THE ADVENTUROUS GARDENER: Where to Buy the Best Plants in New England is dedicated to our fellow gardeners. It is meant to help you find good, regionally grown plants for your garden. We hope you will use this as a travel companion, whether in search of particular plants or a horticultural romp through New England. We hope you will consult this guide when you are dreaming and planning your garden.

This book is for venturesome gardeners, weekend gardeners, enthusiasts, connoisseurs, urban gardeners, variegated-foliage nuts, garden designers, and people with green thumbs. It is for smart gardeners who know that the best plants are usually local plants, grown within 100 miles of their garden. It is for garden tourists who enjoy visiting nurseries and display gardens while traveling the byways of New England. It is for armchair gardeners who savor reading garden catalogs on cold winter nights. It is for gardeners who love the historical landscape of New England and want to reward and encourage farmers seeking viable agricultural uses for its farmland. It is for cold-climate gardeners who love exotic new plants and want to know where to find them in New England.

This book offers help in finding regional sources for garden plants you may be looking for, whether native wildflowers, Chinese tree peonies, African violets, or plants that look good in winter. We do not pretend to proclaim the “best” sources for any particular plant, beyond some personal recommendations. Though we have great respect for reputable commercial garden centers, most are well advertised and already known to local gardeners; instead, our focus has been on growers of plants that can’t be found in garden centers—though we have included a few garden centers we think are standouts.

Being horticultural amateurs, not professionals, we had much to learn in order to write this book, and we admit to some outright prejudices. We prefer nurseries that strive for excellence and sell healthy, well-selected plants that are regionally adapted to New England. We prefer establishments that grow their own plants, because this normally produces a stronger, healthier plant than trucked-in stock or the force-fed plugs of the nursery industry. We seek interesting, unusual, and beautiful varieties of ornamental plants. We want plants that are correctly labeled. We like responsible pest management and organic growing practices. We love eloquent nursery catalogs that are fun to read. We admire hybridizers and nurserymen who expand our consciousness about what can be grown in a cold-climate garden.  We oppose wild-collecting of native plants, rare or not. We have a weakness for family farms and adventurous spirits. We find the eccentricities of New England growers to be endearing. We prefer nurseries and specialty growers that contribute to preserving the rural landscape of New England. We have omitted any place where the plants are on drugs and you can smell chemical fertilizer from the driveway.

We prefer nurseries that sell well-grown, unusual, and beautiful plants that are regionally adapted to New England. We prefer those that grow their own plants and label them correctly. We like organic farming and responsible pest management. We love eloquent nursery catalogs that are fun to read. We admire hybridizers and nurserymen who expand our consciousness about what we can grow in a cold-climate garden. We love to see nurseries and farms that are finding ways to preserve the rural landscape of New England. Above all, we have looked for good plants.

Top of page