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THE GREER GARDENS STORY Greer Gardens is situated a few miles north of Eugene in Oregon’s lush Willamette River Valley. More than 4,500 varieties of plants grow on the 14-acre property stretching back from a row of Chamaecyparis at the Garden’s northern boundary on Goodpasture Island Road. Local patrons and customers from across the country shop at Greer's for perennials, trees, shrubs and the Gardens’ specialty, rhododendrons. Most of the business, however, comes from the thousands of people who place their orders for rare and unusual plants by telephone or mail. Greer Gardens ships plants year-round all over the country and indeed to all corners of the globe. Owners Harold and Nancy Greer live on the property in a house next door to the business headquarters, an unimposing structure housing the office and shipping department. Customers often encounter the Greer's tabby, Sassafras, who enjoys the run of the grounds and likes to stamp paperwork with his muddy paw prints. Harold Greer walks around the Gardens every day in old shirts and jeans, his casual attire belying his status as a world authority on rhododendrons, a successful horticultural photographer and the proprietor of one of the country’s leading nurseries. Harold is usually always available to advise customers and often he astounds them with his ability to glance at a leaf and identify the plant it came from. Visitors seeking a special plant or simply enjoying the vistas of flowers and trees are likely to bump into Harold attending to plants or snapping photographs for the Greer Gardens catalog. Greer Gardens is open seven days a week. Hours are 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. The nursery is located in the Pacific Time Zone, three hours earlier than Eastern Standard Time. The address is 1280 Goodpasture Island Road, Eugene, OR 97401. Greer’s toll-free number is 1-800-548-0111 or we can be contacted at orders@greergardens.com LETTER FROM HAROLD GREER Greeting to Our Friends, It has been a pleasure to serve you for another year and we appreciate the many kind words you send us about our plants. We try hard to provide quality plants. The winter has been warm and the plants have come through the season in excellent shape, so we will have some beautiful plants for your orders. I have to mention "Sudden Oak Death" which is properly known as Phytophthora ramorum. I am sorry this has become such a political issue, but I can assure you that we do not have the disease in our plant material. We are glad to see both the Oregon Department of Agriculture and the USDA watch this issue closely. The ODA has taken literally 1000’s of samples to watch for this disease. Our nursery has had a very large number of samples taken, and all have come back clean. Any arriving shipments to us will also be tested if necessary, so you can be assured you are receiving plants free of Phytophthora ramorum. Our shipments will be certified with the following official government certification which can only be given to disease free plants from certified nurseries: I also want to address shipping costs, which I wish were less. We are dealing with a heavy weight, low value product and there is no low cost shipping with any carrier anymore. We do not intend to make money on shipping, but we do have to cover our costs in order to continue to provide you with beautiful plants. We again thank you for letting us serve you. We have been shipping plants since 1968. That means we have been putting out catalogs for 39 years! We hope we can continue to fulfill your plant needs. Best Wishes 2006 |