I just got an ad for a new plant nursery in San Antonio. Very surprised! I think of local plant nurseries the same way I think about local brick-and-mortar bookstores...something going away, disappearing. Now I wonder if local plant nurseries could survive and thrive. Maybe! Anybody think they will?

There are quite a few local nurseries doing very well near me.

A lot of these locally took a big hit from the freeze a couple of years ago. I would hope they can make a come back. San Antonio is too far away for me. I've not found many good ones in this area. Cooks Nursery in Nacogdoches is decent sized but most of their plants are routine. I always look for uncommon plants. Too many offerings are box store type plants.

I don't really think of big box stores and groceries as nurseries.

I agree but I always walk thru them so am aware of the generic types of plants they stock. I'm disappointed when I see those same plants in true nurseries.

If you make a trip to the new nursery in San Antonio, I hope you report back about the tour. It is fun to visit even vicariously.

IMO, any store that retails off the shelf plants is a retail resale store selling items they probably obtained wholesale from a nursery. A nursery usually does the same sort of retail business, but may also have more esoteric varieties being offered. A nursery also usually has areas of 'not for sale' things which may be propagation areas, a sick bay area for plants that may have a disease or insect problem which they are treating, sometimes an area for seed propagation and areas consisting of plants for a landscaping service they provide which are not for sale to the general public. I think there are specialty nurseries which grow wholesale to supply the retail trade which don't have much variety in that they may concentrate on a minimum number of plants to grow for distribution for the retail market. Not fun to browse in due to the limited variety, but I still consider them nurseries since they actually are actively growing the plants.

It's nurseries that combine retail and growing that also have interests in esoteric and uncommon plants which make them the most interesting and fun to browse - and often the most expensive for a purchase. The wonderful markets that @Kaktus visits and posts about are probably a combination of retail only and also outlets for nurseries. In the context of a market with many outlets and retail enterprises represented, it's close to the best of both worlds. As well as a huge temptation to overspend a budget .

That is a good definition/clarification of the term "nursery". We have all of those different retailers in this area.

How about 'Garden Center' vs 'Nursery'? Both supply a home gardener with wants/needs. I think a garden center would mostly be retailing plants grown and obtained from nurseries. They also carry plant related supplies like fertilize, mulch, potting soil, insecticides, fungicides, soil amendments, containers, plant stakes etc. I think a nursery focused on growing plants is less likely to be carrying those items for retail sales. Mostly they would have them for their own use in growing plants.

Many of the big box stores refer to their plant related departments as Garden Centers and certainly are not nurseries so that definition seems to hold true too.

Interesting discussion. I do agree.

There is a commercial nursery a few miles from me. He is not open to the public. They grow landscape shrubs and ferns and sell to retail businesses in Houston.

I always marvel at the types of plants marketed thru the box store "garden centers". Many are not suited to this climate. That does not stop them from selling nor uninformed people from buying those plants.

I do like to look at the nursery plants being propagated. That is inspiration for coming back to shop there again.

pod said:
I always marvel at the types of plants marketed thru the box store "garden centers". Many are not suited to this climate. That does not stop them from selling nor uninformed people from buying those plants.

Yes, that's true. On the other hand, I'm always surprised at how many people purchase a plant as a temporary decoration. They aren't really interested in growing it long term. The plan from the beginning is to dispose of it in the - usually- not to distant future. So how suitable a plant is to an area is not a consideration. The plants are on death row anyway. Lots of blooming orchids and other plants sold around Valentine's Day and Mother's Day fall into that category. Also mums and poinsettias fall into that category. Those are just living decorations and when the blooms are done they hit the trash bin.

I hadn't thought of it that way. Disposable plants. Sad but true I am sure.

And I guess one could say most are on death row anyway. Many times I have seen succulents in pots with no drain hole and they are standing in water.

Yeah, I suspect the death rate is pretty high for plants being sold, regardless of the intent. From the time of leaving the nursery to the ultimate destination (and beyond) is probably pretty high. I'm still smarting from the losses this summer from worms and excessive heat. Some plants that didn't survive had been here a few years and I was expecting a few more. Still have too many plants, though. Now I have empty containers for new plants. At least that's one supply I won't be needing to purchase soon.

Yes, I feel sad for the plants being planted around shopping centers and in road medians that I know are only temporary ornamentation.

I am new to group, we moved to Wylie three years ago and still fighting to grow proper grass and plants. We have the dreaded Bermuda grass, can I over seed it with another kind of grass for the heat? we arrived just in time for the winter storm and extended periods of heat (we are from Colorado). everything we had in the yard died last summer, any suggestions would be helpful- we 60+ so must take it slow.

to NGA @ahsanhasan

I'm two counties east of you. Last summer was awful. Hopefully it will not be that bad this year. You never know. It's sure not ideal gardening/growing in this area. Good luck! And, again, welcome

uh, Donald? Wylie is east of you - you are west of Wylie. Eastland county is on the Caprock and desert side of DFW, Wylie is on Lake Lavon and the grasslands east of Dallas??? bermuda comes back with water and heat, other grasses? stay away from Johnson grass, shudder, other grasses don't do as well as bermuda and you won't have coastal bermuda - you will have a more golf course type variety of bermuda if you are in city limits anyway. I do believe you are also still on caprock, though a bit more wetter than Donald. Lots of storms roll across DFW going east along the red river and I20 areas.

You are correct, Kat. But when I hear about Wylie in this area, I'm thinking about a well organized and well defined, unincorporated community in Taylor county in the southern part of the city of Abilene. I drive through it occasionally and its name and signs for it are posted everywhere. The Wylie school campus is a really large one. As many people do, I think of it as separate from Abilene itself. It makes the news in this area regularly. If someone mentions Wylie around here, it's usually about that Wylie, not the DFW area town. I guess it's more of an Abilene suburb.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Your post title caught my attention, even though I'm not in or from Texas. I used to work in retail nurseries, what you call Garden Centers and I'm always interested in finding more. They're my favorite place to visit when I go to other states. So many outside California seem to be retail/wholesale. I truly love the ones that combine a decent retail area with color, supplies and ornaments and a big growing area that has lots of variety. It helps that what's common elsewhere is unique and different to me.
We used to call those full bloom, super nice-looking plants "Martha plants", since they appealed mostly to 'event' gardeners and not to people really interested in getting them to grow in their gardens permanently.
We have a few retail/wholesale, 'wholesale to the public' type nurseries around but the price for land is so high that every square foot must produce as much as possible to justify selling whatever is there.
The nurseries you describe are mostly on the outskirts of smaller cities or under power transmission lines where permanent buildings aren't allowed.

@CalPolygardener

"Martha plants" great name for them!!