Looking for the best place in Chicagoland to improve your green thumb? I’ve got you covered! I might not be able to keep even succulents alive, but thankfully there are wonderful nurseries across Chicagoland to help me make my yard come alive from Spring until Fall. These nurseries are standouts for a few different reasons, so read on to find out more about how to make your yard Pinterest Perfect.
Adams & Son Gardens
This year round nursery has the perfect items for each season, from Christmas trees in the winter to beautiful and colorful baskets in the Spring and Summer. Their fresh products are delivered twice a week and they support organic and local farmers.
Standouts: Unique floral gifts such as bonsai and tropical plants, herbs, ornamental seasonal decor
Gethsemane Garden Center
Located on the border of Edgewater and Andersonville in Chicago, Gethsemane Garden Center is a great place to support for high quality plants grown locally. Priding themselves as a neighborhood shop, they are committed to supporting nearby family owner farms and greenhouses.
Standouts: Customer friendly return policy, a “kids’ section” of small exotic plants, a wide array of colorful and seasonal blooms
Lurvey’s Garden Center
Another Des Plaines gem, Lurvey’s features plants, shrubs, and all types of landscaping accessories and services. If you are looking to do some stone work, Lurvey’s is definitely the place to go for project assistance and creative inspiration.
Standouts: Patio and stone work design, shrubs, landscaping supplies
Pasquesi Home and Garden
These Lake Bluff and Lake Forest stores are a one stop shop to turn your home and garden into a stylish and lush sanctuary. They have one of the best selection of colorful and unique annuals I have ever come across, including indoor plants that make for great hostess or housewarming gifts.
Standouts: Educational seminars, in depth website with the option to search for specific plants, annuals, wide varieties of plants
Pesche’s Garden Center
Located in Des Plaines, there is nothing that this nursery does not have. Pesche’s sells just about everything garden related that you can think of, from kid gardening gloves to fertilizers, lush flower baskets, tropical plants…the list goes on and on!
Standouts: Vegetables, Premade Baskets and Pots, Garden Décor, Water Fountains
Red’s Garden Center
This Northbrook nursery may be a little on the small side, but what it lacks in size it makes up for in quality. Red’s can provide everything you need for a beautiful summer, including logs for the fire pit (and fire place) year around!
Standouts: Exceptionally well trained and educated employees, perennials, firewood, landscape design
All of these nurseries are family owned businesses, so you can rest assured that you are investing not just in your garden, but also in your community, when you support these businesses. One tip: Be sure to hold on to all of your receipts (as well as the original packaging) for your plants just in case of a rare dud, so that you can take advantage of the flexible return/exchange policies these wonderful businesses offer.
Do you have little nature lovers? Then simply use the search box with terms like “nature,” “outside,” “parks,” and more!
It sounds like there are a lot of great places to stock up on plants and garden supplies in your area! This is going to help a lot of people.
They are fun to just walk through and enjoy the beauty, too!
I grew up south of Chicago! My mom always had flowers growing and planted flowers. Sadly, and to her dismay I did not inherit her green thumb. Looks like a lot of great places, I will have to let her know about these as she still lives there.
Well hello, former neighbor! These nurseries have helped me with my AWFUL green thumb, thank goodness!
I live in New York not Chicago and we also have some marvelous nurseries. The ones pictured above really look to be great places to start up or finish off your Chicago show gardens!
If you ever visit Chicago, be sure to check out the Chicago Botanic Garden if you love flowers. It is absolutely STUNNING.
This looks like a really nice place to get flowers from. I love how they have it all laid out for you.
We are lucky to have lots of great options in Chicagoland.
These must be the prettiest nurseries I’ve seen. The ones that I’ve been to are not as nice and are usually not well-maintained. Are those rocks for sale? And did they engrave the next on the rocks? Those could make as good presents, but could get really heavy if you purchase a lot. Lol.
I could spend hours in a place like that just looking around. I like those stones too, I’d be happy to pick up several of those.
I would love to visit a nursery in Chicago. We moved to Marco Island, FL and are in a condo, we cannot do any gardening, I miss it so much.
What a great post, I will share with my chicago friends. We used to live in IL. I love the things you can do with little nature lovers. Its a great list!
I love flowers and although I don’t have a green thumb, I can stay there all day just looking at them and taking pictures. The flowers in your photos are gorgeous!
I miss US garden centers. When I lives in the States, Memorial Day weekend was the last frost date in my zone, so that was my planting weekend. I’d have started my seeds indoors a few months before, but always supplemented with nursery plants. My nursery had those red Radio Flyer wagons for carriages and I’ll never forget the smell and how lovely it was choosing my plants and arranging them in my wagon.
Now I live in a tiny city center apartment and I miss my garden terribly. This post brought back a lot of happy CT memories, thank you!
I love these types of garden centers! We have a few here in Toronto but i don’t visit them often. I wish I had a garden and could go buy a ton of stuff.. These look like some great places to shop for all gardening needs!
We have quite a few plant nursery’s in my area but nothing nearly as nice as these! Most of the time, we have to go a few miles out of town to find the really the really special ones. If I’m ever in that part of town, I’ll be sure to stop in to one of these places!
As we are located in the center of the city, there are not much plants to see and flowers to appreciate every day. We are somewhat stuck inside the four walls of the office or home. Knowing about these nurseries is quite fun especially for nature lovers.
Oh I so don’t have a green thumb but I have a green heart! Lol! I really want to be able to plant and have thriving gardens and every year I fool myself that THIS WILL BE MY YEAR! Alas..! Thanks for sharing! xox Christine | Amidst the Chaos
I promise that the only reason why my garden looks great is because of the helpful people at these nurseries!
Those pictures are so beautiful. I find garden centres to be so calming, is that strange?! My mother and I used to visit garden centres a lot when she was doing up our garden and I loved seeing everything they had to offer. Now I’m getting into gardening myself and would love a hanging basket to hang outside the front door like the ones in your pictures.
Great recommendations, and I love that you included the reading list! You’ve heard of green thumb, right? Well, I’m a BLACK thumb. I can’t even do it with the plants all READY. I leave that up to my husband, and guess what? he outsources! 🙂 lol
I’ve always wanted a bonsai tree. I even bought seeds online to grow one, but never got around to it. How cool that there is a section of small exotic plants for kids at Gethsemane Garden Center!
I love flowers, but I kill them due to neglect. My son loves to pick flowers and bring them to me. He also loves to sniff them and say “ewwww”.
Very nice and attractive blog. I am also a gardener lover and I like your plants varieties collection. I’ve a theme collection of flowers and pots in my garden. Can you please suggest me from where I can Buy Pots Online for plants.
Sprout Home, City Escape, and Chalet Nursery are pretty good too. Chalet is my favorite of the three – Sprout Home has become a little pricey and can get picked over sometimes. City Escape can be too. Chalet is very nice, a little pricey but quality to back it up.
If you’re willing to jog down to Tinley Park, Ted’s Greenhouse is *amazing.*
Hausermann’s Orchids is THE place to go for orchids, undoubtedly. I also like Platt Hill, Planter’s Palette, and the Growing Place. Of course, the shows and sales that pop up around the city can’t be beat for selection.
We love Chalet, too. My sister lives right by it and it is always hard to stop myself from visiting and picking up something!
Clover’s Garden Centers, though seasonal pop ups, have a great variety of products and the staff are very knowledgeable. Check out their website.