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Portland Nursery
Rating Details »
Category: Nurseries & Gardening [Edit]
Neighborhoods: Mt. Tabor, Southeast Portland, Belmont5050 SE Stark Street
Portland, OR 97215
(503) 231-5050
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Private Lot
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
12 reviews for Portland Nursery
My friend gifted me with an orchid plant, as he is an orchid enthusiast and I was interested in owning one. I don't know much about orchids (or plants, really) but when this showed up in its box in a flimsy plastic container I did know it needed to be repotted.
I stopped in this place only 20 minutes before close (sorry!) but the employees I talked to were super helpful. I had picked out a terracotta pot but an employee showed me that there are actually pots meant for orchids - so he saved me from screwing up. And orchids should be planted into orchid bark, not regular old soil.
So thanks for setting me off on the right foot in being an orchid owner! Now I just need to remember to water it.
I will definitely come back to this place again, not minutes before close, because it is HUGE and the prices seemed very reasonable.
This place FORCES you to have a green thumb (or maybe an entire green limb) because it is so fun, engaging, and lush. The nursery draws you in with a delightful mix of arranged plants at the entrance, beckons you to explore the huge greenhouse, where the tables are always changing and updating with the seasons. The sales make you try things you otherwise would think were out of your reach. The amazing pot selection will make you want to buy plants just so you can fill up your gorgeous selections. Then you tumble back outside to view the tables and tables of starts, vanishing into larger shrubs and trees far in the distance. You stumble to a checkout clutching at the seeds and supplies on the way, finally landing back at the parking lot--only to remember you don't have an acre to fill with green, but only a rented house already bursting at the seams with potted plants.
They have a great selection, it's fun to browse there, the staff is extremely knowledgeable (check the question desk for detailed info or in-depth answers) and friendly. I've gotten everything from good dwarf citrus trees to several orchids. Not to mention they're a great staple for your veggie starts and seeds (HUGE selection). Also, good place to buy soil and fertilizer.
Mmmmmmmm plants!
Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not much of an outdoors person. I spent most of a weekend camping trip inside the tent, for Pete's sake. Which makes it anomalous that I enjoy field work, but that's another story....
But seeing I'm not much of an outdoorswoman, when my parents say they're planting a backyard garden, I wave my hand and say, "Have fun with that!" I have nails, okay! I'm not going to dirty myself or my CLEARLY couture clothing (haha!) in the dirt.
That said, I APPRECIATE nature. And I have a few potted plants that are somehow still clinging to life.
The Portland Nursery, though, has pretty much anyone could ever want--garden aficionado, or those who are less-than-green. They have a good-sized plot in the middle of a residential area, which was interesting, but the setup was adorbs! It smelled so fragrant! And lush! And verdant!
It was an Oregonian's paradise in...in...Oregon!
The staff was friendly, too. Although they didn't have an indoor gardenia plant (they only had hardy ones...or something like that), I thought it was HILARIOUS that they told us to go to Fred Meyer and look for one. Ha!
I won't lie -- my four star rating is mostly due to the fact that I have a crush on half the staff. It's like a gold mine for scruffy, bearded, gardening men.
Aside from that, I'm perpetually charmed by nurseries and this one was no exception. I attended the apple and pear tasting this past weekend and loved wandering down the aisles of plants, pawing excitedly through seed packets whilst planning my spring-time garden, leafing through books with amazing pictures (who DOESN'T still like the occasional book with pictures!?), and debating the flavor profiles of apples with my roommate.
Everyone we spoke to was kind and informative and our apple/pear haul was very reasonably priced.
(And BEARDS. With FLANNEL!)
The Portland Nursery is a bit of an oasis in the middle of a residential neighborhood in SE Portland. It's really sort of calming and pleasant just to wander through the many greenhouses, aisles of trees & shrubs, and shelves, upon tables, upon shelves of garden and household plants of almost every imaginable variety.
Now, I don't know too much about plants, and don't have a ton of experience shopping for them, and aside from following the watering directions off the tags (or as directed by My Lady), I don't really have much experience caring for many different varieties of flora either. But that doesn't diminish my appreciation one bit.
This Portland Nursery (I've never been to their other location) is like wandering though a beautiful park, where you can take home what you see (for a price). They offer classes, have special events (like a gourmet Apple Tasting festival going on RIGHT NOW), and sell all sorts of tools, decor, accessories, and products to go along with the massive assortment of plants for your yard and garden.
