O'Donnell's Fairfax Nursery

On February 09, 2009, wilsoncreekedu wrote:

Plants not local to Marin! This is not native plant restoration material just city street tree and back yard material. Nio contract growing project opportunities.

Great Location

On August 03, 2008, mvbirder wrote:

This was the best nursery experience ever. I've shopped at virtually all of the Marin nurseries. This is the ONLY time I had assistance from someone who was both knowledgeable AND willing to listen to my specific garden conditions in detail! The result is that I now have a fabulous and thriving native garden. The other nurseries just don't know native plants, and don't seem to want to go in that direction. This nursery is very well-organized and charming. It's easy to find what you want or browse, and the plants are placed so that you can tell whether they are sun or shade lovers. The other nurseries seem to put sun-loving plants in the shade and tell you they will do fine in part-sun, but when you get them home, they don't bloom anymore. O'Donnells has a lot of birds and butterflies flying around, so that tells me it's a good place.

On June 11, 2008, One_Lover from Fairfax, CA wrote:

O'Donnell's Nursery in Fairfax has The widest variety of native species I've seen from all the nurseries I've been to in Marin... (maybe some of their oaks are local to SC, but other than that all of their berries and other plants seem to be native, and local) (In fact, when I asked if they had bird seed, they said they didn't want to sell bird seed since their berries are all Native/local and therefore attract local birds, etc...)

I have to admit that Some of the employees may be a Little "inconsistent", But for the most part I've had very Positive interactions (with things like that, you've gotta look at the role You play in the way things unfold, or else you're not seeing the whole picture).

The plants seem to be thriving there, and I can't really imagine one of their starters dying if it was given a proper environment to grow (TLC aside)... Healthy Plant's don't die (without reason) if they are truly cared for, (no matter where they come from).

They have a great variety of organic compost soil, and the manager is incredibly knowledgeable... she helped me decide which compost was the best to mix with native Fairfax soil, and in general, she seemed to be super-friendly!

Being a local to Fairfax, this is the only nursery I buy from... not to dis on the Fairfax lumber nursery or anything, but when it comes to getting intimate, one-on-one help with Native/Local Gardening needs, O'Donnell's is the place (though, they do close @ 5:30pm every day, and I believe the Lumber yard stays open later).

I hope this review was helpful!
~Happy Gardening~
:)

On April 21, 2008, SeedLocal wrote:

Great location, nice supply of organic peuducts BUT they are selling native plants that are not local to the area but the Santa Cruz region. That is a no no with native plant restoration or practices.

Localy genetic cuttings or seed sources are best to use. An acorn from the south bay has different climate conditions programed within it versus an acorn from Marin county. Grow native and local.

On February 05, 2007, mrs_colla from Marin, CA wrote:

My husband went by to get something, and he got a rude treatment.
Some months later, I went to buy a maple tree, and got a nice treatment... Not very consistent.
The nursery looks unkempt, there is not much there.
Unless you call up ahead to see if he has what you want, I wouldn't recommend it.
(the maple tree was a little sprig, and it didn't live, despite all the TLC it got. I have 40 other trees planted, and they all live)