Sometimes the Best Place to Buy a Plant...

...Isn't a nursery. It's a local hardware store.

I bet just about every gardener has bought plants at the big box hardware stores, such as Home Depot and Lowes. But I've also bought plants at small neighborhood hardware stores, or local chains, such as the one where my friend Debbie Teashon works, in Kingston, called Kingston Henery Hardware. You may remember I toured the gardens for the Music in the Gardens tour with her back in July, and posted about it here and here.

Debbie writes and manages the website Rainyside.com, which is primarily about plants that are specifically suited to our Pacific Northwest climate, which is a combination of rainy fall, winter and spring, and a very dry, cool summer. She was recently hired by Henery Hardware to revamp their plant section, and when Nigel and I were up on the Kitsap Peninsula for his recent birthday, I visited her at her new digs, and checked out what she's done and the current plant selection.

Fabulous Echinacea

And aren't these Rudbeckias cool?

A colorful display of pots

The shade pavilion had a nice selection, including an Astilboides tabularis that came home with me.

Debbie's been putting fall and winter containers together, and they've been quite popular!

Colorful tomato cages

I adore that tulip-shaped pot, with its rusty patina!

The plants were very well chosen!

When I lived in Massachusetts, they did indeed sell plants at Lowes and Home Depot. I was very surprised when I moved here to Washington state, to find that lots of small hardware stores also carry quite an impressive plant selection.

Are there local hardware stores near you that rival small nurseries?