Villager Nursery

Experienced High-Sierra guides. Here to help with gardening and landscaping in our very challenging growing conditions.
Located in Truckee, California

 

Our purpose, as always, is to remain the primary source for honest and reliable high-Sierra gardening information while offering the widest and most interesting variety of native, extreme climate, fascinating, showy and cold hardy plants, as well as the appropriate organic fertilizers and the finest soil amendments available.

Our hope is only to give our clients everything they need to succeed and find satisfaction in their mountain planters, gardens and landscapes.

Seasonal Notes

Deep Fall - Planting Season, Fall Color, Bulbs and Winterizing

Villager Nursery is OPEN for the season, six days a week in November. Our hours change with the climatic seasons. 

Between Halloween and Thanksgiving:
Monday-Saturday: 10:00-4:00
Sundays: Closed
Thanksgiving Day: Closed

After Thanksgiving:
Monday-Saturday: 10:00-5:00
Sundays: 10-4

In November, we BEGIN the weeks of putting the nursery to bed. We'll still be open and happy to help but we have to take down the benches, build snow-catch fences, and tuck the plants into the shade before it snows in ernest.
Our hours shorten a bit in Novemnber and we're here through Holiday Season with wreaths, cut and live Christmas trees, greens, and poinsettia sales through most of December.
We have NEVER closed in fall.

We are still within the optimal time for moving plants, dividing perennials, and for planting in anticipation of next spring. Temperatures are cooler, soils are actually still gaining warmth, we'll get a few showers here and there - more pleasant for us and ABSOLUTELY IDEAL for plants.

October gradually slides to November’s 50-60° days and consistently frosty ~mid-20’s°F. nights. By Thanksgiving, our ave. lows are ~<20ºF.

For hardy material in a short season, the sooner you plant the better to gain as much root-growth as possible over our short seasons. Deciduous trees and shrubs put-on ~80% of their yearly root system expansion in late fall, after they lose their leaves.

Historically, our "frost free period" is July 15-August 15 (less than 15% chance of frost). Our growing season is relatively short so getting started as soon as possible is always important. There is no BEST time to plant and there is no BAD time to plant (other than the old saying: "when is the best time to plant a tree?.... Ten years ago"). The best time to plant is today. It is inconvenient to plant in the middle of winter but the plants are always happier in the ground than in a pot. IF you need something or have questions, PLEASE give us a call.

We are happy to have someone here to assist landscape professionals earlier than opening with a day's heads-up.

We are a "Garden, Plant, and Soils" sort of shop full of healthy indoor and tropical houseplants, bulbs, indoor gardening gear, pottery, potting soils, organic fertilizers and nutrients, as well as seeds and seed-sprouting  supplies. We also have every mother, father, teacher gardener's favorite present: gift certificates from your experienced local garden center.

Our hours  are always a little "weather permitting". (Call ahead if if  holiday exodus traffic is intolerable...  just-in-case we've sent everyone home.) We change the hours here (on the website) and on independent Google, Yelp, Bing, Nextdoor, Tripadvisor, and Facebook sites.  We often close one day a week August-November.

Apple gets its info from elsewhere, so Apple Maps and Siri have wrong hours most of the time; it is a problem. 

Check Instagram or Facebook or the References page on this website for updates, informational sheets, class hand-outs and calendar updates. 

Villager Nursery Garden Center has been serving Truckee, Tahoe, and regional high Sierra mountain plant lovers, landscapers and gardeners for 50 years. Villager Florist started in the original Gateway Center (next to the Gateway Motel) in 1951 (74 yrs). In 1975 (50 yrs) Jeanette Harper purchased the Villager Florist and added outdoor plants to the mix (becoming Villager Nursery). We relinquished the florist in 1996 to focus exclusively on the extreme winter-hardy plants, native plants, summer color, vegetables, and landscape supplies. In April 1999 we moved the nursery, 650 yards east, to the historic home of Varney Dairy  / McIver Dairy / now Villager Nursery.  The House was built in 1867 and the Shop (a blacksmith and then auto shop) was built in the ~1930's. We are the third owners of the house on this land. The new Town considered us an "approved noncomforming use" on land zoned "residential-agricultural". Now 30 planning consultants and 26 years later, in our third zone change since moving here, the Town has made the house illegal by zoning us "corridor comercial".

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Your Mountain and Native plant source

Villager Nursery brings you many of the most cold-hardy and abuse tolerant plants on Earth. We collect seeds and cuttings of local High Sierra, Great Basin and Rocky Mountain native plants for propagation and contract growing. We produce many of the best plants and offer selections that are available almost nowhere else. …from remote locations.  

The High Sierra Garden Experts

Eric, Rob and the knowledgeable staff at Villager Nursery have decades of experience in what works in Truckee and Tahoe’s high mountain environments. Visit the store today for seeds, bulbs, perennials, annual color, trees, shrubs, composts, organic fertilizers, pottery, art, and more!

Villager Journal

Timely information for Mt. Gardeners throughout the northern Sierras.

