I don't own a nursery so do not have a website but as one who purchases plants in large quantities from a variety of nurseries I will tell you what I appreciate in a professional nurserymans website.

1. most importantly the updated weekly and or monthly availability list .
2. ease in using the site and its ability to down load quickly.
3. detailed information - not necessarily on the weekly availability list, as that slows down the process, but on another page a description of the plant, a photo if possible and the growing criteria.

I use San Marcos Growers, Monterey Bay Nursery and Suncrest's websites when sourcing out plants for our installations.
Also Emerisa Nursery website is coming in very handy too.

For pure pleasure seeking, Annies Annuals website is delicious to browse and learn from , but because I don't use a lot of annuals in our design installations I don't rely on this great little nursery + website for serious trade shopping.

I love Annies Annuals too! So clever!
I'll have to think about my other favorites though, hmmm....
susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Annuals

I don't own a nursery either, nor have visited many (if any at all) nursery websites. But I can tell you what makes for a good website:

1) The layout must be clean and simple. It doesn't mean that it has to look simple, but making sure things are lined up or arranged nicely makes for a less cluttered-looking website, plus it's easier on the user to use.

2) Consistency: it's good to have some change as you progress through a website (i.e. not everything in the same window, etc. etc) but having too many different layouts for different pages can get confusing and very cumbersome for users to adapt to. Menu bars which jump around from place to place get really annoying.

3) Colours: nothing garish! No hard-to-read colours, no garishly bright backgrounds, etc. Consistancy of colours between pages helps create a sense of continuity, whereas slightly (not totally) different colours can create different "sections" within the page.

4) Accessibility: you should be able to go from any page on the site to any other page without having to go through more than 1 or 2 other pages (preferably no more than 1). It decreases the time that people spend navigating through your page, and also makes it a lot less confusing in general.

5) Update! Update update update! If you create a section, don't leave it as "Section under construction!" for months. If you are creating a section that will be taking a lot of time to finish, sometimes it's best to not upload it until it's fully completed.

6) To Flash or not to Flash? If using Macromedia Flash intensively throughout the site, make sure that they aren't unnecessarily... flashy, i.e. not too much movement, flashing in general, etc.

My favourite website (to date) is The Phantom of the Opera (the movie) website. It's quite Flash intensive, but done very well. The colour scheme is rich, opulent, and most importantly, very easy on the eyes.

-Audric

Great suggestions, Audric. I would definitely second #3, the garish colors and fonts. I also would stay away from black background- hard on the eyes.
susan

I have created and maintained a nursery website for a couple of years now. Audric has many good suggestions.

If you are doing it yourself I recommend the following;

1) KISS - "Keep it Simple Stupid!" Whatever us web designers might think, what people actually want is a simple easy to read and navigate layout that doesn't take ages to load and allows them to get where they want with the minimum number of mouse clicks. Flash and other whizz bang stuff is fine if you are advertising web design but just plain distracting or irritating for plant enthusiasts! I recommend simple easy to read fonts not too big and not too small on a plain backround.

2) Keep the site and plant lists updated regularly. I do this at least once a month.

3) No advertising, and certainly NO POPUPS!!. Again distracting from what you actually want visitors to do which is come to your nursery or buy plants online!

4) Photos sell plants - invest in a digital camera with macro lense for closeups. Use clickable thumbnails in plant lists.

5) Have some freely available educational resources.

6) Keep the design personal - you dont't want it to look like it came from a cut out and paste corporate design. I also think personal bio's, stories, photos of your garden etc. help people identify with you.

7) Going back to 1 and 2, keep in mind that a simple design is easier to maintain, especially so during the growing season when time in front of a computer keyboard is (thankfully) scarce!!

Hope that helps and good luck.

Vouts