I would like to have lemon and lime trees in my balcony, as well as other fruits and herbs suitable for the Taiwanese climate. Lemongrass, lavender and rosemary would be nice.
Any suggestions what plants to buy, and where to get cheap but healthy specimens? My local Costco was selling small lime trees for $650 but they looked like they had seen better days.
Should I also bring them in, in the event of a typhoon?
In Taipei, 建國花市 (Jianguo Weekend Flower Market) on the weekends, under Jianguo Elevated Road, near Daan Park, will have all of that, at probably the best prices, and plenty of selection. I bring my plants in when there’s high winds/typhoons, but they’ve also been fine when the temp plummeted a few weeks back (most plants you buy here supposedly can’t handle below ~16 degrees)
See this thread:
Edit: also here:
Nurseries all over Taiwan. Fruit trees are common and cheap. You should be able to find good varieties pretty cheap. Avoid the big box stores, their stock is usually trash, possibly diseased, horrible soils and poor varieties. They are sold to office people that will replace them throughout the year.
The mecca is Tianwei south of Taichung for nursery plants. Taipei a distant second. If you arent around those spots, every town has a nursery and most can order stuff.
small citrus plants are around 100nt for standard commercial varieties, for example. Bigger plants go up quick.
I bought my lemongrass and kefir lime tree on shoppee from a place in yilan. Arrived next day via black cat. Good way to order soil too
Hi there,
I’m a bonsai enthusiast looking for small trees, shrubs, plants suitable for bonsai. Jianguo flower market has mostly plants that have already been worked on. I’m looking for raw plants that I can work on myself.
I’m in Taipei. Hopefully there is a nursery in the city but I’m willing to take a field trip. 
You can contact forestry nurseries and have them shipped. the only issue is most are wholesale only. if you know what you want, and only need a few, nurseries can order for you. the main issue is its sight unseen, and with bonsai you probably want to see each plants’ form, as well as root structure. in that case you are stuck paying more at nurseries and searching longer.
Taipei has a lot, but the real meca in Taiwan is central west Taiwan in a place called Tianwei. it is the main plant hub of Taiwan. it is also setup as a tourist retail destination. but you can talk to big growers there and make wholesale arrangements easily 
alternatively, there are numerous bonsai clubs you could join and network that way
Hi Explant,
Thank you for the information. I can see a trip to Tianwei is in my future. Looks beautiful.
Hi Bree,
I’ll have a look at Shoppee. Is there an English version? If not, do you navigate with Google translate or similar?
That reply wasn’t for me. 
Sorry.
I do my searches in Chinese. If I don’t get the term just right, I can click on the product that is the closest match, and it will give me suggestions that are closer. I use Google translate if I need to.
Often English versions of apps don’t give the same shipping options, prices, payment methods as the native app (like Pinkoi).