Seasonal Notes

We are a “Plants, Seeds, Soils, Pots, and Garden sort of Shop” full of healthy indoor and tropical houseplants, bulbs, wildflower seeds, vegetable seeds, indoor gardening gear, pottery, potting soils, organic fertilizers, pruning tools, and nutrients, as well as seed-sprouting supplies. We also have every gardener’s favorite present: gift certificates (on-line) from your experienced local garden center.

Late winter (March-April) is a GREAT time to plant wildflower seeds, un-planted fall bulbs (if you still have some), over-wintered and dormant perennials, shrubs, and trees, and even cold-hardy color to give them a strong early head-start on our short growing season.

You can plant at any time, and generally the sooner the better, but please wait until the soil is no longer muddy. Working wet soil collapses its structure, reducing the aeration and drainage that roots and soil biology depend on. Please note that because our nights remain extremely cold through May, many plants grown in warmer climates will have lost their cold hardiness (deacclimated) and can be easily damaged or killed. The plants we offer in early spring are either overwintered here and already on our climatic schedule, or very selectively curated for tolerance to our temperatures.

Truckee’s elevation on the Sierra’s east side with Great Basin aridity yields significantly higher diurnal temperature variations than most western communities. Our “average” temperatures are based on wild extremes. Historically, March is a winter month (with a few spring-like days), and April is half winter (with many spring-like days). The past few years have been neither historically average nor “normal”.
March begins with average nighttime low temp’s ~18ºF (record low -10º) and average highs ~44ºF. April begins with average low temps ~21ºF (record low of 0º) and average high ~50ºF.

We’re Here to Help. Even when the shop is “closed”, we are often around, tending to the plants, cats, and office work. If you need a specific product, a project bid, or a consultation, please email us. We check messages nightly and will get back to you within a couple of days. You can also leave a voicemail at 530-587-0771.

Best wishes for a better 2026! Here’s to Science, to Research, to Data, to Facts, to Education, to Kindness, to Sanity, to Truth, to Grace, and to Hope. Be Grateful. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Be nice. Try.

Check our 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 the Northern High Sierra for more than 50 years. In 1951 Villager Florist opened in the original Gateway Center next to the Gateway Motel. In 1975, Jeanette Harper purchased the florist and began adding a few outdoor plants, creating what would become Villager Nursery. Eric Larusson joined the staff in 1985 and continued to expand the nursery, discover new growers of naive plants, and source the best organic composts and fertilizers. In 1996, we passed the florist business on to new ownership and focused whole-heartedly on the plants and materials best suited to our mountain environments: extreme winter-hardy and native plants, hardy summer color, short-season vegetables, and organic landscape supplies. Since 1999, we have been located at the historic west end of Brickelltown, on a property once home to the Varney Dairy and McIver Dairy. The house dates to 1867, and the shop, originally Jim McIver’s blacksmith shop, was built in the 1920s. We are grateful to care for a place with such deep Truckee roots and to honor its legacy.

Classes & Events

The folks at Villager Nursery have decades of personal and vicarious mountain and high Sierra gardening experiences to share. “We’ve killed thousands of plants in our own gardens so that our clients won’t have to”. Before beginning your own experiments in creating Mountain Gardens, learn from the many trials and triumphs of others.

MOST Seminars are held in the nursery @ Villager Nursery, 10678 Donner Pass Road, Truckee. Pre-registration is requested (e-mail, facebook) but drop-ins are welcome. We like to have an idea of the number of attendees for class hand-outs or samples. Most classes are still free of charge. Some workshops occasionally have materials fees. Registration is requested for workshops.

“We’ve killed thousands of plants in our own gardens so that our clients won’t have to”

Since classes are outdoors behind the shop, we may cancel or re-schedule if the weather is unbearable. Dress warmly and please bring loads of questions, pictures, ideas (and samples of plants for identification etc.. after each class). The setting is informal and we would’t keep doing it if we didn’t have fun. We have benches to sit on but you are welcome to bring your own folding chair.

We post classes on facebook and in our newsletters.