In the Thicket of things: An urban boutique nursery in Portland
Sopping up a plateful of sausage gravy with fluffy, fist-sized biscuits at a picnic table outside of Pine State Biscuits, I glimpsed an open gate and profusion of plants just a dozen yards away, tucked behind a nearby building. We were in Portland, Oregon, on a mid-August morning, enjoying breakfast at a popular spot on N.E. Alberta Street (the line to get into Pine State wrapped around the building but moved fast). After we put away our biscuits, we strolled over to browse the nursery, charmingly named Thicket.
It’s an adorable, enticing boutique nursery, filled with plants I was sure I could not grow here in Austin, so I simply window-shopped.
They have a nice selection of small pots for the urban or porch gardener…
…scrumptious plants for small urban yards…
…and trendy pitcher plants for container ponds.
And what have we here? A nice succulent selection too!
Lovely succulent containers adorn the nursery. I liked this one with pastel echeverias and an echoing ‘Blue Boy’ Yucca desmetiana.
Lipstick-pink bromeliads in a galvanized tub are eye-catching too.
A succulent tapestry
I want them all.
Notice the fall-like foliage of the trees in the background, echoing the orange crocosmia blooms in the foreground. Nope, it wasn’t fall color. Just an example of the rich foliage colors available to those in the Pacific Northwest. No, I’m not bitter.
Wouldn’t these succulents look pretty planted up in a rusty old wheelbarrow?
I’m glad we had the opportunity to get lost in Thicket one morning, with bellies full of biscuits, before setting off on other Portland adventures.
Up next: The beautiful Portland Japanese Garden. For a look back at Portland’s classical Lan Su Chinese Garden, click here.
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What a nice little side stop. I am proud of you for not succumbing to a purchase at Thicket. Maybe I should say amazed since you found those succulents. 😉
Ha, well, Austin nurseries have a good selection of succulents too. —Pam
I love places like that. When I lived in Santa Monica, there was a similar boutique nursery just one street up, also sandwiched between cozy restaurants and cute little shops. It was the perfect place to pop into and decompress when I was in grad school. Its elimination was the beginning of the end of my residency in Santa Monica.
That’s too bad. Like you say, it’s lovely to have little nurseries like these tucked into urban areas. —Pam