“Winterizing” lots of details – Class Handout

“Winterizing” Your Garden  - Villager Fall Class Series Prepare your garden so well this fall that it will reemerge healthy and vigorous next spring.  Cut back perennials, tie trees and shrubs, prepare your lawn and “Fertilize with Biosol in Fall.” While it is still...

A couple of tall hardy screening maples

Over the decades we have often used hedge maple where clients wanted aspen in partial shade. Aspen do not thrive and often die in even partial shade…

Subalpine Fir, an elastic and durable landscape alternative to native Silvertip

 Subalpine fir is infrequently grown but we occasionally find growers who have it. Unlike our beloved red and white fir, subalpine fir actually transplants well, establishes easily, and looks amazing and natural in mountain landscapes.

Restoration Work Can Be Fun

Villager Nursery had been involved in planning, constructing, and planting restoration projects for decades and we could all see the severe and destructive impacts that commercial rafting was having on the water quality, plant life, animal life and the overall health...

London – Scottish Highlands – Late June 2024

Personally, and professionally, I had a wonderful family wedding to enjoy just-north-of London in LATE June and since the whole family came from around the world to get there, we stayed an extra week and went to the Scottish highlands. The highlands reminded me of a...

Boisterous Bumble Bee article from CNPS archive – worth a read

In the 2002 July-October V30 3/4 Issue of FREMONTIA – a journal of the California Native Plant Society, there was a terrific article by Robbin W. Thorp, Peter C. Schroeder, and Carol S. Ferguson: Bumble Bees: Boisterous Pollinators of California Native Flowers. It was such a perfectly detailed story of the annual life cycle of native Bumble Bees

15th Annual Kellogg Planting Days 2024

14th Annual Kellogg Planting Days Friday and Saturday, June 2 and 3, 2023 from 10-2 each day. Along with Buy 3, get 1 Free on many Kellogg Composts

Sagehen Creek Calflora.org “What Grows Here?”

Sagehen Creek Calflora.org "What Grows Here?" - We have many of these (or if we don’t have the exact species we have a close Genera native relation). The partial list of local natives from this small area we often carry are below in bold. Sagehen Plants Availability...

Lawn or Mowed Meadow Installation and Care

A lawn can be an environmental benefit (not a chemical junkie). A “lawn” can be a mowed meadow, a grazed pasture, or a perfect ball-field.
Well aware of the dangers of chemical fertilizers and broadleaf herbicides to children and pets and I was determined to avoid them from the start.

The 2022 Season…

We do this because we love helping people find plants that will provide joy, food, or solve a problem in their garden or landscape. We love the years-long processes of testing plants in our challenging environment and sharing what we learn with others. They say...

Villager Handouts

PDF's and Newsletters with relevant information for gardening in the Sierras.

The Home of your garden and planting needs

We are a mountain nursery, so we incorporate every possible local and western intermountain native plant into our inventory and our landscapes. Many of our plants are grown from seed or cuttings that we’ve collected. Our staff and interns are encouraged to get out and hike as often as possible and note where, why and how plants thrive where they are found. Below are some of the  items we carry.

Annual Color

We offer an insane variety of annual color, texture and dimension to beautify your deck, porch and patio each summer. The mix changes with the seasons.

Perennials

The Sierra’s largest variety of hardy perennials and wildflowers, hand picked by the experts for Truckee and Tahoe mountain gardens. There are plants for every ecosystem and microclimate.

Shrubs

Shrubs fill-out every landscape. From a wide selection of natives to  exotic and fruiting species, we offer smaller woody plants for flowers, fall colors, heavy snow-loads and dense screening.

Trees

The giants that surround us affect every aspect of the climate around our homes. Adding trees for shade, privacy, spring, blooms, fall colors and fruit improves your landscape and our environment. We provide you with all the best species that thrive here.

Seeds

Our experience in this challenging environment allows Villager Nursery to gather the best selections of vegetable, herb, greens, flower, wildflower, grass, and custom mixtures for the very best success rates possible.

Pottery & Art

We carry a variety of pottery, planters, lawn and garden art

Bulbs

“Bulbs” as a group of plants adapted to long periods of dormancy and harsh conditions are some of our favorite hardy perennials. We have a tremendous selection of hardy bulbs selected for their resistance to being eaten and for their incredible resilience.

Indoor Plants

We would not be a real garden center without a wide variety house plants, tropicals, tender succulents and cactus as well as all the pottery, specialty soils and nutrients to help them thrive.

Potting Soils, Composts and Mulch

Mature composts and worm castings to chicken manure, neem seed meal to fish bone meal, top soil, bark mulch and vegetable planting mixes and much more, we carry all of the right organics for your garden.

Fertilizers

We carry a range of fertilizers that meet the needs of growing in our soils and environment. From organic lawn food, and Biosol, to Cactus, veggie, orchid, acid, conifer, and houseplant fertilizers+.

Villager Online store

Shop online for Recommended Books, Wildflower Seeds and Gift Cards.

“In this ever-changing society, the most powerful and enduring brands are built from the heart. They are real and sustainable. Their foundations are stronger because they are built with the strength of the human spirit, not an ad campaign. The companies that are lasting are those that are authentic.”

~Howard Schultz

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