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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