60 Plant Foundry
June 24, 2022
62 My Waiting List
July 22, 2022
Greenhouse Garden Center
2450 S Curry St, Carson City, NV 89703 • (775) 882-8600
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AP and I first visited Carson City’s Greenhouse Garden Center in 2019 as part of our South Lake Tahoe area nursery tour. But that entrance and that sign in the parking lot! I mean, where’s the name of the nursery? Crazy! Why hide who you are when you are this F A B U L O U S ?!
When it comes to using plant carts at nurseries, sometimes AP and I share. Other times it’s “get your own!” At Greenhouse Garden Center, we shared. The place just has that “let’s be fabulous together” sort of vibe!
We came upon this impressive eagle and stood there probably too long “oohing and ahhing.”
We’re like that sometimes when something grabs our attention. Instantly we become oblivious to our surroundings.
The eagle is attached to a pedestal behind its left wing. I imagine seeing it installed high up in a tree as if swooping down majestically. Amazing!
We eventually snapped out of eagle-hypnosis, and AP set this gorgeous Pyracantha on our cart. She chose it for its intense orange berries. OMG, it was stunning!
Pyracantha ‘Orange Glow’ (Firethorn)
Sadly she killed it before a year was up. Well at least she had it to enjoy for that long. Sometimes for whatever reason a beautiful thing lasts for only a season…so appreciate NOW whatever beauty you have.
Like me though, AP moves on quickly after a death because we’re always on the hunt for the next new spectacular thing to take home.
Like this…
Pinus mugo ‘Carstens’
One of the great things I like about Greenhouse Garden Center is that it’s rare plants and large shrubs—which most nurseries offer only in 2 to 5-gallon pots—are in 1-gallon pots at really good prices. (Remember “buy ’em young and cheap and watch ’em grow.”)
That Pinus mugo cost only $16, and its 1-gallon size fit on our crowded cart just fine.
Yes, Mugo Pines are slow growing, but being small, I was able to shove it in the garden without disturbing its neighbors by needing to dig a bigger hole.
BTW it keeps that chartreuse color all year long. Love love love.
Have you ever had Brunnera dreams? I have. During my “all-things-garden” tour to London, I saw so many huge stunning Brunneras—which do really well because of the weather there (otherwise known as “moisture”).
When I came back, I tried growing big Brunneras, but I was stupid back then (otherwise known as “bringer of death”) and by the time I wised up I didn’t have space enough to try again.
Which is why at Greenhouse Garden Center I immediately snatched up this small Brunnera that grows just up to 1-foot tall and wide.
Brunnera macrophylla ‘Variegata’
My mind’s eye though sees a 2-foot backhoe bucket coming near it soon to dig a hole for a new tree, and I may have to move my little Brunnera temporarily out of its way.
I also added this chartreuse-leaved Brunnera to our cart.
Brunnera macrophylla ‘Diane’s Gold’
It grows low to the ground at just 8-inches and has now grown to about 2-feet wide. It has blue flowers but I don’t care as much for them as for the huge chartreuse leaves it bears ALL YEAR. I have it tucked near the base of a Lemon Cypress where I can spot it from certain angles while walking the garden. Love love love this plant.
Here’s another favorite that made it onto our cart and which I featured in posts #16 and #44. OMG I absolutely love this plant. And it’s in the perfect container.
In container: Symphoricarpos x doorenbosii ‘Kolmgala’ (Galaxy Snowberry)
Those are some highlights of our 2019 visit.
Just recently (2022) I made a return visit to Greenhouse Garden Center. Why?
There’s this crazy lady I’ll call Annie (Hi, Annie…) who had to wait a couple years for me to come and design her landscape which is 2 hours away on the other side of a major mountain range and IN THE DESERT! I had designed a couple other landscapes for her but closer to where I live.
She had to wait all that time because (my excuses) I’ve been busy making other gardens beautiful—one garden at a time—on my side of the mountains and doing it in a tired old car I didn’t think I could push up and over to her side.
But crap, I forget sometimes that many clients also read my blog, and after Annie read about my new work vehicle, she immediately called to say I had no excuse now and that I should find the time to make the trip. Lucky for her my calendar did have an opening. Lucky too that I happen to really like Annie.
So off I went across the High Sierras in my new van which performed perfectly. And boy did that port-a-potty come in handy during my 2-hour trip!
Got to Annies place and, on the spot and with time to spare (because I’m that good), I designed her a new yard.
Then, ready for the return trip, my brain-GPS lit up. Greenhouse Gardens Nursery was on my route home.
So of course I stopped, as I always do when a nursery worth visiting sits on a path I’m travelling.
Here’s a shot of the entrance today. Still no obvious nursery name!
The results of this visit in which I got a whole cart to myself? That low-growing Brunnera under the Lemon Cypress? Meet its new neighbor.
Cotinus coggygria ‘Lilla’ (Lilla Smoke Bush)
You didn’t expect me to pass up a plant with leaves of THAT color did you!? OMG it’s a beautiful little thing—a dwarf form of the common ‘Royal Purple.’
Lilla grows to a nice 4-feet wide and tall. And now I have just the right spot for her too. Not that I had one when I bought her. But the perfect place came to me just now while I typing these words! That’s how I roll, Readers! Sometimes I buy with confidence that the plant—or my plant-brain—will tell me what to do with a nursery beauty I can’t go home without.
Now writing one week later, Lilla lives next to my Diane’s Gold Brunnera. Chartreuse and burgundy. Can’t go wrong combining these two.
Next on my cart? Since my business cards and website feature a daisy flower…well, need I say more?
Leucanthemum x superbum ‘Betsy’ (Shasta Daisy Betsy)
You know I’ve got an eye for the unique and the rare, and in all my travels I had never seen this particular geranium (below). So you know it’s VERY rare and I had to have it.
Geranium pratense ‘Double Jewel’ (Cranesbill)
I was drawn to the wispy white blossoms at the ends with hints of purple at the centers. And I hope I don’t have to say it, but this geranium is NOT an “old ladies” flower either.
Double Jewel is a small perennial at 15-inches tall and 18 wide. As I put it on my cart I thought, “I’ll probably design this into a container.” But one week later…nope. As you can see (besides that I need to do some deadheading) it went into the ground next to my Japanese Ribbon Grass. Inspired pairing.
I also added to my cart this Geum which is about half the size of the ‘Totally Tangerine’ Geum I propagate every year.
Geum TEMPO ‘Orange’
Its blossoms are double ruffle with a tad bit of creaminess, and it grows to a neat mound of 15 inches tall and wide. Geums are another plant I collect because its flowers speak to me. Just look at that photo. Can’t you hear it too?
Hibiscus moscheutos ‘Luna Red’
Also on my cart? Well duh! Red is my favorite color and I do have a Hibiscus collection that always needs new additions. So Luna Red, 2-feet tall in a 1-gallon for $14.99? A cinch!
Hey Annie, you know that money you paid me for journeying across the mountain tops and into the desert to design your landscape? Some of it went to Greenhouse Garden Center!
And the folks there will thank me again when you hand them the plant list I drew up for you and say, “Fill up my cart, please!”
