Garden Centres
Destination nursery on No. 6 Road in east Richmond known for unusual perennials, edibles and rare plants you will not find at a big box. It runs plant workshops and mail order, and is open daily through the growing season.
Plants you will not find at a big box are the reason to make this drive: unusual perennials, edibles and genuinely rare material, with workshops running alongside and a mail-order operation that ships well beyond Richmond. Destination nursery is the accurate description. People come here on purpose, and that changes what a garden center can afford to stock, because the buying decisions are not constrained by what will move to somebody picking up bedding plants with the weekly groceries.
The setting is farmland. No. 6 Road runs north to south through the middle of east Richmond, past greenhouses, nurseries, blueberry fields and the long flat blocks of the agricultural land reserve, with the highway cutting across the far side of it. Plenty of people who live in this city never drive out into any of it. Going out there feels like leaving Richmond without actually leaving it.
It is open daily through the growing season, which is the sensible way to run a nursery in this climate. Spring is the trip for selection, and late summer is the trip for perennials that have had a season to fill out. Come on a weekday if you intend to ask questions, since the staff are half the reason to be there and they are flat out on a Saturday in May. Take a list, expect to leave with more than was on it, and allow more driving time than the map suggests. Those roads move slower than they look.
In the East Cambie neighbourhood of Richmond.
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Other garden centres and nearby businesses in the Richmond directory.
Large No. 5 Road nursery with an unexpectedly deep range of indoor, outdoor and tropical plants along with pots, soil and gardening supplies. It opens at 8:30 each morning, which suits gardeners who want to shop before the heat.
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Plant nursery on No. 5 Road in Richmond's farm belt that is far bigger inside than it looks from the road. Indoor, outdoor and tropical plants, vases and gardening supplies, with staff who help match a plant to the room it is going in.
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Family greenhouse operation on No. 2 Road near Steveston that grows about 90 percent of what it sells across roughly 25,000 square feet of glass. Best known for hanging baskets, geraniums and bedding plants, plus bulbs in fall.
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Family-run 50,000 sq ft club off No. 5 Road with cardio and free-weight floors, indoor basketball and volleyball courts, a turf strip, squash, boxing, a sauna and a women-only section. Opens at 4am on weekdays for shift workers.
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