Questions we’ll ask you when you’re at the nursery

Regardless of whether you are looking for trees or shrubs, there are a few questions we will ask you when you’re looking for our help or suggestions…

If it is shrub related we will ask you which is more important: looking acceptable in the winter? or looking spectacular in the Spring? What I mean by that, is most of the prolific bloomers in the Spring and Summer are also deciduous and look fairly ugly during the winter. On the other hand, evergreen shrubs are ho-hum compared to their crazy blooming cousins during the spring. However in the winter, since they keep their leaves, they look acceptable. So, if it is the front of the house then we will recommend that you have a combination of the two. Some evergreens at the foundation, up against the house, and then some fantastic blooming plants in front of the evergreens. That way there will be a very nice show during the spring and the summer and then during the winter when the blooming plants are resting your evergreens will still be plugging along, holding their own and ensuring the house still looks ‘alive.’

Other questions will run along the lines of drought tolerance, sun or shade exposure, your willingness to do periodic maintenance (i.e roses), height, width, deer and rabbit resistance. Don’t even ask about gopher resistance – although we do have new fangled, stainless steel gopher baskets that we are affectionately calling “planty hose.” The similarity is obvious after you have seen them. In fact, here is a video showing off our new, improved (and cheaper and longer lasting) gopher baskets.