Nursery Tour in Austin

CLOSED, unless people who came on the tour wish to communicate.

DG Friends:

A group of us have started talking about a summer, week-day "Nursery Tour and Lunch" in Austin.
You may read in the thread "Texas Statewide Round Up in Photos" to see what we have discussed thus far.
We have NOT decided the date (a week day in June, probably) or exact schedule, but thus far people have thought about 1 morning nursery, lunch, then 2-4 in the afternoon, with anyone dropping out of the caravan as needed due to time constraints. You might want to weigh in here with your thoughts, then we can tally the votes and carry on from there. I volunteered my house as a meeting point, and there is parking there for about 5-6 cars if we decide to carpool in large cars or SUV's (provided enough room is left for our all-important purchases!!) and leave other vehicles for the day.

Nurseries to consider thus far that have been mentioned by posters:

NORTH
Red Barn ( loads of everything; helpful staff) HWY 183 N

CENTRAL
Howards (family-owned since 1912; great staff) 111 E. KOENIG LANE, between Lamar and Airport Blvd.
Gardens (very specialized/ modern/ small; quite expensive but great fun to look; great store attached) 1818 W. 35TH
wwwgardens-austin.com; close to good places for lunch in the Medical Center area: La Madeline; sandwich shop with Italian Gelatto next door, ...just to name 2
Shoal Creek Nursery: one acre of "unusual plants"...I have never been here!

WEST (WESTLAKE)
Pots and Plants (lots of pots and plants! :) 5902 BEE CAVE ROAD
Barton Springs Nursery (natives, garden gifts; helpful) 3601 BEE CAVE RD.
(This area is also close to great places to have lunch: Suzi's Kitchen for Asian; McAlister's for sandwiches; FreeBird's for custom burritos; (all 3 of these are next to one another, and nearby is Amy's Austin Original Ice Cream!!) in another area is La Salsa for Mexican and a sandwich shop, and there's a Marble Slab near these 2)

EAST
Big Red Sun (Austin's newest of the best) 1102 EAST CAESAR CHAVEZ

SOUTH
Great Outdoors (Merredith--a guy--is manager and a great help!; huge place) 2730 SOUTH CONGRESS
Emerald Garden (specializes in water gardens--I haven't been in 10 years) 5700 WEST HWY 290
Natural Gardener (organic headquarters--great help from John Dromgoole himself most times) OAK HILL
It's About Thyme (herbs and more) 11726 MANCHACA RD.
Marbridge (1 acre of plants; "lowest" prices; roses) FM 1626 MANCHACA; www.marbridge.org
I don't know about LUNCH possibilities in these SOUTH locations.
Floribunda (added by Bigbubbles) SOUTH LAMAR

LAKEWAY OR DRIPPING SPRINGS
Sunshine Nursery (2202 FM 620 South or 333 HWY 290

? AREA
It's a Jungle (added by Bigbubbles)

For time's sake, I would suggest not going to the NORTH or LAKEWAY locations as the time expended in travel (no one wants to travel 183 in the morning, noon or 5:00!) would not be as efficient as visiting many that are closer.

I'm in a hurry so will post this and then edit later.

Connie







Connie

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This message was edited Jun 27, 2006 9:36 PM

Is there still a Red Barn nursery on Slaughter Lane? I used to go south on I-35, exit on Slaughter, and stop at the Red Barn on my way over to Manchaca Road.

Hmmm....sounds like a great idea except a weekday trip would probably be out for me. I have statistics class all summer until mid-August.

Kim

Thanks for starting the thread Connie. My vote would be for the North, Central, east and south nurseries because those are the ones I have not been to. That doesn't narrow it down much, but that's because I'm only excluding the ones that I have been to. Well I guess I'm excluding them also because I can get to them easily and not get lost.:)
Patricia, do you think you can do this tour? Which ones would you choose?
BTW I have driven by where the Sunshine Nursery was on 290. It's now a bakery or something. If they have a new location, I haven't seen it. Where is FM620?
If getting to the Red Barn is going put us in a traffic jam and waste a bunch of time, then we probably should drop that one

hey I found the thread.

I work the grave yard shift and my days off (my saturday and sunday) are durig the week, tues. and wed. mostly. I would like to nursery hop around and meet new friends.

