Landscaping - mulch at nursery v. Home Depot

Is the mulch you purchase at a nursery a higher quality (last longer and looks better) than the mulch you purchase at a Home Depot or Lowes?

My friend likes hemlock mulch and persuaded me to purchase hemlock-$40 a yard. It is not dyed-it is a red-brown color. It is a little red for me so I am considering purchasing pine mulch which is less expensive and brown in color. If I decide to purchase pine, I am trying to decide if I should buy it at the nursery or Home Depot. I bought mulch in the past (I don't remember what kind) at Home Depot and it faded to a "dirty" looking color.

Thanks

Unless dyed, mulch will change color as it ages. You can cultivate it (stir or turn it) to freshen it as time goes by, but it will eventually brown out. How 'brown' the mulch is when you purchase it tends to be from how long it's been aged. You don't want freshly shredded mulch, but one that has been aged about a year.

Newt

Mulch from a big box versus a nursery etc has to be looked at very specifically.In my area the local big boxes of various color schemes carry the exact same mulch as some of the local businesses because these companies buy from sources regionally close to stores to lower transportation costs.You have to find out who carries what.

There can be a quality difference."We",the people I work for.did some looking into big box mulches and soils compared to what we had available to us.The soils they carried,and sold for what amounted to their cost to get you in the door,were of poorer quality than ours.The mulches were the same product.

So it does vary and requires actual comparison to know for sure.

While I'm not sure on the quality issue, I do have a trick that we do with mulch. We like the color of the more expensive mulch from our nursery so we use the Home Depot less expensive mulch on the bottom layer and then add the nicer stuff on top. Saves a little over time.