BB Barnes Nursery -- Asheville. Waaaaaay too dangerous for words. :-)
Biltmore Estate Plant Shop -- Asheville. small, but always has interesting varieties.
Roses Unlimited -- Laurens, SC. Unlimited fun!
UT Gardens -- of course!
Blooms Nursery -- Nashville. Lots of weird stuff, especially variegates. Interesting and friendly owner. AND a butterfly greenhouse.

And I'd LOOOOOVE to go to Plant Delights and Nurseries Caroliniana, but they're too far!

You didn't name any yourself, Ann. What's on YOUR list?

Hey Ann,

Glad you posted this. My birthday is coming up on Monday so DH has to take me somewhere either this weekend or next - unfortunately it has to be a one day trip. So maybe I'll get some ideas from here. BTW Ramsey House was fabulous! We totally enjoyed it, and talk about beautiful dried flower crafts - didn't get her name but there was one vendor in particular that had some really great stuff.

I enjoyed going to the Opryland Hotel in Nashville with 9 acres of indoor gardens.

Here is a link that might be useful: Opryland Hotel

I agree with MNature, Opryland Hotel is wonderful, especially if you like tropical plants. It is a great place to get out in when the weather isn't so cooperative. If you are in or around Nashville, the other place I've found to be quite a treat for a day trip is Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art. Many of you probably already know about it, but for those of us new to the area it is a great way to learn about plants that succeed here. I love the way they have the plants labeled - I take a photo of the plant and the label so I can look it up when I get home if I'm interested in it for my own garden. I've been back several times as it is interesting to see the changes in the garden and it really is too much to see in one day.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cheekwood

Io,
I think much better than Barnes in Asheville (too pricey) are Reems near Weaverville, and Israel's at the Asheville Farmers Market. The market itself is a good example of what Knoxville's Farmers Market should have been. You can spend 1/2 day there.
Michaela

Where's Reems? I'd love to stop by there. And I keep WANTING to go to Israel's, but I never have time to do all three -- and the other two have always come first. Maybe one of these days I'll get to Asheville early enough to do all of em!

I think the name is Reems Creek valley Nursery---It is visible from I-26 in Weaverville(on the way out of Asheville towards Tri-cities---it's on the left).

BB Barnes in Asheville is a beautiful nursery, but waaaaay too pricey...even for common stuff.

Israels at the farmers market in Asheville has a few unusual things from time to time.

I like Rux nursery in Waynesville, NC.(not far from Asheville off I-40). I always find a few unusual things I can't resist.

Hey guys --

I did get an excuse to go through Asheville last weekend. I visited Israel's -- got some dwarf conifers, but IMHO it wasn't nearly as interesting as BB Barnes. I also went to Barnes -- got a great Anthurium clarinervum, a hosta 'Hope', and some other stuff. Yup, some stuff is expensive, but they've got cool stuff! I also went to Biltmore, and got an Alocasia 'Corozon' and a Japanese maple whose name I can't remember at the moment. ;-)

Thanks for the info about Reems and Waynesville. I'll have to look for those!

I really like Rockcastle River Trading Company in Rockcastle, KY. A fairly-famous garden designer, Jon Carloftis, owns it (well, actually, I guess it is accurate to say that he and his mother own it.) For those of you in Knoxville area, it's really just a straight shot up to London, KY, and then take a right off the first exit north after London.

A lot of their stuff is much lower priced than you would expect from such a classy place. I got a HUGE stone pot with a raised design on the sides--very pricey looking--for about $25. Plus, the gardens are EXCELLENT. A friend of mine and I went up there for their spring grand opening and we had a really good time. Very nice folks.

Here is a link that might be useful: Rockcastle River Trading Company

Our best trips are ALWAYS to the Middle Tennessee Plant Swaps. Heading back home with a truck loaded with new stuff that we don't have as well as it being free is the best trip ever. How can you beat that?

Yes, plant swaps are wunnerful, but when the urge strikes, when I need to get away from my drought striken hilltop, when I know that anything I buy is going to need to be so special that it will take blood sweat AND tears to get it into my clay, then I'll go to try out some of the places y'all have listed above.
In the future, I hope we'll meet at the new Knoxville Botanical Garden that's happening in east Knoxville, that we'll continue to have the UT gardens for simple awe power, and we'll add some places near Chattanooga and Kingsport.
(And I'd like to see the addition of more near Nashville and even near Memphis for our amusement when we take our people west for BBQ fixes.

Speaking of the Knoxville Botanical Garden, does anyone know when it might be open to the public? what's happening there now? or whether it's open on any special days or anything now?

Sorry your trip to Israel's wasn't productive, but it is the end of the season and (imo)good nurseries have sold down their stock for the winter. That is probably why you found things at BB Barnes being a little pricey they weren't yet sold out. Try them in spring or early summer for full variety.

