The other nursery we visited last Sunday was Magnolia Garden Center in Seattle.  I had never been to this nursery and was quite excited to go.  We needed the aid of the GPS unit to find the place since we don’t frequent the Magnolia area.

I was surprised to see the place as we drove up.  We had just been at Swanson’s and Magnolia was such a change of pace.  Much smaller and as we walked in we were greeted immediately.  It was just a “good afternoon,” but still a greeting.

We did a little browsing and they had a nice selection of edibles.  The layout of the nursery was rather confusing as there is nursery material on both sides of the nursery with the gift shop in the middle.

The gift shop portion of the store was nice with a friendly lady who greeted us and chatted with our son.  We quickly browsed the nursery stock, but weren’t in the market for anything large so we mostly skipped that part.  We made our way into the garden center shop and were greeted with the familiar smell of chemical fertilizers.  This was a bit of a disappointment for me, but I do understand that it is the norm in nurseries.  Once again the staff was friendly and that was rather refreshing.

On our way out I took one last browse around the annuals and perennials area.  As I was looking I noticed a small hanging basket.  The price on the basket was $49.99.  I was shocked.  The plant was barely cresting the edge of the pot.  It has 1 small bloom on it.  I hadn’t really been paying attention to the other prices in the store, but this one was enough to make me not want to return.  I’ve never seen a nursery with such grossly over priced hanging baskets before.

Will I go back?  Likely no.  It may be nice if I lived in the area, but it isn’t something I would make a special trip to.