We bought a split bamboo fence to add privacy and hide the chain-link between our yard and our neighbors driveway. It was a good price, and we got a few little pointers on the best way to attach it to the existing fence.
The staff mostly look like earthy-crunchy hippie types, which I think is cool at a nursery, and they are super friendly. They also sell a limited selection of organic produce - I saw a number of varieties of apples and garlic - as well as everything you need to grow your own organics.
The place is big enough to go and spend a few hours just playing around and dreaming about what you will do with your yard, and has a really nice, comforting vibe. I'd go hang out there even if I wasn't shopping for anything and leave feeling better than when I walked in!
I could live here. Even if it's dead of winter, somehow Portland Nursery manages to make things look lush, verdant, and highly desirable. That is what I so wish my 3 boy/ Jack Russell terrier landscape resembled. And doesn't. Still, I can dream. Today we came in to discuss Envirolawn (grass seed with some clover mixed in). We were given exceptional help. I picked up a magazine to further my fantasy life of a design-worthy garden along...We also got names of arborists to rid us of an unpleasant pine that is ruining a 120 year old foundation, as well as wrecking havoc with pine needles everywhere. I love coming in here, browsing through the plants, the bulbs, the books. This is a perfect spot for making the garden fantasy come true. Now I just need to get a dog whisperer to keep Ed the JRT from digging...
Wife: Look, look at all these lovely shrubs!
Husband: You hate shrubs.
Wife: I do not.
Wife: How could you say that?
Husband: You hate shrubs.
Wife: And I suppose you love them.
Wife: Well? Do you? Do you?!
Husband: (stony silence)
Wife: I hate shrubs.
While I much prefer my neighborhood nursery (see review for Garden Fever), sometimes your garden requires that you wade into the marital angst -- inspired no doubt by the crushing vastness of Portland Nursery's presence on the landscape. So much fecundity, so many possibilities has a depressive effect on people with small souls.
I come here for last year's plants marked way down, for the exhaustive expert knowledge of the staff, and for the fun events that happen year-round. Oh, and for the trees!! Am I the only Yeep who cries over Siberian ginkgo or dwarf pluot hybrids?
Fuvking awesome. Love just browsing the plants all morning long. I could look at those pretty pictures on the seed packages for hours. Got some pulp pots, herbs, compost, potting soil, loading up on veggie starts soon. People here are so nice. Buy more plants!
With two locations serving southeast Portland, Portland Nursery has made a name for itself, selling all the supplies you need to get obsessive about gardening and landscaping. From soil, to pots, to seeds and starters galore, to trees and flowers and plants, they have everything you need to cultivate your green thumb.
And while my thumb is decidedly un-green, I usually make it a point to stop here during the apple festival each year. Push away the teeming children (or better yet, visit during the week), and taste a slice of every apple available in the northwest.
I like to go to Portland Nursery and wander around, sometimes for hours. They have everything that you could ever want for gardening... lots of stuff, displays and gifts for ideas, and helpful, knowledgeable staff. I love the outdoor area with all of the plants and especially the herbs. I like to smell herbs and see how they look together, and this place is the perfect place to go on an herb shopping adventure. You can buy huge bags of high quality specialty soil, which cuts down on the price overall and has been very helpful in my container gardening adventure (they have a special soil with coconut fiber that is especially good for containers because it holds in moisture). Go and check it out!
So any of you who know me know that I am, to put it mildly, into plants. Having worked at several nurseries in the past, I feel I am more than capable to offer a pro's evaluation. Here's the thing. I do shop there 2-4 times a year, but only for things I can't find anywhere else. And even then...I will sometimes opt out due to price. They have a great selection of annuals (elite & regular) to stuff in your cool glazed or terra cotta pots. Decent perennial section. I hate the way they organize the shrubs: by so-called size. I find this to be totally inaccurate and have found 6-8 foot shrubs in the wrong classification. I would never buy a shrub there anyway because I can find it half off and healthier in the suburbs... They are rather crowded inside, but overall you can usually get through with your cart. Just be careful not to knock over a seed rack or some $100 shovel!
Overall they are a-ok.
So great! This nursery has been in business for 100 years and it really doesn't get much better than this when you are shopping for plants. Even in the winter they have a nice selection of tools and books (and evergreen swags and such).
Plus, check out their annual fall apple festival - love a festival to apples! Why don't we have more of those?