My issues are:
best days for me wed. or thurs. since on tues. I am trying revert back to 8-5 schedule.
Kiddo's school ends May25 and wifes school ends around the 10th of june.

I would like to take the family if possible, I would like for my wife to meet everyone also (get her involved too, in my life) and if so I would drive my own car. Since my wifes family is in Austin we would probably just spend the night there and meet where ever.

Will keep trying to watch this thread to find out the final plans.

Hope to meet some DGers soon.
Take care everyone, got to go and get some sleep before going to get the kids.

If I don't post any re[lys on thisplan before the final date comes could someone dmail me so I can ink it in my calendar?

Nivlac,

Someone will D-mail everyone who has posted on the thread with the final plans after all the votes/comments are in.

Count me in. I live a few blocks from Connie in Lakeway, and I have quite a lot of parking area available, so we could meet here. I have a Dodge SUV, and my husband has a 4-door Ram Pick Up. Either of these would accomodate several other people, with lots of room for plants.

Sheral

This message was edited May 4, 2006 7:24 PM

Thanks Connie for starting the thread! I'm game for any day during the week except Tuesdays.

patrob, the Red Barn on Slaughter/35 closed last year. The only RB left is the one up here at 183/Spicewood Springs/Pond Springs.

I also vote that we skip RB on the tour b/c it is way out of the way from the other nurseries.

Michelle

I'd love to come to Austin for the nursery tour and will if my schedule allows. LOL I have little schedule now that I am fully retired, but Robert, my DH, will see an orthopedic surgeon in two weeks to see if and when he will have shoulder repairs.

I hardly ever find a plant place I don't like, so I am ready to tour any. Even if I have been there before, I don't have ALL their plants yet!

I agree that picking nurseries not too far apart would be good to allow more time for visiting and looking at plants.

Looking forward to this!
Patricia

Tomato and Patrob,

Glad you both intend to try to attend! Lily and I will both have parking available here in Lakeway, if that is where we decide to meet. She and I both just in the past few months started on our gardens and can certainly use advice you may offer if you see them in person! (See Lily's post just yesterday in the Garden Design aka Curb Appeal forum?)

Looks like we might have about 7 people thus far.

Connie

maybe, probably me...let me know when ya'll finialize the dates, times, etc. I can usually combine a trip to Austin and accomplish several tasks in a trip. Somebody may have to dmail me and remind me to look back on this thread. I will probably meet you at the garden stops to lesson the parking problems. I usually have alot of expensive computer equipment, etc in the trunk and kinda need to keep an eye on the car when I travel and the car's a toyota.
Debbie

A nursery op sounds like fun (like I need to go to any more nurseries?), but June is the craziest month of the year for me. I've only got a few weekdays where it's a possibility, but if it happens to fall on one of those, I'll be there!

My two cents about Gardens (the store): I have a hate/love relationship with the place. The plants there tend to actually not be hideously overpriced, and they typically have a lot of unique plants. On the minus side is that everything else, while lovely, is priced only for people with Donald Trump-sized wallets. The staff also tend to be not-so-friendly and the parking situation is abysmal (blind turns in and out of a busy street into a tiny parking lot).

Tomatoholic-I don't think I ended up replying to you in that previous thread, but we do live close, and yes, we should get together! I admit I've been peeking at your pix in the tomato forum and looking at your EB with much curiosity and maybe a touch of envy.

Ampy,

I agree about Gardens, yet despite all the trouble (parking IS the worst!!) I find myself returning for the beautiful plants, if only to look at the latest and best. I, however, have received GREAT service--people willing to answer my every question despite the fact that I rarely buy there! I'm sure it depends on the day, time of day, person working that shift, etc, although a truly good nursery should be consistently helpful.

I visited the link to your photo collection and wow...was I impressed! I love your two little doggies, the beautiful pics of your plants, (that collection with every square filled but one looks like a POSTER! :) and the humor added in with some of the captions (the "visitors" to your garden, for one!)

Look forward to meeting you if you are able to attend...or later!

Connie

Connie

ampy, any time you want to swing by...feel free. I can dmail you my ph# if you'd like just so you can make sure I am home before you stop by. The EB has been terrific for me so far. Where is your photo collection? do you mind posting the link so I can have a looksee?

