include?

The right answer is a checklist: watering by soil check (never by calendar), pruning, feeding, foliage cleaning, pest monitoring, and a condition note per plant. The wrong answer is "we water and dust." The visit cadence matters just as much — weekly or biweekly is a program; "as needed" is a hope.

3. Who will actually service the account?

Ask whether your route is run by trained horticultural technicians or rotating route labor, and whether you will see the same tech each visit. The person holding the watering can is the program. Consistency is how a tech notices a plant leaning before the lobby does.

4. Can they clear your vendor onboarding?

Certificate of insurance, W-9, workers' comp, and whatever your procurement portal asks for. A commercial vendor should hand this over in a day — we keep it packaged on our vendor information page. If paperwork takes weeks, the relationship will too.

5. Did they walk the space before quoting?

Light decides everything. A vendor who measures light zones, asks about traffic, and specs plants to the conditions you actually have is pricing a program that holds. A vendor who quotes from a floor plan is pricing replacements they will bill you for later.

6. What happens when something declines?

Ask for the exact response: who notices, who approves the swap, and how many days between flagging and replacement. The honest answer includes a number. "We keep an eye on it" is not a number.

7. Can they name references in buildings like yours?

An office tower, a hotel, and a hospital wing are three different jobs. Ask for references in your building type — then actually call one and ask what month six looked like.

Score the guarantee, not the price

Weight the written guarantee and the visit cadence heavier than the monthly number. A program that is $150 cheaper with no guarantee is not a service plan — it is a plant-purchase plan on an installment schedule, and you will pay the difference in replacements by the end of the year. The vendors who price real programs start around $500 a month in Atlanta because that is what weekly, guaranteed care costs to deliver.

Red flags worth walking away from

Visits described as “as needed” instead of a fixed weekly or biweekly schedule.
A replacement guarantee that is not in the written agreement.
A quote delivered without anyone walking your space and checking the light.
Watering “on a schedule” — calendar watering is how offices kill plants with kindness.
Insurance or W-9 paperwork that takes more than a few days to produce.

If you are comparing us against another bidder right now, our vendor and procurement page has the paperwork, and the leasing vs. buying guide covers the pricing structure question every evaluation hits next.

Free scorecard

The Plant Vendor Checklist

The printable version of this article: every question above as a weighted scorecard you can run across three bids side by side, plus the red-flag list and the follow-up questions for references. Built for the next vendor review on your calendar.

Evaluation questions

Put us through the checklist

A 30-minute walkthrough, straight answers to every question above, and a plant-by-plant proposal with pricing on paper.

Call: (404) 937-6056
Email: service@atlantaworkplaceplants.com