of surveyed members successfully grew a new plant variety after following a Trubus care guide
2024 member survey, n=4,210Issue No. 178 — Autumn Edition
Join the growers who treat their garden like a craft.
Trubus+ is the inner circle of our 15-year-old gardening publication — a paid tier built for readers who want more than inspiration. More than 38,000 members use it to plan their season, troubleshoot sick plants, and read the kind of rigorously edited horticulture writing you can't find anywhere else on the open web.
No card required for the trial. Cancel anytime in two clicks.
By the numbers
94% of our members grow something new in their first season.
That's not a tagline — it's the result of a 4,210-person survey we ran in 2024. Behind every Trubus+ article sits a PhD-led editorial board, a 2.5-acre reference garden in Hood River, Oregon, and the largest verified plant database on the open web.
plant profiles with USDA zones, bloom times, and pruning windows — verified, not crowd-sourced
Largest verified plant database on the open webcertified horticulturists review every article before publication; refreshed every 14 months
PhD-led editorial board, 38 degreed reviewers2023 Garden Writers Association Gold Award for Digital Media — the category's top honor
Featured in Fine Gardening & BBC Gardeners' WorldThree ways in
How serious a grower are you?
Every Trubus+ tier ships with the full archive, the plant database, and the weekly Grower's Briefing. The differences come down to how deep you want to dig.
Seedling
The Monthly Starter
$9/mo
Billed monthly · cancel anytime
- Full plant database (12,400+ profiles)
- Weekly Grower's Briefing newsletter
- ZIP-coded Plant Care Calendar
- Browse the 8,700-article archive
- Seed Swap marketplace access
Best for: trying us out before committing.
Gardener
The Annual Plan
$79/yr
$6.58/mo · saves you $29 vs. monthly
- Everything in Seedling, plus:
- 30 days free before your first charge
- Full Soil Lab submissions (4 per year)
- Premium Seed Swap listings — front of queue
- Members-only deep-dive plant profiles
- Printable seasonal task lists
- Direct line to our Master Gardener Q&A
Best for: the serious backyard grower.
Master Gardener
The Annual Plan+
$149/yr
$12.41/mo · for the hands-on researcher
- Everything in Gardener, plus:
- Unlimited Soil Lab submissions
- Early access to trial-garden variety reports
- Two free printed Almanac issues per year
- Voting seat in our annual reader survey
- Invitations to Hood River field days
- Priority email response from horticulturists
Best for: growers who trial, document, and teach.
All tiers renew automatically. Cancel from your account in two clicks — no phone call, no email exit interview.
What arrives when you join
Six tools you'll actually use.
We don't bundle features to inflate a checklist. Each one of these solves a problem 1.4 million monthly readers asked us about — and the only reason they're gated is so we can keep the people who use them funded.
01
The Plant Care Calendar
Week-by-week task lists keyed to your ZIP code and frost dates — used by 217,000+ growers. Tells you when to prune the roses, when to start the brassicas, and when to hold off and wait for the soil to warm.
02
The 12,400-Profile Database
Every entry includes USDA zone, bloom time, pruning window, soil pH preference, and a "common mistakes" note from our horticulturists. Searchable by sun exposure, native region, or pollinator value.
03
Soil Lab Submissions
Mail us a cup of your backyard dirt. Our team analyzes pH, NPK, organic matter, and cation exchange — then writes back with a one-page, plant-specific amendment plan. 6,200 samples mapped since 2018.
04
Seed Swap Premium Listings
Our free seed-swap marketplace has 89,000 active growers trading 14,000+ heirloom varieties. Trubus+ members get front-of-queue placement and a verified-grower badge so your rare Brandywine reaches the right hands.
05
The Grower's Briefing
Every Sunday morning, our editors send a single email with one thing to plant, one thing to prune, one thing to read, and one thing to watch out for in your region. No upsells. No algorithm. Just one horticulturist's notes.
06
The Full 8,700-Article Archive
Every long-form article we've ever published — searchable, downloadable as a PDF, and cross-linked to the plant profiles it mentions. Master Gardeners also receive two printed Almanac issues mailed each year.
Recognition & standards
Quietly, the recognized industry standard.
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2023 Gold Award for Digital Media
Garden Writers Association — the category's highest honor.
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Featured in BBC Gardeners' World & Fine Gardening
Cited by both publications as a best-in-class horticulture resource.
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IAB-Certified Climate-Claim Transparency
The first gardening site to earn it — across 4,200 editorial articles.
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PhD-Led Editorial Board
38 degreed horticulturists and Master Gardeners review every article.
Letters from the field
What members grow back to us.
"My first Cherokee Purple came off the vine on August 12th, weighing nearly a pound. I'd tried for six years to grow one and failed every time. The Trubus+ pruning-window guide — not the generic stuff, the week-by-week regional one — was the difference. I cried at the breakfast table."
"I sent off a soil sample on a Monday, and a horticulturist wrote back by Friday with a one-page amendment plan for my dying hydrangea. The pH was wrong — wildly wrong — and nobody at the local nursery had thought to check. That shrub is covered in blooms this July."
"I listed a packet of Aji Charapita peppers on the Seed Swap last spring. The premium listing put me in front of fourteen growers in three days, and one of them — a retired botanist in Maine — sent back a jar of her own Granpa Admire's corn seed in trade. That's the community."
38,000 members and counting. Your garden is next.
Join Trubus+ — 30 Days Free