Venero Gardens on west edge of cities.

Here is a link that might be useful: Venero Gardens

I love Linders Nursery in St. Paul. It's family owned and has a large variety of plants including some interesting confers. It's also kind of expensive, I guess, but well worth the visit if only to see the place.

Tania

I did not know about Venero Gardens. Thanks for the link.
It looks interesting and I will plan a visit this spring.

I go to all the well known garden centers, Bachmanns, Linders, Dundee, Lynde, those named above and lots of others that I don't know the names of but stop when I'm in the area.

If you are looking for less expensive plants Linder's Flower Marts have half price and more off just before they take down their temporary greenhouse/display. Most of them are in parking lots near Rainbow Foods. In the fall many of the nurseries have good clearance sales.

Lynde runs a weekly sale on one plant variety.

Plan to spend some time wandering their display gardens. What a treat.! Don't forget to call for an appt.

I've never heard of a rare conifer that wasn't expensive. Frankly, when I picked up a gallon pot of Tsuga canadensis 'Abbot's Pygmy' for $18, I thought it was a great buy. Far less than if you were to buy it mail order. (The only other way you could get it.)

Venero Gardens is near me and just a few miles north of the Arboretum. They are very nice people and really know there stuff, but I guess you would call them expensive also. And yes, do call for an appointment.

Rick

I just moved back into a single family home that needs landscaping so I am definitely going to check out Venero. It looks like a treat.

When I lived in an apartment in Minnetonka I used to frequent Tonkadale Greenhouse.

http://www.tonkadale.com/

I live in outstate MN but make frequent trips to the metro area. I try to stop at Gerten's in south St. Paul, Otten's in Long Lake, Halla Nursery in Chaska and Bachman's.

My favorites are Linder's when they have they're half price sale. Also try Mother Eather Garden's in Mpls. More expensive, but, very nice.

I have gotten some nice dwarf conifers at Gertems, but you should check out Tangeltown for special items!

As mentioned above.

People seem to visit

i) Venero Gardens on west edge of cities.
ii) Linders Nursery in St. Paul

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Metro Forum

Linders is good because of all their tent locations in spring and their half off sale end of June. Their variety is often lacking though

Bachmans is a bit more expensive but has a good selection and lots of locations in town.

Gertens is where we do a lot of our purchases from. Excellent selection and wide range of plant varieties. And reasonably priced as well. Downside is you have to go to their greenhouse in Inver Grove Heights, but it's well worth it.

In the process of moving to MN.

Checked out the website for Venero and didn't seem like it had much for fruits and vegitables.

We're interested in edible landscaping. Do you have a recommendation for that?

So far, for the types of things we're looking for Gurney's has a good selection online, but a few reviews from buyers said they weren't impressed with the quality (but the prices looked good and they offered the ability to select plant gender for many that you could order)

If you're looking to go online, you may want to check out Jung. Unless Gurney's has improved a great deal in the last 5 or 6 years I wouldn't bother ordering plants, shrubs etc. from them. If you give us some idea of what area of MN you are moving to we might be able to give more suggestions.

A couple that may be out of your way but still a fun visit:

Busse Gardens in Elk River
Wayne's Nursery in Stacy
Green Barn in Isanti
Mickman Bros. in Ham Lake

There's a fun place in Hugo on Hwy 61 also, but I can't remember the name.

Linda

Which ones, preferagly west metro or north on Highway Ten have the best varieties of heirloom tomatoes?

Used to have ma and pa greehhouse in St. Cloud where they did all the potting themselves but like most good things in St.Cloud it went belly-up.

There used to be a guy (Jim Lee from Clearwater) who sold really nice heirloom tomato and pepper plants at the Buffalo Farmer's Market (25 mi out hwy 55 past Plymouth)-I don't see him listed in the vendors list for this year, but here is a Local Harvest listing-maybe you could send him an email or give him a call.
http://www.localharvest.org/lees-homestead-harvest-M10765

There is another one near Busse, in Zimmerman specializing in hostas, called Global Gardens.

Don't forget about the farmers' markets! Many are opening in the next couple weeks and have wonderful perennials, seedlings and all sorts of plants. In Monticello we have one vendor with many kinds of heirloom vegetables; it's me LOL.

Lester Prairie, Fred Holasek and Sons carries a lot of heirloom tomatoes and peppers. Hwy 7

Don't know if you are still looking, but the Friends School Plant sale is a great place to find great plants at a resonable price. The sale is always on Mother's Day weekend and is held in the grandstand at the Minnesota State Fair fairgrounds. For more information and to look at their catalog, google: Friends School Plant Sale.