Michelle

ps. Debbie...you'd better come!

Well...it wasn't noticed that I said I would (other than by you Miichelle) so maybe I should just skip this one. Perhaps its preferred Austinites only...Michelle, you know I will dmail you next time I'm up that way. :) Debbie

Naw, Deb...it's definitely not just for Austin folks. At the last one back in July, I think I was the ONLY Austin person at the tour. Maggiemoo may remember better than me?? Anyway...I think you'd have a blast. We'll have to see if Hornstrider will join us. He is busy moving his business right now so I have not heard much from him lately. What kind of Toyota do you have? I have a Honda Pilot and can take lots of peeps in it.

OH Gosh..another storm comin' thru. I prayed for rain...and boy was it answered!

Michelle

Thanks Michelle--I dmailed you our storm damage.............but come August, we are gonna be out doing the rain dance!

Horns' got a good idea about maybe having a little "party" when I come up to get the pup, which sounds like a good idea. That way we could visit and fall mater plant swap and visit more relaxed rather than race around town to hit 4 nurseries in one day. He has been busy lately, hope he escaped the storm damge and his tomatoes are OK. I know he's worked sooooo hard to get a good crop! I sent him a bunch of different kinds of basil seeds and he let me know they arrived...you needing any? My basil seed cup runth over...LOL

By the way, if you want any of the plants I have...now's the time to let me know so I can get them to root for you by June or July. Go to my homepage and my images and look at that tall cigar plant...they make great fall bllomers (mine will bloom cont. from now till frost), no care plant, that the fall migration of hummers goes crazy for them and they handle full sun at laugh at the heat.

Debbie

edited to add: my car is a 2004 Toyota Corolla Sport. It was given to Robin by my dad in San Antoine but since my car was a 2001 Malibu she gave her newer car to me and took my Malibu. What a kid! I don't know how I ever got that lucky! Michael's got a nice Ford truck but he's gonna be gone most of the summer working gun shows up there in Ted Nugent Country...Michigan, Minnesota, etc. (he hates it when I equate his business with ol' Ted--so I do it at every opportunity I can!) Late in the summer we will fly up to Montana and Wyoming where I grew up...that's always in August...when its miserable down here!

This message was edited May 6, 2006 6:57 PM

I got your dmail Deb.I replied.

anyone else in Austin watching their gardens float away in this rain? Our backyard is full of water and it is draining thru my peppers and herb and then makes a river thru the maters. very upsetting. I sure hope they survive.

oy vey. when it rains, it pours. haha. I may only have two plants that survive...the two in the earthbox!

Michelle

After last nights storm my maters look like somebody took a weed eater to them.:( My alstroemeria was almost ready to bloom and all the bloom stalks are broken now. I was really looking forward to seeing the flowers. This is the first spring for that one. Myprincess flower is all broken. I don't know if it'll come back or not. Most of my hostas are pretty wholey now. I did put my agapanthas in the garage last night. Both of them have bloom stalks this year. I feel so honored. I am surprised by the roses I still have though. Those are really tough flowers.

I'd like to join your tour of nurseries. I live between Pots and Plants and Barton Springs Nursery, right off Loop 360. Another nursery you may consider is "Floribunda" on S. Lamar. It's kind of "cutting edge, urban gardening" type nursery......couch made of plants, etc! And maybe another time..."It's a Jungle" which carries mostly roses and orchids. It's further north, tho.
As for the rain, we've had over an inch this evening and a little more than that last night. We've been looking into a rain harvesting system. Kills me to see all that water shoot over the hill!

Welcome Bigbubbles! Wow all these nursery names are giving me the itch to go plant shopping. But I'll have to control myself, so I'll have money to go on the tour.:) It's a lot easier to stay out of the nurseries when I have so many plants on my patio that it's hard to walk. I could have planted some yesterday, but I was afraid they would get bombed by hail, so I kept them in the house. I need to put them back outside, but I don't trust the weather yet. Tomorrow I'll really be itching to get out there and plant and it's probably going to be too wet. Might be a good time to pull weeds though. I really need to pick up branches that the storm left on the ground. And the oak tassels are all over the sidewalk. It's so thick you can't where the sidewalk ends and flower bed begins.

thanks silverfluter...we have a lake place at Sunrise Beach and we're dreading going up to check on it...looks like they got pelted pretty badly the last few days. Hope we have a roof! Our little house sits out on a peninsula and I've seen the lightning arc from lake, over house, and to cove....but my husband thinks I dreamed it! Since the Memorial Day flood, I won't stay there overnight during a storm...if possible...

