Support Your Independent Nursery: Barton Springs Nursery GIVEAWAY
Each week in October, which is Support Your Independent Nursery Month, I am featuring one of my favorite Austin-area nurseries here at Digging. To make things even more interesting, I’m also hosting a giveaway every week—one from each nursery! This week I’m shining a spotlight on Barton Springs Nursery.
Why do I love to shop at Barton Springs Nursery? I listen to my cart, of course! And whenever I’m pulling it around BSN, my cart says things like, “Ooh, look! There’s that ______ (fill in the blank with whatever cool native plant you are looking for) you’ve been wanting to try, and they have it in an affordable 4-inch pot size. Grab three of those!” And “Let’s take a detour down the vine aisle. You might see something that’ll be perfect for greening up your fence.” And “Let’s not forget to check out the dyckia selection since you’re into those now.” You see? My cart knows what I want, even before I do. Plus it totes all my plants around.
And if my cart and I encounter a plant we’re not familiar with, or I’m just popping in to look for something in particular, the friendly, knowledgeable staff members—like Megan and Dora—are always willing to help. The staff will never just say, “Uh, I don’t know,” in answer to a question. They know a lot about the plants they sell, and if they don’t know the answer they’ll find out for you. A great staff is second only to a great plant selection, and BSN has both.
BSN propagates a lot of the plants it sells, which helps them to keep prices low. Native and well-adapted plants are its specialty.
The aisles are inviting and well-stocked.
And everything is clearly labeled with the common name, botanical name, size, and growing information. You can get a great tutorial on plants for our area just by reading the labels. Prices are written on the gallon-sized pots, and there are set prices for 4-inch pot sizes, so you never have to wonder how much something costs.
They have a great selection of pots, especially if you like bronze-colored ones, as I do.
This big palm greets you as you walk in, and in fact they do carry a nice selection of palms, including our native dwarf palmetto.
Photo courtesy of BSN
Ro, one of the staff members, having fun while she works.
Even if I come in for something particular, I nearly always peruse the entire nursery (just to see if anything catches my eye, you know). I always end up in the succulent and cactus section in the very back.
Just look at those shapely plants…
…and those fabulous gray, cube-shaped pots.
I like blue pots too.
Inside the garden shop you’ll find seasonal bulbs for sale, seeds, and tools, as well as beautiful accessories for the home and garden. Whether plants, gifts, or information about plants, you’ll find what you’re looking for at Barton Springs Nursery. To read more about this excellent nursery, check out an earlier post I wrote about BSN.
Photo of Joe courtesy of BSN
Now for the giveaway! Barton Springs Nursery is giving away a package worth $125—their Fall Power Pack—to one of my lucky readers! Here’s the scoop from Mae at Barton Springs Nursery:
Fall Power Pack (Packs a Texas-Sized Punch!)
Our goody bag is comprised of a sampling of great products that will benefit any soils or plants that are lucky enough to receive them. Use a combination of these staff-recommended products to ensure a quickly established, healthy root system and an overall more robust garden! Ask one of our helpful salespeople how and when they suggest using these goods when you come in to Support Your Local Nursery! The Fall Power Pack contains:Barton Springs Nursery T-Shirt: An Austin original since 1986. Be as stylish as one of our hard-working staff members.
Gardenville Potting Soil: A locally crafted, organic soil mix, great for container gardening and starting seedlings.
Bio-tone Starter Plus: An organic fertilizer, loaded with beneficial microbes, proven to help new plants establish faster. It will increase root mass to avoid transplant loss, as well as increase shoot growth and bloom count. Use at time of planting to ensure success.
Maxicrop Seaweed Plus Iron: A unique combination of pure seaweed extract with readily sequestered iron in an easy-to-use liquid form. This high-iron formulated product, when sprayed directly onto foliage or applied as a root drench, will prevent yellowing of leaves.
Superthrive: World-famous horticultural vitamins/hormones solution. Recommended for transplanting and growing, and as a plant activator and reviver.
Rabbit Hill Farm Minerals Plus: An organic mineral soil amendment which contains three types of paramagnetic volcanic rock, and trace minerals. If your soil is lacking minerals, Minerals Plus is the product for you.
Medina Hasta Gro Plant Food: A biologically based soil conditioner/natural fertilizer. Contains high-quality N-P-K plant food plus Medina Soil Activator to stimulate biological activity, HuMate humic acid to improve the soil structure, and seaweed extracts to stimulate fruiting and blooming.
Medina Grow Green 4-2-3 Organic Fertilizer: A granular fertilizer that is a natural plant food for all of your gardening needs. Slow-release to feed grass, flowerbeds, and gardens for up to 4 months.
That sounds like a great package to win! Just leave a comment on this post to enter, and I’ll announce the winner at the end of the week. Update 10/14: Click to see the winner announcement.
