Nurseries are sensory charging ports where color, fragrance and natural light cleanse souls and awaken a sense of peace.
A spiritual sanctuary of herbaceous and woody plants, stacks of crazy-cool pots and destinations for tool aficionados, nurseries are quiet zones, like library branches.
A nursery is defined by its neighborhood, with neighbors as the heartbeat. Sacramento is blessed with exceptional nurseries. Some focus on plants and plant products. Others offer plants in addition to outdoor furniture, grills and garden décor.
Box stores also stock nursery items. My experience is that expert care and knowledge is best served at your neighborhood nursery where there’s a connection to the natural world and nobody is buying a refrigerator or stacking roofing shingles onto pallets.
One morning, I scratched a few items on a notepad and drove to my neighborhood nursery. Needed were steel T-poles, strawberries, flat-leaf parsley and fertilizer.
A nursery list is always subject to change because those darn garden sirens lure us into buying more. We usually don’t mind. Anyway, resistance is futile. Endorphins, tickled by peptides, say it’s OK to fill the cart.
Navigating early-morning hoses and “Wet Floor” safety cones, I came across epic eye candy, the gorgeous Labella Grande Chocolate Apricot dahlia. Closer inspection indicated dahlias are back in a big way.
Attempting to refocus on my list, I encountered another stunner, the Aloha Kona Hulu Red, a calibrachoa that’s more of a mounding plant than the usual trailing growth habit.
Every nursery visit comes with distractions. You arrive with purpose but are soon lulled into life in the slowest lane. Nobody is in a hurry. Nobody wants to be rushed. What seems like 30 minutes becomes an hour. Distractions become therapeutic.
When beef and gas prices crush the budget, visit a nursery.
The antidote for an IRS audit is the nursery.
Flat tire? Call Uber and head to the nursery.
Surrounded by perennials, trees, annuals and vegetables, shopping begins with a search for the right plants, the perfect containers. Labels are inspected. Does the plant fit the space? Does it thrive in sun, shade or partial shade? Imagination assesses the outcome. When uncertainty arises, nursery staff can address concerns, offer thumbs-up or recommend another plant.
Staff are not the only second-opinions at nurseries. Fellow gardeners populate the aisles. If serious gardeners aren’t in their gardens, look for them at a nursery.
Admiring fascinating potato vines with lime green and blackish purple foliage, I look up and see Vanessa. “I’m waiting for Janet,” she says.
Both have plots in my neighborhood community garden. Both are terrific gardeners. Janet soon arrives and apologizes for being late.
Janet gave me a Black Prince heirloom tomato plant two weeks prior. Gardeners are generous with plants, time and help. Last spring, Vanessa’s two young sons helped me haul woodchips to pathways around my vegetable plot.
We chat awhile and resume shopping. By now, more folks fill the aisles, asking questions, evaluating choices. Conversations are easy to start at nurseries. Gardeners are curious, sponges for ideas and plants.
Searching for Albion strawberry plants, I happen upon another common sight—the nursery cat and then another nursery cat. Cats patrol for rodents, but mostly they are doted upon by customers. They seek out dry and sunny spots and nonchalantly provide entertainment and comfort for visitors and staff.
Leashed and behaved dogs are welcome at nurseries. Cats vanish under display tables until it’s time to reemerge and sprawl in another sunny spot.
My early morning morphs into mid-morning, so I head home and discover I purchased the wrong strawberry variety. I’m a victim of self-inflicted distraction. No problem. Tomorrow’s another day to visit the nursery.
Dan Vierria is a University of California Cooperative Extension Master Gardener for Sacramento County. He can be reached at masterg29@gmail.com. For answers to gardening questions, contact UCCE Master Gardeners at (916) 876-5338, email mgsacramento@ucanr.edu or visit sacmg.ucanr.edu. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram: @insidesacramento.