Welcome aboard bigbubbles!...Dave's is wonderful place...I've been told about Florabunda nursery too...good nurseries travel fast thru the Lone Star State. A friend brought me a small pot back from there to put pens/pencils in on my desk at work (all the pens/pencil holders at our house and at work are small flower pots!). I vote for that nursery too.

Siver--I'm with you--got woke up this morning for the second Saturday in a row by thunder so loud it rattled the window glass and set off every house/car alarm in the neighborhood. Then spent 2 hours tying plants, vines up. And picking up all the blown over RU and my Friday night nursery "spree" plants and putting them upright. Needless to say, the RU plants and nursery plants are still sittin' on the back patio waiting to be planted. Then it got so hot and humid the atmosphere was downright "chewy" down here today.
Debbie

Yes I heard on the weather channel about your storms. Spring storms seem to be late this year. But I'm just so glad to have rain, I hate to complain. Everytime there's another storm on the radar, I think "Oh, OK. It's our turn again already? Well, thanks, but please be gentle." We looked at the radar about an hour ago and there were spots of storms that seemed to be headed toward each other. Interesting situation. HMMMM. The same thing happened a few days ago too.

I'm not complaining about the rain...after last summer's deficiet we need it. But I just want to sleep in tomorrow. I'm going to check the radar on TV right now. Thanks for the head's up Silver!
Deb

I got to sleep in this morning. It felt so good. It's been along time since I did that. I got up a 9:30. Couldn't believe I slept that long without the cats, the phone, or DH waking me up. Can't sleep late tomorrow. Church is at l0:00 and then we have to go to Lowes to buy glass block for the shower. Oh dear, do I dare go into Lowes? It's painful even going in there without buying plants or atleast pots. I need so many now because of all these hostas from the RU. Maybe I'll just let DH go alone.

Dmj1218,

You are welcome to park your car inside my garage during the nursery hop. It will be out of sight, and quite safe here in Lakeway. I hate to think of you driving it around so much, considering the cost of gas nowadays.

Sheral

Well thank you! It really depends on when we do the tour as to how much stuff of value it will have in it. I will probably stay overnight too so it'll have clothes, etc.
Debbie

Texas DG'ers...

I just added the nurseries mentioned by Bigbubbles (Welcome to DG! I'm fairly new myself! Hope to meet you at the NT!) to the list. I have also notified Dave and the office that I would like to change my user name to ConnieW. I wasn't thinking when I used my first and last names! So...if you see "ConnieW" in future, it's me! I don't know if they will make everything retroactive or just posting that occur after they make the change.

I too was amazed that a rose I recently bought made it through the pounding rains and it's filled with blossoms! Didn't know they were so resilient! (It's a Charisma floribunda trimmed into a rose tree that I bought at Home Depot--orange to go with my color scheme!)


Connie

Its retroactive Connie--

I vote for one nursery prior to lunch and one nursery after lunch. Less is better, in my opinion, so you have time to really check out a nursery and what they have. It also always for a more "leisurely" lunch where you have time to talk to people. Let's face it, nurseries I go to all the time. Getting together with DG folks is what its all about. Also, some of us would like to have time to swap a few plants, etc.

Just my opinion, and food for thought....
Debbie

Okay...here is a list of people who have thus far expressed a "want to come if I can!" for the Austin NT in June (Nursery Tour) which of course is open to anyone "plant crazy" enough to drive from who-knows-where! Aren't we all??!! :) After each name I will annotate what date would work or NOT work for each person, as we probably need to set one in about the next 10 days, yes?

If I have left out anyone OR your date preference needs updating, PLEASE D-mail me and I'll edit the list.