Giveaway Rules:
1. You must leave a comment on this post to enter.
2. Only one entry per person is allowed.
3. Giveaway ends at 11:59 pm on October 13th.
4. I’ll announce the winner on October 14th.
5. The winner must go to the nursery with a photo ID to claim the prize within two weeks of winning. Prizes will not be mailed.
6. The winner is not eligible to win any other giveaways at Digging for 2012’s Support Your Independent Nursery Month.
Remember, win or lose, if you live here in Austin you’ve already hit the jackpot with a great selection of local nurseries at which to shop, learn, and be inspired.
Disclosure: I’ve posted about this nursery because it’s one I shop at regularly and recommend to others. I invited the owner/manager to participate in a giveaway for my readers, but my post was not conditional on any donation. Plain and simple: I like this nursery and think you will too.
All material © 2006-2012 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
I’m not local (I’m in Dallas) but would love to make a road trip down to see them some time! We get to Austin usually once a year or so for something or other – it’s a nice trip, and not too long.
MY gosh, what a cool place ! Prize or no prize Im going to visit and I live 140 miles away !
I love this nursery! Every time I go it is a requirement to walk the entire site because you never know what you might need until you see it!
Can’t believe I’ve never been here. It’s a tragedy.
The succulents are calling my name Pam 🙂
I do enjoy visiting Barton Springs Nursery. I really appreciate the knowledgeable staff and the LABELS. I hate it when you go to a big box store and they have aisles of different plants marked “groundcover”. That’s sometimes as specific as it gets. And forget about finding something native.
They have one of the best selections of natives, and in smaller pots that make it easier to plant in my rocky yard.
I cant wait to viit them!
This is just what my plants could use.
I’ve been shopping BSN for years. I know I can count on them to have the native plants I love in the smaller sizes which are easier on my pocketbook. Their plant material is always excellent quality and I know when I buy something from them that the plants will thrive.
My cart would probably be saying that I want one of everything! I’ll shop at an independent nursery any day over a big box store.
You know, I’ve only ever been to BSN once…and that’s a shame. I meant to stop by yesterday, but wasn’t in the area until after 530 pm and figured they were probably closed seeing as how we’re in ‘fall’ now. But now I’m going to have to stop by on Friday before going to the Wildflower sale so I have an idea of prices prior to the sale (I’m specifically looking for Possumhaw and Yaupon – up in my neck of the woods, that means $100 a plant – yowch)
I love BSN!! It’s a treat to walk through the gardens where I find beautiful plants to buy that I didn’t even know I ‘needed’!! 🙂
Thanks for your wonderful postings, Pam. They inspire me.
Barton Springs is the only place I can reliably find the sedges I want!
That is one great place, and I’ve been 2X now. Next time with a car, I might have to liberate a few plants – too bad (maybe good $-wise), I can’t liberate some of the cube pots. Quite the nice, NM-blue sky you had that visit!
What a great place to shop! Love those cube planters.
I’m joining in again this week with a trip to Bulverde near San Antonio.
http://rockoakdeer.blogspot.com/2012/10/support-your-independent-nursery-field.html
This is one of the best nurseries around!
I’m quite a way from Austin now, but I do have my 25 year high school reunion this weekend. I just might have to make a pit stop for a couple of those cube planters.
I love Barton Springs Nursery for all the reasons you mention, but also because they take such good care of their stock. The Brown Turkey Fig they recommended last fall survived my dog digging it up and chewing the limbs off no less than five times before I finally gave up and moved it to the front yard where it would only have deer to contend with, and it came back strong this spring. Thanks for the good advice and producing plants that can deal with a little stress.
One of the best in Austin! Many of the 4″ plants are not found elsewhere in anything smaller than 1 gal. Thanks BSN!
One of my favorite places.
My cart always shouts..’Just what are you going to do with all this?’ I don’t usually listen..haha
I love that they always take good care of the stock. You know you’re getting a healthy plant.
I had driven by BSN countless times but never stopped as I usually go to The Natural Gardener or Great Outdoors. After reading about them a lot on your site I decided to stop in one day. They had a wonderful selection and even had quite a few discounted plants which you don’t see a lot. I’ll definitely be back! Thanks
I shop at BSN quite often. I used to work right by there and would go at lunch all the time. The best thing I find there are palms. They have so many to choose from. Plus they always have specials going and sometimes the plants are such a deal! I have not seen those cube planters – time for a visit!
Oh dear, my cart wouldn’t let leave the succulent section until I could barely pull it.
Awesome place to go to for plants, advice AND ideas!! Very South Austin – love it!
I loved Barton Springs Nursery back when it was on Barton Springs Road and I love it now that it is on Bee Caves Road. Great plants, great staff.
