Nursery spreads branches across county

Whether selling wholesale to landscapers from around the state or to local residents looking to spruce up their own gardens, Spring Gardens Nursery has been providing hundreds of varieties of plants to the region for nearly 20 years.

Manager Jose Pelaez, who has worked at Spring Gardens Nursery since October 1993, said owner Richard Gieseke opened Spring Gardens Nursery in November 1992 at 18811 Tomato St. near the intersection of Spring Cypress and Kuykendahl Road. The 1.3-acre site served the community for years until September 2010, when the nursery was moved to the 12-acre site off of Gosling Road.

"I think he decided to go this direction basically because of the development around it," Pelaez said of the move. "There's a lot of new subdivisions that require plant material. We were in main Spring, but we moved north where the construction's going. You can tell it's exploding everywhere."

The nursery uses the original site and about five acres of the new location as growing operations, he said. Pelaez said there are about 600 to 700 main types of plants and trees at the nursery, but with as many as 25 types of lantanas or 50 types of azaleas, the total number could be as high as 2,000 to 3,000.

Most gardens consist of trees, shrubs and some form of annuals or perennials to provide color, Pelaez said, but Spring Gardens sells mostly flowering plants. He said the nursery sells as many as 5,000 to 6,000 plats of annuals and perennials every six-month planting season.

The historic Texas drought in 2011 had a favorable effect on the business, Palaez said, with sales booming as a result of the mass death of plants across the region. Although the drought required the nursery to water as often as three times a day, he said business has improved as landowners have replaced the damage caused by the drought.

"We are trying to stock really high right now," he said.

Live oaks are especially popular with builders because they are tough and can endure droughts, Pelaez said. However, the nursery's top sellers are fruit trees, including oranges, grapefruits, peaches, apricots, apples and pears, as well as tomatoes.

With spring around the corner, Pelaez recommends several plants, including crepe myrtles for trees and confetti lantanas, thryallis and blue plumbago for flowering plants. Wax myrtles are especially popular in The Woodlands because of their size and versatility. He said residents and landowners purchase them to block out visibility of buildings in The Woodlands, but they can also be carefully maintained and trimmed to fit a certain shape or design.

The nursery grew 1,500 15-gallon wax myrtles last year and sold them all, he said. The nursery grows 500 every few months to ensure they are always in stock.

In addition, the nursery offers dozens of species of trees for landowners looking for variety, including pines, red maples, red oaks, white oaks, ash trees, magnolias and more than 15 varieties of crepe myrtles. Trees are sold as small as 5 gallons to as large as 200 gallons. Spring Gardens Nursery offers a variety of unusual shrubs and flowering plants as well, such as the tricolor ginger, the golden thryallis and ligularias.

With development continuing to grow in south Montgomery County and Spring, Pelaez said he hopes business will continue to thrive in the near future.

"We're hoping that with all the exploding construction, they'll need the plants and trees and that we can supply them," he said. "To make a better world."

Popular for spring planting

These Texas Superstar plants—chosen by Texas A&M System for durability and aesthetics—are best planted in the spring:

• Texas Gold Columbine
• Gold Star Esperanza
• New Wonder Fan Flower
• Firecracker Jatropha
• Flare Perennial Hibiscus
• Lord Baltimore Perennial Hibiscus
• New Gold Lantana
• Dwarf Mexican Petunia
• Laura Bush Petunia
• John Fanick Perennial Phlox
• Mystic Spires Blue Salvia
• Pride-of-Barbados
• Gold Thryallis
• Blue Princess Verbena
• Cape Plumbago

For more information on Texas Supertar plants, go to www.texassuperstar.com

Spring Gardens Nursery, 24201 Gosling Road, Spring, 281-655-8100, www.springgardensnurseryinc.com