Nurseries

[April 30th, 2008]

Artemesia Garden Nursery & Gallery

This well curated shop specializes in medicinal greenery but offers select organic gardening goodies in addition. The assortment is modest, but it’s a warm, welcoming nursery where you can count on getting the attention you need. It also functions as an art gallery on the side. (JG)

Bloomtown Nursery

Bloomtown is garden designer Darcy Daniels’ labor of love, with a mix of rare and more-common perennials, grasses, trees and shrubs. The secluded space is shared with the Bamboo Craftsmen Company, truly a panda’s wet dream, with a bamboo nursery that carries more bamboo varieties than you knew existed, and a terrific custom bamboo woodshop. (LK)

Buffalo Gardens

A wonderful neighborhood nursery for the Alberta District, the recently rearranged Buffalo Gardens now houses a small retail space for seeds, hand tools and organic fertilizers in the nursery’s “Japanese Tea House.” Outside, the sizable and diverse plot is filled with popular greenery like herbs, passionflowers, tulips and currants. (LK)

Drake’s Seven Dees

There’s a little bit more room for plants to breathe, out by the Maginot Line separating Gresham from Portland. With a meticulous garden supply and home trinkets section—and a mammoth lot chock-full of annuals, perennials, fruit trees and shrubs—Drake’s is well worth the hike. Don’t forget to sign up for the nursery’s Gold Leaf Club to get extra discounts. (LK)

Everybody’s Garden Center

Like the Costco of local home gardening suppliers. If this gargantuan warehouse by the Southeast Portland railroad tracks runs out of what you’re looking for, you probably needed too much of it. Everybody’s specializes in tools, hydroponics, natural pest control, organic nutrients, soils, fertilizers and lighting equipment, but there’s also a small selection of pre-grown plants, like venus fly traps and six-foot ponytail trees. (LK)

Farmington Gardens

Known for its huge yet smart selection of robust plants, the majority of which are grown on the premises, at notably reasonable prices. A go-to retailer if you’re looking for Japanese maples or tomatoes. In May, it carries 75 varieties of tomatoes (most $1.49). Come back at summer’s end and educate your palate at the Tomato Festival, 11 am to 3 pm Saturday, Aug. 30. (SS)

Garden Fever

Garden Fever is like a gardener’s hall of mirrors. Just when you think you’ve seen the entire place, turn the corner and there’s an entire vast new section to explore. On top of the impeccably organized walls o’ seeds and gloves, you’ll find a fully stocked library, housewares, a tool section and one of the city’s most expansive outdoor nurseries. (LK)

The Garden Spout

The brilliant staffers at this slightly hidden but entirely awesome indoor garden shop will blow your mind as they talk about hydroponics the same way Quentin Tarantino talks about movies. They stock just about every nutrient or additive you could ever need, and the back demo room has all kinds of delicious veggies and herbs growing under bright lights. Don’t be shy—ask for a sample. (LK)

Green Source

If you’re knee-deep in a remodel, Green Source will help outfit your dojo with the latest green building supplies, from Marmoleum to glass tile, Eco-timber floorings, and Green Planet Paints with ancient Mayan pigments. Stroll to the back of the shop and you’ll find a wealth of hydroponics systems and eco-friendly gardening supplies, too. (LK)

Hollyhocks Garden Essentials

They don’t call it Hollyhocks because it sells Xboxes. Throughout the year, Hollyhocks sells gifts for the gardener, local art and sundry objects of cuteness. But beginning in late April or early May, Hollyhocks begins stocking its namesake: the biennial, Asian Hollyhock flower, usually in pink and yellow varieties, for about 3 bucks a pop. (LK)

Livingscape Nursery

This quaint and friendly neighborhood nursery is stationed in an old North Portland house with a strong selection of fruit trees, vegetables, native Pacific Northwest plants and small housewares. It also offers regular Saturday morning gardening workshops. But the best part? The tool shed in back, where you can score real baby chickens for 5 bucks a peep! (LK)

Pistils Nursery

Many visit this bright gardener’s paradise for its plants, from hard-to-find sedums to tall, stately stands of bamboo. The rest come to eyeball the chicks—adorable, fluffy, nonstop-peeping baby chickens the shop sells to Portland’s exploding population of urban chicken keepers. Most of Pistils’ truly stunning selection of plants are grown in the Willamette Valley, and 25 percent of the stock is sprouted at the shop’s own PDX grow site. There are workshops, too. (KC)

The Plant Peddler

Counteract your nights full of cigarette smoke with the incredible, oxygen-rich air in Ken Blackburn’s luscious East Burnside houseplant shop. For a small place, the Peddler stocks an exceptional variety of tropical greenery at fair prices. And don’t worry about killing your purchase—he’s happy to give you a tutorial in how to care for your new greens like a small child. (LK)

Portland Nursery

A veritable forest of plants and garden accessories, the Portland Nursery is a perfect resource for botany enthusiasts. It’s also great for someone who knows exactly what they want: a mandarin orange tree, for example, or organic mugwort seeds. (JG)

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