Kathy,

What city do you live in? I can recommend Skillins', Estabrooks, O'Donals, and Broadway Gardens here in Southern Maine. Longfellow's Greenhouses near Augusta is also pretty great.

Lisa

Plants Unlimited in Rockport is excellent. Also, the The Heirloom Garden in Montville has some very unusual old-fashioned varieties. You need to go early in the season, though, because their inventory quickly runs out.

I like Hedgehog Hill Farm in Bucksport, Jillson's in Sabattus, and Farmer Whiting's in Auburn is great when I need a quick plant fix. McLaughlin's Garden in South Paris for lilacs and sjade plants. Wake-Robin in South Paris is a terrific place to get beauties that are otherwise illegal like trillium and ladyslipper, but they have a very limited season for shoppers.

sjade=SHADE... I can spell, I just can't type!

Hidden Gardens in Searsport, Fernwood Nursery in Swanville (about 15 minutes from HG and specializes in shade plants especially hosta...excellent prices at both) Surry Gardens in Surry. Everlasting Farm (but they close early, the end of June) and Windswept Gardens both in Bangor.

Cathy

I like Sweet Pea Gardens in Surry. Sue is a wonderful hostess.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sweet Pea Gardens

Give Longfellows a try. They have some good stuff.

My favorite local nursery is Sunset Greenhouses in Fairfield, they have some fabulous house plants.

I like Robin's Flower Pot in Farmington. Robin was the landscaper for UMF and now has her own business which has grown a lot in the last 2 years. I think there are 5 or so large greenhouses and then a number of mini ones. All her plants are tended so well and prices are reasonable. Her webpage is at:
Robin's Flower Pot

I also like Brian and Cindy Tibbetts' place called Hummingbird Farm in Turner area. They grow some unusual plants and have some specialties. It's not a BIG place, though, where you can get all your gardening needs in one fell swoop. You can see their website at:

My favorite in the Greater Portland area is Broadway Gardens. The prices are reasonable, good choice of plants, although not alot of unusual ones. I've had very good luck with anything I've bought there. They also have great annuals at good prices. I go often just "to look around"...hee!hee!hee!

I have been to Hummingbird Farm once. I liked it a lot. They sell those signs in that pretty script that say "DIE WEEDS DIE" LOL... They have a nice cat too! That Blue Moon thing looks like fun.

Oops, I don't know what happened to my link to Hummingbird Farm a couple messages above! It was right when I first posted it and now it has gone weird and does not work. Anyway, since I am only posting the one link this time, I will post it below in the optional link section.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hummingbird Farm

Robin's Flower Pot in Farmington is a great source---Robin is very knowledgeable, especailly about palnts suited for Maine's climate, and sells nothing but quality. It's really worth your while to drive up here. (She's a really nice person, too!) I used to love Gingerbread Farms in Wayne, but have not had good luck with them lately---too many mislabeled plants. I really hate it when I want something purple and it turns out to be red, especially when it's a pricey perennial. I have had good luck with plants from Longfellows in Augusta, even though their prices are high. And just to spend a few hours wandering around their vast greenhouses is pure bliss for this gardener!

May have to visit a couple of these this weekend. Frequent Longfellows as it is only a couple of miles from my house! That is dangerous to the wallet!

Not sure if I would call it the best, but it is close to home for me and has a good selection. Good discount on everything at open house at end of June.(25%) Day before Fieldstone this year. I went to both, and bought a few plants at Blueberry that I knew would be about $2 less than at Fieldstone. Not as great a variety, but I have found things here I haven't seen elsewhere locally, such as a lead plant 2 years ago and some kind of pea bush this year.

Here is a link that might be useful: Blueberry Ledge Farm

Rocky Ridge in Orland, Surry Garden in Surry, Hidden Gardens in Searsport, Fernwood in Swanville, and Everlasting Farm in Bangor for perennials. Know most have been mentioned before but these are my favorites too. Ledgewood Gardens in Orrington and Enchanted Gardens in Brewer are where I get alot of my annuals.

I have heard of Surry Gardens quite a bit, maybe I will have to 'visit' someday to check them out. I really have no favorite, I love to visit them all, never know what you may find!

Heres a link to Surry Gardens

Here is a link that might be useful: surry gardens

I am headed to Old Orchard Beach for a few days we are leaving in the morning, I will definately keep my eyes open for greenhouses, maybe even look in the Portland area on the way home. I love finding the unusual plants.

My favorite is Provencher's on River Road in Lewiston. Nice people and a great selection of plants - one year warranty on everything.

Garden Spot Farm in Pownal is just down the road from my house, and they're absolutely awesome in the spring, but by mid-July their inventory is just about gone.

Rocky Hill Nursery on River Road in Brunswick also has a nice selection.

Wow, what a small world. I live about 15 miles from Surry Gardens. I am amazed how many people responded from Maine. Hello to you all. A sad FYI. Rocky Ridge has gone out of business this past Spring. It was my favorite spot. Happy Gardening!

