I live about an hour from Raleigh, but go there often to buy plants. My favorite place is Plant Delights nursery on Sauls Road. It is a little outside of Raleigh. It is a mail order nursery, but they have about 8 weekends a year that they are open to the public. The owner, Tony Avant, is a well recognized horticulturalist, teaacher, plant developer, etc. The gardens there are fantastic, staff very helpful, and a good variety of unusual plants. Check out the website. The catalog is so entertaining that I leave it on the coffee table for months. I've also had good experiences at Taylor's Wholesale. They have a great variety of plants. Hope you get a chance to try one of these.
PersonGardener

Garden Supply Company on Old Apex Road in Cary has lots of ornaments, furniture, garden art and funky stuff that I love. Plants--good variety of what's popular/hot.

Market Imports at the NC State Farmers' Market in Raleigh has lots of garden stuff to browse. Then, the plant-sellers at market have interesting choices.

When there, you're not too far from Plant Delights -- as PG said -- they are only open on certain days during the year, so it takes planning to go to PDN.

You don't say where you're driving from. There may be other places along your route.

I wrote an article (link below) about some of the NC nurseries.

Here is a link that might be useful: Locally Grown-Nurseries in NC

wonbyherwits -

I've always loved that screen name, by the way. Maybe you should do an article about overzealous gardeners who then have to try and sell their house to "normal" people. ;)

My screen name is the registered name of our adopted, retired racing greyhound "Won By Her Wits" (aka 'Charm').

Good idea for a story!

Cameron

Logan's is my favorite garden center--centrally located (near downtown Raleigh, just off Peace St.), locally owned, friendly, always interesting. It's in an old train depot, and has a grand assortment of perennials, annuals, shrubs, trees, pots, ornaments, tools, etc. You can have lunch in their cafe as well.

The State Farmers Market (Lake Wheeler Rd, just off the beltline) is always fun, too. Lots of individual vendors plus the Market Imports store.

And check the newspapers for seasonal sales--e.g., the Wake Garden Club's annual spring sale (the absolute best source for azaleas), the NCSU Horticulture fraternity's sale and Raulston Arboretum sale, etc.

If you find yourself anywhere near Chapel Hill, Niche Gardens and the NC Botanical Gardens are definitely worth a visit. The Botanical Gardens has a big sale every fall, plus some plants on offer all summer. Interesting seeds, too!

Logan's is my favorite garden center--centrally located (near downtown Raleigh, just off Peace St.), locally owned, friendly, always interesting. It's in an old train depot, and has a grand assortment of perennials, annuals, shrubs, trees, pots, ornaments, tools, etc. You can have lunch in their cafe as well.

The State Farmers Market (Lake Wheeler Rd, just off the beltline) is always fun, too. Lots of individual vendors plus the Market Imports store.

And check the newspapers for seasonal sales--e.g., the Wake Garden Club's annual spring sale (the absolute best source for azaleas), the NCSU Horticulture fraternity's sale and Raulston Arboretum sale, etc.

If you find yourself anywhere near Chapel Hill, Niche Gardens and the NC Botanical Gardens are definitely worth a visit. The Botanical Gardens has a big sale every fall, plus some plants on offer all summer. Interesting seeds, too!

Thank you so much for suggestions! I've heard of Plant Delights and Niche... Some of the others are new to me. I'm going to try to visit each and every suggestion!

I'm coming over from Southern Maryland... My sister lives in Cary. Now that I'm only 5 hours away from her... I'll be visiting over some of my 3-day weekends. Perfect for making some "plant runs"...

I'd love to go to the Botanical Garden fall sale. I was a volunteer at the Huntsville Botanical Garden in Alabama. Their Spring sale was PHENOMENAL!

Garden Supply Company sounds like a great place to check out... You can never have too many garden accruements. (big grin) Besides... Hubby said BABE... PLEASE STOP BUYING SO MANY PLANTS! He didn't say ANYTHING about garden art and embellishments... (wink... wink...)

Fuquay-Varina's very nice Garden Hut on Holland Road has some of the best ornaments for the garden. Plants are everything the usual gardener wants (I've been doing this a while, so its getting hard to be "different" for me!) Things are in good shape. I find that I always end up back home for purchases because the prices are generally better than Garden Supply and even Fairview, and the plants are frequently bigger. Also--if you go during an off time, you can literally talk their ears off and learns TONS. And if they don't know--they will hit the reference books for you. IN my experience, Fairview and Garden Supply are likely to have the newest thing or some odd items.
Niche Gardens near Chapel Hill is WAY out in the country--but if you are looking for a rarer native or special thing, it is worth the scenic drive and the absolute quiet of getting there. I always treat myself to a special outing to Niche in the spring or fall when the weather is good---and throw in a side trip to Benjamin Winery nearby.
Good hunting!

Since you are coming from MD then you will be going through Raleigh - you could hit Homewood Nursery and Garden Center on the north side on Honeycutt Rd ......

Lynne

Fairview Gardens on Holly Springs Road is definitely worth checking out. Also, Family Home and Garden on NC 55 in Apex has a ton of garden nick nacks, pottery, and plant material too. What fun for you, exploring all new places!

Niche Gardens is selling some plants at the Fifth Season store in Carrboro, so you can buy a few plants without the country drive.

For variety of perennials and herbs, BB of Sanford cannot be beat by any of the above mentioned. It is an unassuming place, very reasonably priced with extremely knowledgeable personnel. They have tons of tasteful ornamentation, as does their sister shop, Garden Market in Spring Lane shopping center in Sanford.

I also like Niche Gardens very much and anything sold at the Botanical Gardens (UNC on 15-501) These places have the unusual, but also very focused on native plants and zone friendly cultivars. I've never had anything fail from these places. From my experience, this is not at all true re: some of the pricier, more glam garden centers mentioned

Camellia Forest is another one of this same ilk worth visiting.