What is a Nursery for Plants?

A nursery is a business that sells plants.  People can go a retail nursery to buy trees, shrubs, flowers, and many other kinds of growing plants.  There are also nurseries that sell only wholesale to stores with garden centers, florists, or professional gardeners and landscape artists who buy large numbers of plants.  If you buy plants online or by mail, these plants were grown in a nursery. 

Nurseries start plants from seeds, bulbs, or cuttings.  At a plant nursery, young growing plants are usually kept in a green house to protect them from harsh weather.  In a green house, temperature, light, and watering are carefully controlled so that plants grow quickly and are healthy.  You can usually find a large variety of plants in a nursery:  fruit or shade trees, shrubs, flowers, berry bushes, ground covers, and ornamental grasses, to name just a few.

People who work in plant nurseries are knowledgeable about the care of the plants they sell.  They can advise customers on the best methods of planting and growing conditions to optimize the potential of the young growing plants.  Nursery workers know which plants grow best in the homeowner’s area, which plants do best in shade, and which plants need full sun.  Nurseries often sell gardening tools, books, magazines, plant food, manure, and pest control products to make gardening a rewarding experience for their customers.  Some nurseries even sell landscaping accents such as statuary, lighting, stones, and colorful mulch to help gardeners achieve their vision of how their garden, yard, or patio should look.