ConnieW: CAN'T DO JUNE 24, MY HIGH SCHOOL REUNION! :)
Lily 13: no preference as yet
Silverfluter: NOT TUESDAYS
Patrob: no pref as yet
Nivlac: WEDNESDAY OR THURSDAY BEST
Tomatoholic: NOT TUESDAYS
Blue-eyes: CAN'T DO WEEK DAYS DUE TO CLASSES
Dmj1218: no pref as yet
Ampy: no pref as yet
Bigbubbles: no pref as yet
Texascritter: no pref as yet
Louddigger: "TUE, WED, OR THURS WOULD WORK"
Ms_merae: MIGHT TAKE OFF FROM WORK
Luciludog: MIGHT JOIN US FOR LUNCH

It has been noted that the Natural Gardener and Emerald Gardens were visited last year, so they probably should be left off the list this year.

Silverfluter also opined that Redbarn (N. Austin) should be left off as it's too far from the others.

Any other thoughts, everyone?





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I am about to goto work,
shift starts at 2145(oops 945pm)

I have ordered several vines and the seeds have arrived. More than I can use of I get 100% germination (lets hope so).

I am in need of some latice and soon if anyone has any and is willing to trade for it for seeds.

If interested dmail me. I will try and post in the trade thread when I get a chance. Only have time for this post:)

p.s. hope to be able to meet ya'll next month. I am willing to travel a little distance from San Antonio to meet wherever.

calvin

Sounds like you guys are going to have a good time, we really enjoyed the one last year! After doing Nursery Dates in San Antonio, Austin, and Houston last year, I would have to say that I agree with Debbie. One in the morning, lunch, and then one in the afternoon works much better, as you don't have to spend so much time driving between and scurrying to get to the next one. Just my two cents, I know it's hard to just choose two nurseries out of everyones favorites. Maybe you could do two tours before the middle of the summer - one at southern/middle nurseries, another one at north nurseries.

Sorry I won't be able to make it, but just wanted to chime in.
:-)

I can go any day of the week. If you haven't been to Barton Springs Nursery, you'd probably enjoy it. Perennials, natives, gingers, bananas, palms, water plants...a little bit of everything. Their prices are reasonable. They have pricey Monrovias, but also small 4" pots at $1.50 for perennials and natives. And Pots and Plants is about 5-10 minutes away. You could easily do both of these in a morning, have lunch, and still hit another in the afternoon. 'Possibly The Great Outdoors on Congress...or Floribunda...or Gardens.

It's About Thyme and Marbridge are close enough to do in a morning also.

I go to these all the time, but would love to meet other DGs, so I'm just throwing out suggestions...I'll go anywhere! I will offer my house for parking also. I noticed that people would be coming in from Houston,SA, and Fredricksburg. Maybe two locations might be more convenient. Sandi

Also, when we are deciding who goes in whose car, we need to keep in mind that nurseries frequently have limited parking. Atleast at Pots and Plants and the Natural Gardener the parking was very cramped when we did the last nursery tour. So what is the parking like at the nurseries on the list?

Most nurseries have limited parking. I know the Barton Springs one does for sure.

Y'all folks in Austin getting used to being woken up in the middle of the night with wind gusts and thunder and pounding rain yet?

Michelle

SELECTION A: What do y'all think about this: Those who need to park their cars for the day meet in Lakeway at the entrance and will follow either me or Lily13 to our houses. Then we can go to It's About Thyme and Marbridge. Then lunch in Westlake. Then after...Barton Springs and Pots and Plants (they are less than 5 minutes apart, and also in Westlake). If anyone wants to drive separately, they can just meet us at It's About Thyme. If we run out of time, we can skip Pots and Plants as Silverfluter said they did this one last year.

OR...submit selection B and so on...

Connie

Thank you Maggie--I knew you would agree with me!

Count me out then...too many stops in one day.
Debbie

Well suppose we have 2 groups. We can have a group that wants to do Plan A and another group that likes Plan B. I think I would rather opt out for Plan B and spend more time visiting. Especially there wasn't much time to visit at the RU. No offense Dave and Trish, but alot of people even left before I had time to say more than Hello. I don't know that there's anything that can be done about that at the next RU, but for the tour I definitely want more time to talk.

Hi Everyone! I'm new to DG and attended the RU in College Station. It was such fun! I live near The Natural Gardener, an organic garden center that carries lots of natives. You won't want to miss this nursery. Check it out on line. http://www.naturalgardeneraustin.com/intro.html
You are all welcome to visit my garden if you have time.
If you need more info, please ask.
June Taylor