The most valuable information a garden book has to offer is the names of the plantsmen who supply the material described, for that is all the reader really needs to know. Once he has the plants, he can discover the rest for himself.

—Elizabeth Lawrence

Gardening—getting out there with your shovel and gloves—offers immediate satisfactions in the form of rewarding work, fresh air, healthful exertion, and the enjoyment of plants flourishing under care.

Hunting out great nurseries and acquiring distinctive garden plants engages a more complex set of desires—the wish to discover and experiment; to collect, savor, and preserve; to wow the neighbors, stump the experts, and (for ecological gardeners, anyway) maybe even save the planet.

Gardeners in New York and New Jersey live in a rich cultural region with countless resources readily at hand—some well-known, some hidden in obscurity. From Buffalo to greater New York City and east to Montauk, from Rochester to greater Philadelphia and south to Cape May, horticulture of every description has flourished in this region for more than 200 years. Illustrious parks and private gardens are only part of the story. Behind the scenes, a vibrant community of growers, hybridizers, specialists, and plant explorers is busily engaged in the art and science of horticulture.

Partly due to climatic and ecological differences, New York and New Jersey support remarkable horticultural diversity. Universities such as Rutgers and Cornell provide strong academic leadership, linking cutting-edge research with living archives of heritage plants. Breeders in both states produce improved, disease-resistant plants unheard-of 20 years ago—from daylilies and dogwoods to dwarf conifers, hardy nut trees, apple rootstocks, and improved vegetable seeds. Stylish nurseries grow choice ornamentals and show them off in virtuoso display gardens. Expert growers introduce exciting newcomers and revive time-tested classics. Naturalists mine the region’s fine storehouse of native flora. Small or large, well-known or obscure, all have the one ingredient common to great nurseries—really good plants.

This is a practical book, intended to help gardeners find good plants. Information about regional nurseries is surprisingly hard to come by. When it comes to sourcing good plants in a particular locale, most garden manuals—whether for dream gardens or dirt gardens—leave gardeners adrift. We hope to fill the gap by publishing what amounts to field notes on the nurseries we found while scouting around New York and New Jersey for good plants.

Specialty Nurseries of New York and New Jersey

American horticulture was practically invented in New York and New Jersey, and a close look at today’s nurseries suggests that much is still being invented. Plant specialists are horticulture’s advance men. With their energy and curiosity, they do gardeners an immense service: they find, test, sort, and grow great garden plants—some new, some just new to us. As we discovered in researching plant sources, this region is home to some of the smartest plantsmen and finest nurseries in America.

Long Island’s horticulture is as old as any in the country. William Prince, America’s first nurseryman, started growing fine plants 250 years ago on the flat sandy grounds of Long Island—an area that still supports a vibrant green industry. Exotic collectors’ shrubs are the specialty of one eminent Long Island nursery; another, run by a venerable farm family, sells container stock through the local Agway. East-end herb and flower farms grow colorful deer-resistant plants in garden settings. Big-tree specialists handle huge specimens. A landscape architect pioneers the use of Long Island’s native plants. Growers offer sumptuous tropicals and bedding plants to wholesale customers (and allow savvy home gardeners to sneak in the back door).

In central and western New York, from the Mohawk Valley to the Finger Lakes, cold wet meadows that once supported Iroquois agriculture still offer valuable breeding grounds for vegetable hybrids, as well as new, disease-resistant fruit trees and cold-hardy nut specimens. Many upstate nurserymen retain the spirit of discovery that stirred 19th-century settlement. Some experiment with plants from Asia, South America, and South Africa or test the hardiness of plants seldom considered for cold-climate gardens—cyclamen, arum, and fuchsia. Others assemble collections of rare heirloom iris, snowdrops, roses, peonies, fancy-leaf pelargoniums, and Victorian-era bedding plants. Hybridizers breed northern-adapted Siberian iris and daylilies. Propagators quarry rare trees from a once-renowned arboretum. Naturalists grow native trees and shrubs for affordable landscaping. An internationally known bonsai master practices his art in an oriental courtyard.

In eastern New York, rich fine-art and farming traditions converge to influence Hudson Valley horticulture. Two gifted plantsmen vet fine plants for high-fashion gardens. Nearby, an organic farm preserves a legacy of open-pollinated vegetable seed. A world-famous rock garden offers cuttings from its alpine collection. A poetic Westchester nurseryman chooses garden plants just to please his bees. In the Catskills, a retired couple grows the area’s freshest perennials, while a Huguenot old-timer grafts rare maples and conifers. A licensed wildcrafter grows native ginseng for woodland plantations. Even New York City has a presence, for its urban green markets draw plants from the entire region.

New Jersey is known as the Garden State for good reason, however the license plate may amuse outsiders. Any gardener who ventures off the superhighways discovers nurseries of exceptional merit, tucked away in the rolling North Jersey landscape (now edged by suburbia). Rare magnolias, exotic Japanese maples, rescued Franklin trees, and a world-class rhododendron collection are the prizes of specialist growers. The region’s finest topiary artist operates on ground cut from the family sod farm. In South Jersey, where sandy lowlands sweep down to the Delaware Bay shore, practical truck farms produce native dune grass and Rutgers-bred asparagus crowns. The region’s largest orchid supplier offers discounts on blooming orchids. A grower of dwarf conifer opens his greenhouses once a year, along with a famous daylily breeder and a celebrated collectors’ nursery—attracting an annual pilgrimage of sophisticated gardeners.

A Word about Nursery Selection

We believe that a good nursery is one that engages the mind and heart of the gardener—and in cases of obsession, let us concede the soul as well. We cannot pretend to have found every good nursery in New York and New Jersey. Because nursery hunting is an art rather than a science, it is almost impossible to assemble an authoritative list. We have, however, performed arduous research and tried hard to be comprehensive. Each of the nurseries profiled here has special merit—something unusual that distinguishes its work. With few exceptions, each one knows and grows its own plants—good plants, the kind gardeners yearn for in their gardens.
We caution that some of these nurseries are small potatoes compared to the busy commercial outlets patronized by most gardeners. We have nothing against the business of horticulture; indeed, some of our best friends are garden centers. This book does profile independent garden centers that share many qualities we look for in a great nursery. Mostly, though, we think it’s better to focus on propagators, plantsmen, hybridizers, and horticulturists—even the skilled little guys whose importance exceeds the sum of their inventory.

Our main concern is plant quality, even when it means praising a nursery that is small by commercial standards. We assume that people can find their way to a commercial garden center. But without guidance, how will gardeners ever discover the small-scale specialist, buried in the country, too preoccupied with plants to run an ad? Or the world-class grower offering limited retail access, without fanfare? Or the noted hybridizer selling plant divisions quietly, to support his or her work?

Most specialty nurseries are run by skilled professionals who grow exceptional plants, offer depth of inventory, and don’t focus all that much on sales. Often these aren’t so much business enterprises as plant lovers who need to earn a living. Expert plantsmen propagate and grow, breed and study, collect and categorize, discover and display, save and rescue. It’s all about good plants—plants that challenge and excite and stretch us out into subjects we didn’t know; plants that make us see things anew.

The best way to get to know a plant is to buy one and try it in your garden. Learning a plant’s origins and history is a great beginning. But like people, good plants surprise us with their hidden merits, their adaptability, their finesse. As we seek the new and unusual, we find ourselves appreciating the great traditions of horticulture. As we seek less burdensome, more naturalistic ways to garden, native plants gain importance, as do plants that are suited to our region and to the style and conditions of our gardens. All gardeners need is good plants. With them in hand, we have faith that gardeners will learn all that plants have to teach them.

Ruah Donnelly

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