What a wonderful looking nursery. I know I could spend hours there.
One of my favorite places in Austin, their planters are truly gorgeous.
They have the best variety and are so very helpful. One of my favorite places in Austin.
My problem isn’t the cart……….its my car, when driving down Bee Caves. It ALWAYS takes over and turns me into that parking lot!
A place must visit if you love gardening…
I love BSN. It is a short drive from Leander. My kids know if we going to Barton Springs we will have to stop at Barton Springs Nursery on the way home.
Wow-za, that’s a big give-away! This nursery is cool for sure. I remember lusting over a trellis on the web, but was reluctant to buy it with shipping and all. Guess who had it? Bartons Springs Nursery. That trellis really adds a lot to my garden.
Love BSN! I’ve been in there several times, and every time they had what I was looking for and were super helpful in helping me find it. Highly recommend it!
Going to scout out a new planting spot just in case!
One of my very favorite places in Austin…great folks, and great plants. I love the incredible selection of 4″ plants, the shade section, and of course the succulents. Time for the fall visit!
This is my all-time favorite nursery! I’ve learned to never ever ever enter the premises unless I’m carrying nothing but cash. 😉
Wow, I would love to go to this place! Looks very interesting! Your posts always get me excited about gardening.
Since I can’t seem to get my act together enough to join in you Support Your Independent Nursery month (at least yet) I am hearby plugging Denise’s post over at A Growing Obsession, any of your readers in the Los Angeles area might want to get out there and support this local nursery before it’s too late: http://agrowingobsession.com/?p=33944
Amaaazing! I love the palm and of course those beautiful agaves!
love your blog, and BSN is my favorite nursery! like you said, pam, you come there for one thing and leave with a dozen more. where else can you get cowpen daisy and thymophylla in 4 inch pots, or at all? i love their sales, too, there’s a new one every week, and i hate to miss one. last week, i got salvias for 99 cents each, a wax myrtle for $6 and a good sized mexican plum for $12. it doesn’t get better than that! it’s like a treasure hunt every time i go there, which may be too often, since even the staff has started to tease me about not being able to stay away :).
Carte Diem y’all! 🙂
I love BSN! It is indeed a treasure hunt every time you go. I love their selection and my favorite is their 4 inch variety. The last time I went I snatched up some light pink yarrow, Wendy’s Wish Saliva and an orange daylily. My ultimate favorites that I’ve gotten so far are the pink passion vine-Passiflora Sanguinolenta, and Giant Swan Milkweed. Both of these were in gallon containers and a steal at $6. The milkweed was devoured over and over again by Queen caterpillars as was the passion vine by the Gulf Fritillary caterpillars.
My fave nursery! They have an awesome selection of shade-loving plants, and always carry something I’ve never heard of. Many of my favorite plants in my yard have come from BSN. And I always go there when I need advice for plants; they are the best staff in town.
Love reading your blogs, especially on mornings like this when I’m itching to get in the garden! Newly married and trying to turn my husbands “man yard” into a fabulous escape! Would love the chance to win the giveaway and get lost in the Barton Springs Nursery!
Love the pots and the prices at BSN. Thanks for conducting this drawing.
I can’t wait to visit!
Thank you for a wonderful motivator to get out to the garden!! I love your new “look!”
Wow! That is a really nice prize package — everything to make the garden grow and a cool T-shirt!
My favorite Nursery! Pamie G.
I am SO glad you turned me on to this place. I LOVE it now and always sink into la la land when I’m there.
HOLY COW I have not seen those gray cubes….pant pant.
Ohpleeeeeeease hope that I win this one. Pleeeeeease.
Absolutely my favorite nursery in Austin. Especially love that they propagate many of the plants they sell, and offer them in shallow soil friendly 4″ sizes.
Still my favorite nursery! Would it count if I win and make it there the weekend of the Open Days garden tour? I’m still shooting for that. 🙂
Trying to finally get a garden growing in the backyard and this would be perfect.
I don’t even need a reason to go to BSN, just a fun place to wander around and get to know plants. And absolutely fabulous for their willingness to help and their well-labeled plants.
I’ve never been to the nursery as it is so far but it does look wonderful. Your pictures do help to make it look even better though Pam. I would think that I would gravitate to the succulent section as well.
BSN is absolutely one of my faves – They have a great selection of shade plants, 4 in pots and agaves. And I always end up buying something inside the gift shop because I have no willpower!
This nursery is one of my favorites. I’m actually considering skipping the wildflower sale tomorrow and just going here instead.
I love BSN! The four inch pot section is my favorite (and easy on the wallet… unless you buy as many as I do).
I’ve lived in the area for 13 years, and this is the first time I have seen pictures of this nursery! I’m looking forward to a visit in the near future.