There are several small nurseries in tri-cities worth visiting but they are closed for the season right now. They have a green and white brochure at interstate welcome areas listing directions....which you must have. Annas Gardens near Sulphur Springs has an immense selection of daylilies, hostas and unusual perennials....with at least half planted in display gardens.

Last night on Rebecca's Garden her weekly "Road Trip" was to the backyard of a Mr. McIlwaine off Lyons Bend here in Knoxville. It was fantastic. Does anyone know if Mr. McIlwaine ever opens his property to the public for viewing? I'd love to see it. Gee, I'd just love to pick his brain about growing things - he really seems to know his stuff. Does anyone know him? Is he involved in the UT Gardens or other horticultural groups?

-Regina

I do believe my favorite trips lately have been to the Middle TN swap ( of course this is every year ), and to Mel and Rebecca's Place.

Cheryl

Peri -- yup, Israel's tropical house was nearly empty. I'll try em again in the spring!

I think one of the things about BB Barnes is that they've got a lot more protected plant sales space than Israel's, so they're more of a year-round operation. But it looked like Israel's has a LOT of tools/supplies and so on, and I'll definitely be checking back!

Huntsville Botanical Garden is really nice, and they're working actively to improve and enlarge it.

Cheekwood (or "Chickweed", as an acquaintance of mine calls it) has some nice features, including the spring ephemeral garden and the Japanese garden.

The native plant nursery where I work, GroWild, is quite beautiful, and garden groups book trips to visit. There's a 2 mile trail through woods and a restored native prairie that's very popular. Plants on the trail are IDed, and include cool stuff like Lily-leaved Twayblade, Michigan Lily and Grass-of-Parnassus.

Marty

Marty, where is GroWild?

Sounds beautiful Marty.

I googled GroWild and the website is below (and it's 30 miles sw of Nashville).

Here is a link that might be useful: GroWild

GroWild's website is rudimentary at this point. In fact, one of my ongoing projects is doing the herbaceous perennial database for the website. Takes some time as there are maybe 500 species and varieties to describe.

GroWild is situated on the escarpment of the Western Highland Rim in Fairview, TN. It's out Hwy 100, the old Memphis-Nashville highway, about 25 or 30 miles from downtown Nashville. It's a wholesale nursery, but anybody is welcome to come look around and buy if they call and make an appointment first. The reason for this is twofold: 1)not being a retail establishment, there's no sales staff waiting to help drop-in customers, so they like to know when someone's coming to make sure there's staff available to help them; and 2)insurance legalities that relate to reason #1, in that there's inherent liability in having someone show up at the nursery if no one's there.

Marty

Thanks Marty! I go to Nashville all the time. Maybe I'll be able to come by sometime in the spring!

Amazin dirt---You raise an interesting point with me. When I visit a new nursery, I don't generally look inside greenhouses in the hottest heat of summer, thinking of them as places for only the most tender tropicals. My "tropical" interest is with zone 7 and 8 plants, which I somehow expect and usually find outside at that time of year.It's been a couple of years since I have been there, but I think Burgess Falls nursery below Cookeville has some interesting tender tropicals in their greenhouse, though I found no zone 7/8 things of interest.

Oh yes, let's talk about Cookeville! I know there's at least one nursery there that I really want to visit, but somehow I've never done it. There's one large nursery there -- is that the Burgess Falls one? -- and there's a lady there who's well known for figs, that I'd like to check out.

And for greenhouses and tropicals -- yeah, this year I tend to get excited more easily about stuff like begonias and alocasias and geraniums than many of the hardy things. But I'll defend BB Barns on the hardies, too -- heck, I bought a wonderful variegated Japanese maple there for $29 bucks this spring, and a "Hope" hosta this fall for $6 -- ya can't beat those! But I'm sure I didn't see Israel's at its best time of year. Since I go to or through Asheville fairly frequently, I'll have more chances at it in the future.

I wish someone would talk about this East version of Knoxville Botanical garden. I recall a failed attempt to have one at Northshore.

Amazindirt: I believe there is a nursery that may be inside the Cookeville city limits which I have not been to.
Burgess Falls is a different nursery a few miles below I-40 near the waterfalls. I didn't check, but my recollection is that their website is burgessfallsnursery.com-----otherwise google for them---they do have a simple website that lists a lot of what they have.

My recollection is that there is yet a third nursery somewhere above Cookeville that specializes in only fruit.
I am including the pick tn. website that lists a lot of nurseries in the state. I have found a lot of "neat little off the beaten path" nurseries that way. It has been a while since I've been there but I think there is a way to sort by county....and I think Cookeville is Putnam county.

Michaela: I've tried e-mailing you twice---both returned with errors. Annas gardens is open this time of year by appointment only---ph 423-753-9314

Here is a link that might be useful: Tennessee nurseries