Visited Gingerbread Farm some years back- they had a bunch of roses on display and everyone of them was misnamed. Not exactly their fault - they had bought from the same wholesaler who supplies Wayside Gardens and the same mistakes cropped up. But I was concerned that they didn't seem interested in correcting the mistakes. Hope they have mended their ways.
For those in southern Maine, Green Mountain Transplants is now in Biddeford. They are still getting up and running but they should be in good shape by next spring and they have great values.

I think the very best greenhouse there could ever be would be the one in my own back yard. I do think that everyone should have their own green house either attached to their home or have methods to garden year round.

I think more people should venture to grow their own by seed rather than buy finished plants. Thats like adopting an 18 year old child...The are immancipated by the time you get them!

To truely have a spiritual enlightenment or to experience a profound and extrememly satisfying task, one must take the challenge for at least one committed season to grow and try to self sustain oneself in ajoyous celebration of trying!

One of lifes greatest treasures is to hear a story about a 30-60 foot tree and the "I remember when it was a small sapling!"
Get your selves into the winter sowing forum prior to the winter solice ....or you missed out on what its all about! Well actually thats not true it goes on and on over there....in the middle of the summer there is discussion on winter sowing!

AlSo if you wnated to best of healthy and strong plants for 2005 Season. Grow using advise from the soil and compost forums and please try out organic gardening methods...the real ancient methods when growing was an art and not a science.
And you all should be collecting your seeds now for next year. Bring in your plants that will keep in a window until next Spring when you can put them out again. Some afternoons even in the middle of winter will be warm and sunny enough to take all plants for a sunbath and then bring them in prior to them stressing out.

I really have a difficult time praising garden centers, when I know that if you just follow what trudy says in the winter sowing forums they you can grow just about all your own plants for next year. There are those seeds that may need specific stradification requirements. But overall....come on lets grow a little!

Sometimes elementry schools will happily take free potted plants to care for in thier many windows and such manicipalities and offices. And when school is out retrieve and stick it in the ground again...

Sad to hear about Rocky Ridge, was one of my favs. Didn't get out there this year so wasn't aware it had closed.

I understand the place has closed but that the services are still available?! He always spoke of closing,However, I wouldnt be surprise if they didnt pop up again in the future.

Or, how about Tufts Perennial Farm & Greenhouse in Minot, Me
Hehehe
We have Orange Meadowbrite Echinacea and Paradoxa Echinacea this year. We also have the Endless Summer Hydrangea. Come see us !!! We give a free plant on Mothers Day, and will have a drawing for a free Hanging basket weekly.

As I used to reside in Portland, I used to go to Skillins and Broadway Gardens. After a while, all the varieties seems the same though. I still make the trek to O'Donall's because of their great tree varieties.

Since moving to the foothills, I've found some real treasures. Rippling Waters, an organic farm off Route 25 just before the Saco River, has a great variety of the healthiest plants I've ever seen. Finally found some heirloom varieties I'd been hunting for.
Off Route 11 in Limington is Steeplebush Farms, which has some wonderful unusual varieties that I haven't seen elsewhere.

Longfellows in Manchester, bar none!

I would choose McGlauflin's Perennials on Rt #9 Lisbon Falls not just because I own it.
We are not a huge garden center but do have some of the more unusual/new perennials. Field dug and/or potted. Also a few annuals as filler type plants.

I worked at Estabrooks in Yarmouth twenty years ago and bought a lot of my plants there. They have many varieties. My friend I worked with at LL. Beans owns Rocky Hill Perennials in Brunswick which is a zone warmer than where I live and she tries some neat stuff so I buy a lot from there and give her stuff from my gardens in private to try. I do not have enough to go into landscaping like she does. The other place I go to is Skillins in Brunswick for the supplies for gardening are great like at Estabrooks and different things for plants can be found and gardening classes are done there. Those are the three I mostly go to now. Another place is only selling irises and day lilies at certain periods on Park Street in Auburn, a private home and her name is Joan Moore. Last year killed many so she did not sell any but her displays are beautiful.

and lets not limit ourselves to greenhouses and nurserys, what about those one or two day special sales like Fedco's on May
6and7 from 9-3 in clinton, or the Quoddy Regional Land Trust yearly plant sale that is usually held on the first saturday
in june at the Whiting community building .Nice surprises
there and the prices cant be beat.

I have never in my life seen a more efficient and gorgeous greenhouses as I did this last wednesday at the home of Barbara Damrosch and Eliot Coleman...I think the combination of ornamental and veggies looks like true artistry with the idea of giving each plant attention, growing directly into the earth, and the soil is made the way mother nature teaches.

As stewarts of the earth or husbands of the land, we have a responsibility to support and purchase to support each other. When the economy is in need of being tightened please get rid of the worse of your "because I dont have time". Now because you cant afford a trip 2 a year, you will have to stay home this summer and hand care for your garden instead of hiring someone to do it for you. If you dont know how to garden then join a garden club with your now newer new time and learn how to garden the way that "The higher powers to be" would demand.

