Full-Service Nurseries

This week, another full-service nursery closed its doors.  Capitol Nursery announced that the Freeport Boulevard store in Sacramento would be closing.  Why you ask, is that a problem when you can buy plants practically at every store in town?  Full-serve nurseries are getting harder and harder to find.  Yes, a person can go to a big “box store” and purchase plants with no problems – or so some of us think.

I laugh when I talk about going to H*D* to look for a plant!  I laugh because I joke I can buy what I need there as long as it’s a petunia and I want it in any color.  Folks like me don’t want what everyone else is growing; I want color and texture that is different from my neighbors.  I guess what I mean is that although my next-door neighbor loves palm trees and has roughly 10 in his yard, I don’t want one.  Why buy a plain old run-of-the-mill Boston fern (Nephrolepis exaltata) when for the price of shipping I can buy Nephrolepis exaltata ‘Suzi Wong’.  Look at the two and there’s no other choice: the bright green foliage hanging straight down to length of 2 feet and the minute, mini leaves looking as though made of lace.  The foliage looks almost fake – you know the plant is of man-made silk. 

Growing plants that are a little different has become my hobby.  I go to various nurseries when I visit friends and relatives back East just to find out what’s available elsewhere.  I’ve found through my readings and “field trips” that some plants are horrible pests – on no plant lists –but here in California, we plant them with great abandonment.  One such plant is the ‘Butterfly bush’ ( Buddleja spp.) which Fine Gardening Magazine practically insists is taking over the world.

Would I get this information at a “box store”?  Nope!  As a matter of fact when I tried several years ago to purchase nine Berberis verruclosa or Warty Barberry at my local box store, I was told “nope, won’t grow

here as they grew in zone 9 and that wasn’t Fairfield’s zone.”  I had to remind the clerk that yes, there would be no leaves on the plants (it was winter after all), but I also had to explain the difference between the Sunset Western Garden Zones and those of the USDA.   That was the second clerk as the first clerk I went to then promptly looked at his watch and advised he was going home! I ended up purchasing from the great nursery in American Canyon!

Any way, remember to buy from our full-service nurseries, principally local but don’t be afraid to venture afar for plants especially house plants.  You get grade-A plants and the advice that can be the difference between success and failure!

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