Nicholson-Hardie is fantastic, independently owned nursery, garden center, and floral design shop on Lovers Lane in Dallas, Texas. There are two locations, one featuring gardening supplies, tropical plants and home decor, and a second location 7 blocks away featuring trees, shrubs, perennials and garden furniture. I've actually only been to the garden shop—I didn't know about the other location until I wrote this post.The company got its start as the Nicholson Seed Co. way back in 1899. Later Nicholson and his competitor, Hardie (both Scots) joined forces to give the company its current name. The company was bought by John and Linda Bracken in 1974 and is now run by their children Josh and Michael. A few years back it was designated a Cornerstone Company by the Dallas Historical Society.
Entering the store you find a lovely collection of plants, home decor, clothing and fragrances. The soothing, subdued lighting makes it feel more like a high-end department store rather than the typical garden center.
They have a great selection of garden accessories and unusual decorative pots.
The east side of the store contains their beautiful collection of indoor plants, filled with orchids, tropicals, 
hydrangeas, azaleas and all other kinds of things in full bloom. What a great sight to see in winter!
At the back of the garden shop is The Patio, where you find can find outdoor plants. In December it's filled with fall and winter plants like pansies, cyclamen,
and snapdragons.
The west side of the store features the more mundane stuff like fertilizer, bulbs,
hoses, baskets, and dried and artificial flowers. Even though this side of the store is more utilitarian, it still has plenty of charm.
The company started out as a seed supply store, and you can still get bulk seeds from the old cabinet below.
I would love to open a store like this in Williamsburg—it can be so hard to find unique garden accessories around here. It kind of reminds me of the floral shop my grandparents used to have in Marengo, Iowa. I guess I could try to convince my mom to move out here and manage my new garden shop, but there's probably no way our small population could support it. Sigh.
6 comments:
I like the name of the street. Lovers Lane, indeed.
There is a very nice variety of plants! I really like cyclamen. Might look for some hardy ones for SC. Sweet heartshaped foliage and great bloom.
Happy New Year to you! Perhaps this year we can get together.
Janet, maybe I'll see you on a field trip or we could meet at the learning garden sometime.
When you open the store let me know if you need a good nursery manager/plant geek.
Will do!
Williamsburg would be an ideal location for this high-end venture. It would fill a huge void. Call your mom today.
Nothing like a creative, well managed garden center with caring people. Not found too often these days!
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