The worse excuses are the ones that say..."I have to work, or I have children" its those people who need support and should still be afforded a garden of food for one year each year and I say the worse excuses because it is an excuse that is used at a very vulneriable and stressful time period.

Shared gardening, we will see more and more of in the coming years.

My personal wish for everyone in the worlds is that we all get to experience the joy of eating veggies and fruits out of your own garden with out the need for outside help!

I tend to leave town often for business and find I still dont have the luxury to be free enough to ever experience that goal of gardening to support my family for one full year at least for the next 12 years. Then let me tell you....I hope I can stay healthy and strong because there is a lot of goals I would like to accomplish yet in life and homeschooling always comes first, so the pace of dreams has slowed and changed with the arrival of child care, and raising, and trying to incorporate all those pipe dreams into a everyday reality.

First step- compost. there are a million ways(compost), just do it- Use what ever you can that you feel will contribute to the healthiest fruit you could imagine, a fruit that has a nutriental value only privildged to those who can grow and eat the food with no fear of any toxic leechment, overspray, chemical additive(s), fungicide, miticide, herbicide, or manmade synthetic fertilizers Second Step- just do it

etc., and etc.,.

Build yourself a greenhouse and then post a picture of it here on this thread! That would truely be the best greenhouses in Maine!

Storey's Garden Center on 302 in Westbrook across from the Drive-In movie theater is THE place in southern Maine for the average homeowner. Their selection of varieties is reletively standard, but their arrangements can't be beat - especially for the price! They also are #1 for mulch delivery, and have a full offering of landscape services - plantings as well as weekly maintenance.

Storey's Garden Center
610 Bridgton Rd.
Westbrook, ME 04092
207-797-2677

Here is a link that might be useful: Storey's Garden Center

check out Primo restaurant in Rockland (or look at the pictures at www.Primorestaurant.com)

Here is a link that might be useful: Primo restaurant

Bill, I sure have missed you! I haven't seen you since Soil, Compost and Mulch. So? You're still at Primo? Did you know a friend of mine's daughter who worked there, I believe. Tara?

I'm new here, and mostly a gardening novice, but so far have found truly healthy, hardy treasures at Hidden Gardens in Searsport, Plants Unlimited in Rockport, Fernwood in Swanville (best shade garden stuff ever!), and Everlasting Farm in Bangor, which was open later than June last year - hope it's a trend! A hidden treasure: Hutchins (SP?) nursery in Eddington on the Bradley Rd. - a sweet little Irish lady, Mrs. Hutchins has lower prices than most, and her perennials, while mostly in their infancy, are healthy as horses. At the end of her season, prices drop to the nearly giveaway level.

I'll have to check out Hutchins. I've driven past it. I also like hummingbird something or other in Holden. Every time I shop there, the owner gives me a complimentary plant.

Ooops! apologies to Mrs. Hutchings - I spelled her name wrong. Just visited the other day - lots of goodies there!

Garden Spot in North Pownal Maine is the best by far. Great prices and selections.

Springvale nurseries has a great selection of beautiful plants and a wonderful staff.

Also a fan of skillins in the Portland area. And Spragues in Bangor.

I looked at this thread before spending a weekend in the Blue Hill area. I accidentally found Surry Gardens when we were driving back from Ellsworth. Coincidentally, someone we knew who is now living in Ellsworth stopped at the same time and walked right by our car so my husband hollered to her. We had a nice visit. I was very happy to find some nice looking broccoli seedlings. A worker thought the ones I had picked were too large and sent me to a greenhouse where younger seedlings were located. I bought both 6-packs. It was 4th of July weekend and I guess a lot of summer people in that area were just putting in their gardens. I keep eyeing Blue Mouse Ear hostas and thought the plants there looked really nice at a fair price. I don't really have a spot for them right now but I checked at a local nursery and found the plants weren't so nice and were a few dollars more.

The Garden Spot in Pownal is awesome! Great prices and knowledgeable people! It is my Happy Place!

Fieldstone Gardens in Vassalboro. My all time favorite in almost 50 years of gardening.

A (very) short drive from S. Berwick, Maine is Wentworth Greenhouses in Rollinsford, NH (Dover). They are open 7 days a week right through the winter months. I visit often when I need a green fix. Also, they are extremely dog (leash) friendly so you can bring you're buddy along.

I WOULD NOT recommend Surry Gardens at all, I spoke with "the owner" last year personally who told me prices I wrote down as we spoke and assured me he had a large selection, when I arrived "that day two hours later", 2 hour drive one way from my place, I gathered the plants we spoke of and they were double what he told me 2 hours before and said the sale didnt Include them...no I didn't make any mistake and he tried to back peddle and would not honor the prices he told me. We got nothing but attitude from his employees and it felt like a cartel run operation. There is no question his poor attitude runs into the veins of his workers as they all seemed miserable to be there. We left without buying a thing and will never go back. We are professional people and to be treated as we were was beyond unacceptable and it was deceiving knowing we were driving so far and he assumed we would buy things regardless.