Shades of Green Marketing Manager Tim Wardell said staff wants people to succeed at gardening and understands that it’s not easy.

“We’ve made all the mistakes,” Wardell said. “We will help you in any way that we can because once you figure it out, it’s a lot of fun.”

Long story short

Wardell said owners Jeff McCauley and Rob Weir opened the nursery 1989, moved operations to Frisco in 1994 and relocated to its current location in 1999. In June 2022, Shades of Green opened a nursery in Celina. Weir has since retired, and McCauley’s daughter and son-in-law Rebecca and Jarratt Calvert, who serve as office manager and operations manager, respectively, plan to eventually take over the business when McCauley retires.

Rebecca and Jarrett were both born and raised in Celina and had wanted to open a location there for some time.


Wardell said phases one and two of construction for the Celina store are complete with the final phase, which includes the office and retail building along with a concrete parking lot, expected to begin in early 2024. Once complete, the location will have roughly 3,000 square feet of retail and office space.

Because agriculture is essential in Texas, Shades of Green remained open during the COVID-19 pandemic, a time when many people took up gardening as a hobby or for landscaping projects.

“People were stuck at home,” Wardell said. “They were bored with nothing to do. COVID caused a massive interest in gardening and landscaping, and it really hasn’t tapered off all that much.”

What’s special about it?


Shades of Green employees are passionate about plants and gardening, Wardell said.

“They want to work in the plant industry,” Wardell said. “We have a very knowledgeable staff, and probably within the last year, we’ve had the most knowledgeable staff I’ve ever worked with.”

Additionally, Shades of Green specializes in plant species native to North Texas, adding the store doesn’t sell plants, such as azaleas, that don’t grow well in North Texas soil. Shades of Green also has a 50-acre tree farm in Collinsville, which grows plants to be sold at the nursery.

Quote of note


“The fact that you can shop outside, and we have all this great scenery; we have the creek and the trees; it's not like going to Home Depot,” Wardell said. “Our tagline is that we are unique, knowledgeable and native.”

Shades of Green