Garden Nurseries in the Treasure Coast, Florida

Gardening in South Florida can be very challenging, especially if you are a transplant from somewhere else. So it's important to find wonderful local nurseries that will help you with the right gardening solutions . Here are my top three picks for the gardening hobbyists in my area of the Treasure Coast, Florida.

Ric's Garden World
35 South US Highway 1
Fort Pierce, FL 34982-6337
(772) 465-2224
Hours: Daily 9 am to 4 pm

Probably the easiest garden nursery to get to is Ric's Garden World in Fort Pierce, Florida. Ric's is located right on US. You can't miss the huge handmade sign on the west side of the highway. Although Ric's does not have the sprawling acreage and the inventory of a country nursery, it has a nice selection of landscape and indoor plants, as well as a smattering of starter plants for most Florida home vegetable gardens. Ric's retails an assortment interesting new hybrids, like thornless bougainvilleas. They are also well known for their wonderful selection of beautiful rose bushes. The staff is very knowledgeable and helpful, and if they don't have what you need, they are quick to recommend another nursery. The plants from Ric's are always healthy, and have always done well in our garden. We have a row of 5 blueberry bushes, and the best producer, by far is the one we bought at Ric's. Their prices are a little more than what you'd pay in other nurseries, but you definitely get what you pay for at Ric's Garden World.

Pinder's Nursery
3500 SW Martin Highway
Palm City, FL 34990
(772) 781-8085
Hours: Sun-Thurs 10 am - 4 pm, Fri-Sat 9 am - 5 pm

When I moved to the Florida Treasure Coast, I quickly discovered "gardener's row" on Martin Highway in Palm City, Florida. As an avid gardener, who could resist miles of landscape nurseries? This is a backyard gardener's paradise, and definitely one-stop shopping for the professional landscaper. However, there is one that stands out from the crowd - Pinder's Nursery. Pinder's has a cute little cabana and rows of wonderful plants. Pinder's carries a number of "northern" plants that also do well in the south but are hard to find elsewhere, like irises, periwinkles and hostas. Many of my daylilies - one of my favorite perennial landscape plants - came from Pinder's, and continue to flourish and multiply. The best part is that I bought all my daylilies on sale - so the price was definitely right. What is most distinctive about Pinder's Nursery is their wide variety of plants. What I enjoy most is being able to page through a gardening catalog, deciding what I want, and them finding it all at Pinder's Nursery. Instant gratification!

Weatherbee Nursery
701 E Weatherbee Rd
Fort Pierce, FL 34982-8537
772-464-6880
Hours: Tues - Sat 9 am - 5:30 pm

I've saved the best for last with Weatherbee Nursery in Fort Pierce, Florida. It is by far my favorite nursery in the area, and has some of the nicest, honest, most knowledgeable staff. My favorite person there is Chris, who shares my husband and my interest in tropical fruit trees. I am always challenged with starting vegetables from seed, and never have to bother, because Weatherbee always has plenty of seedlings ready to plant. And a four-pack of vegetable seedlings is only $1. What a gardening bargain! Thanks to Weatherbee, my vegetable garden has an assortment of tomatoes, peppers, burpless cucumbers, broccoli, collard greens, onions and chives, plus a variety of fresh herbs. The best part of Weatherbee Nursery is that they specialize in native and tropical plants that thrive in our climate. They will not sell anything that is marginal, and may not survive an extreme season. If you're looking for garden plantings that are low maintenance, tough, and well suited to the South Florida weather, Weatherbee is your perfect nursery. Some items we've recently purchased from Weatherbee Nursery include: plantain tree, key lime tree, Florida peach tree, fig tree, coffee tree, grumichama cherry tree, Barbados cherry tree, blackberry and blueberry shrubs, muscadine grapes, and passion fruit. They've all survived the past summer, which was dry and brutally hot, and the past winter, which was extremely cold. If I had to choose just one garden nursery, it would definitely be Weatherbee's.

Happy gardening to one and all!