Our 15th year in business

This gardening season marks the anniversary of Joy Creek's fifteenth year in business. This is a perfect time for us to look back and reflect on where we started and to see if our original vision of the nursery remains vital.

We have gone through those years often as if we were on a roller-coaster (and only very rarely as if we were stranded in a stagnant lagoon). Everyone at the nursery has had to learn new roles as we have evolved from being a small mail-order nursery to adding a second department, our retail site, and then adding a third department, landscape design and installation services.

This evolution has come about mostly from listening to what our customers have requested. For example, we would never have started our retail store if local mail-order customers had not continued to drive out to shop in our growing areas. And we would never have started our design and installation services if customers had not asked us to design and create gardens for them.

Upon reflection, we think we can say that our vision of a green and growing world remains unchanged in many ways. For instance, one component of that vision was educating home gardeners. That commitment is evidenced in the ever-changing and expanding class list, as well as in all of the lectures and symposia we participate in throughout the United States. Another component of our vision was our desire to make interesting plants available to our customers. We hope that that commitment is obvious from the plant listing in our printed catalogue and on the Joy Creek website.

© 2007 Joy Creek Nursery
Photo: Joy Creek Photo Archive © all rights reserved

Seattle Times recommends Joy Creek catalogue

Earlier this month, in The Seattle Times, writer Valerie Easton mentioned that the Joy Creek Nursery catalogue was one of two that had remained on her desk since the day they arrived as she uses them "as reference books as well as dream books."

"The Joy Creek Nursery catalog may be a little more serious in tone, but I love its concise descriptions of hundreds of desirable plants," writes Easton.

"How can owner Maurice Horn squeeze everything you need to know in just a few sentences? And since Joy Creek is in Scappoose, Ore. (not far from Portland), it has a climate similar to ours so these are plants you can count on," Easton adds. "Clematis, penstemon, hydrangeas and drought-tolerant perennials and grasses are specialties. If you're anywhere near Scappoose, be sure to drop by to see the impressive display gardens."

Easton notes that our catalog is a "plant-lovers bargain" at $3.00 and can be ordered at www.joycreek.com or 503-543-7474.

Our thanks to The Seattle Times.

© 2007 Joy Creek Nursery