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Spring Greening

(page 2 of 2)

The Farmer’s Daughter
716 Mooresfield Road, South Kingstown
792-1340, thefarmersdaughterri.com 

Best for: Annuals, perennials, containers, shrubs
If yours is a weekend visit, go early in the morning. The Farmer’s Daughter caters to new as well as seasoned gardeners, and its clientele is ever growing. The flats of vegetables and flowers (elusive white cosmos were here last spring) are among the healthiest around and the quickest to disappear. The nursery prides itself on unusual plants and unique combinations, so custom containers, designed to thrive all summer, are lush and colorful. Native plants are also gaining momentum. And talk about helpful: Shrubs and trees are segregated according to sun or shade (a real boon for neophytes). Gardeners are encouraged to bring photos if they need help choosing for a specific site. One more thing: The grounds, in addition to greenhouses, include vignettes filled with outdoor furnishings to inspire your garden design. Ask the informed staff about their hands-on classes.

Island Garden Shop
54 Bristol Ferry Road, Portsmouth, 683-2231, igsinc.com

Best for: Hanging baskets, annuals and perennials
Even before you’re out of the car, you’re likely to spot the jaunty hanging basket you want. Velvety petunias, trailing lobelia, ivy geraniums, verbena, nemesia: The choices are dizzying, which is why East Bay gardeners dash here at the first sign of spring. But there’s no need to hurry. The robust custom baskets, including shade candidates such as fuchsias and ferns, keep coming. And the long tables laid with annuals and perennials remain well supplied for weeks and weeks. With so much razzle dazzle out front, it’s easy to forget the shop’s menu also lists handsome house plants, shrubs and trees not spied from the road.

Redwood Nursery
2664 Grand Army Highway, Route 6, Swansea, Massachusetts
508-379-0081, redwoodnursery.com 

Best for: Annuals, perennials, trees
In business for almost thirty years, this congenial stop is popular with many of Rhode Island’s top gardeners. More compact than some others, Redwood takes a different approach, filling their yard with plant material and garden accoutrements such as fencing and swing sets, all of which can be ordered and customized. The practical mix allows homeowners to gauge how they might best incorporate similar structures, and in what style, into their own gardens. Hunting and pecking through the lush green offerings, we found some interesting fruit trees, including custom grafted apples, which bear not one type of apple but several. There were also several pretty espaliered Fujis (popular as a dessert apple) that would look fantastic along a city fence or country wall. No surprise, a stout Leyland cypress—we’d searched all day for one—finally turned up here too.

Sylvan Nursery
1028 Horseneck Road, Westport, Massachusetts
508-636-4573, sylvannursery.com  

Best for: Trees, shrubs, heaths and heathers, large projects
This 300-acre nursery caters primarily to professional landscapers. Their 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday hours reflect this focus, as does the customer service. Come with a plant list or a specific plan, and you’ll make the most of your visit. A knowledgeable staffer will take you via golf cart to locate your selections. If you’re window shopping or the nursery is busy, you may also be turned loose with a map. The choices are staggering. Unlike retail nurseries, which tend to feature plants when they’re in bloom and, thus, more attractive to buyers, the best time to shop here is mid-April to mid-May before the landscapers descend. If you’re looking for large trees (say a fourteen-foot weeping cedar of Lebanon) and shrubs for an instant mature-garden look, this is the place. Take home some evergreen heaths and heathers, and you’re guaranteed color almost every month of the year. 

Schartner Farms
Route 2 and 1 Arnold Place, Exeter, 294-2044

Best for: Starter plants, annuals, perennials, shrubs
Schartner’s may be increasingly known for their berries, pie, jam and fries (made from their own potatoes and cooked on the spot), but plants also continue to be at the forefront. Every spring, Schartner’s greenhouses are filled with umpty-ump rows of healthy seedlings. Hundreds and hundreds of teeny herbs, vegetables and flowers are set out in the greenhouses for customers to peruse. Before you can actually transfer them to the garden, you can tote the beauties home. That way, when temperatures are warm enough for planting (typically around the third or fourth week of May), you’ll have a head start. Window box plants, particularly geraniums, are also available early in a variety of sizes and colors. And, of course, there’s plenty of nursery stock, from shrubs (hydrangeas sell like hot cakes) and fruit trees to large-size evergreens. (See “Shopping Days,” page 49.)

Allen C. Haskell Horticulturists
787 Shawmut Avenue, New Bedford, Massachusetts,
508-993-9047, haskellnursery.com

Best for: Topiaries
What other nursery has welcomed Jacqueline Kennedy, Martha Stewart and Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands? The renowned plant man Allen Haskell, who died in 2004, was largely responsible for launching the wave of popularity that swept topiaries around the world. Legions of pristinely clipped myrtle, lavender and rosemary in various sizes are still here to delight. The meticulous six-acre nursery—often touted to be part botanical garden, part museum (the buildings are on the Massachusetts Historical Registry)—continues to be a Mecca for serious gardeners who come simply to drink in the beauty. Twelve greenhouses, including several Lord and Burnham glass structures, exude personality. In one, lemon trees bloom beside a rippling fountain. In another, dozens of flats hold mini sprigs of rooting holly. If you can pull yourself away from the topiaries, there are also outstanding hostas, rare trees, shrubs and container plants.

Tranquil Lake Nursery
45 River Street, Rehoboth, Massachusetts
508-252-4002, tranquil-lake.com

Best for: Daylilies, iris
According to the literature—although we’d guessed as much—this nursery is the largest grower of daylilies (did you know there are nocturnal varieties?) and Siberian and Japanese iris in the northeastern United States. It’s also been chosen by the All American Daylily Selection Council as a test site for cultivars. And, on top of that, it’s a Regional Daylily Display Garden for the American Hemerocallis (daylily) Society. Eight acres of fields and several more of gardens afford visitors the chance to put names to faces. If, say, you’ve long admired crimson ‘Black Pearl’ in photos, now measure how it fares in person. Out of some 3,600 daylily varieties—old familiars and new introductions—the only problem is keeping the buying list within bounds. Next to such extravagance, you’d think the nursery’s troughs of rock garden plants would pale. But these petite treasures—ones like dwarf jack pine and wine leaf cinquefoil—are also worth considering. Check out the plentiful perennials (many drought resistant). And don’t neglect the greenhouse. (See “Shopping Days,” page 49.) 

Umbrella Factory Gardens
4820 Post Road, Charlestown, 364-6166

Best for: Hanging baskets, annuals, perennials
This quirky stop has a huge following, and it’s not just for its unique setting or its noisy peacocks. Gardeners head past the gift shops to the nursery for the bountiful and diverse mix of annuals and perennials, including many cultivars new to the market, and the generous hanging baskets, which sometimes sport a combination of cascading plants with a single color theme. One basket of begonias, unusually big and bright, would light a dim porch all summer. A Providence designer who is also an accomplished gardener shared her list of recent purchases with us. Among them: long-blooming ‘Heaven’s Gate’ coreopsis, ‘Blue Eyes’ nierembergia, ‘Orange Gnome’ lychnis (a hummingbird favorite), ‘Sweet Kate’ spiderwort and ‘Jason’ caryopteris. Consider the sedums and the aquatic plants, too. The urns and pots — and there’s a goodly amount—are utilitarian and stylish.
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- April, 2008

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