FAQ

What are your hours?

We are typically open seven days a week, mid-April through October, but our hours change throughout the season. For current hours, please call us at 814-364-2881.

Are you handicap accessible?

All display areas are completely paved and handicap accessible, as is the majority of our parking lot.

What payment methods do you accept?

We accept cash, checks, and most credit/debit cards (on purchases over $10). Please note, all card transactions are subject to a 3% surcharge to offset the high costs of accepting credit card payments. Gift certificates are always available and never expire!

Do you grow your own plants?

Most of them! We start rooting about 100,000 cuttings in December and over the next several months receive more cuttings and some rooted starter plugs, and then seed thousands of plants as well.

Anything that we don’t grow on-site, we purchase from specialty suppliers or from an area wholesale auction. There are fewer things that we do this with, and they’re usually thingsĀ  that we’ve already sold out of, that we were not able to get ready in time, or that are too cost-prohibitive for us to raise. (Trees and shrubs fall into this category, which means that we usually have some in stock but our selection fluctuates.) In the summer we also offer some fresh produce, the selection of which changes based on what’s at the market.

What kind of plants do you have?

All sorts! We offer bedding annuals, vegetables, pond plants, herbs, succulents, perennials, roses…. Flats for mass planting, potted plants in many sizes and price points, planters and hanging baskets of various sizes & plant combinations…

Last year, we had over a hundred different herb varieties, about two hundred different kinds of vegetables including heirloom tomatoes, and at least a hundred different succulents. Airplants too! We love variety! We’re always trying out new things.

What do you sell aside from plants?

We carry bags of potting and top soils, mushroom compost, pine bark mulch, peat moss, and sometimes cow manure. The selection can change throughout the season– we typically get one big shipment early on, and sell out of most items during the season.

I got ___ from you last year, will you have it again this year?

The easy answer is, we carry many of the same things from year to year, but there are always some things that change. Usually what changes is the specifics– we always have tomato plants, but maybe not the same varieties. Or, we have geraniums, but not that one same shade of pink.

Sometimes, it’s a matter of finding a plant that is better in some way. Maybe we try a new variety of red petunia because we didn’t like the way last year’s grew. Or, last year perhaps we grew two red petunias that ended up being very similar, and to simplify we picked the best one and stuck with that this year.

Other times, it’s a matter of supply. When we get our shipments of cuttings in the winter, some items might get canceled from our order because lots of other growers wants the same thing and there isn’t enough to go around, or because weather/other conditions have created a shortage. (Or, our least favorite occurrence, the cuttings arrive but have been frozen in shipment.) Or it could be due to demand. When we have to order cuttings in increments of 100 and then only sell 20 plants, there’s some picking and choosing that has to happen. It might mean that we only offer fifteen kinds of lavender, rather than thirty.

You are always welcome to give us a call and check before making the drive out.

How do I keep my hanging baskets looking nice all summer long?

There are a few tricks to this. The first step is to keep your baskets properly watered~ a basket that gets dried up and wilted every week is going to show it very soon! Make sure you water your basket if it is light (but before the plants wilt!) until it is heavy and water runs out the bottom. During hot weather, this will be every day for most plants.

Most baskets will also need to be fertilized. Regular feeding will give the plant the nutrition it needs to keep producing healthy leaves and bountiful flowers. Miracle-Gro is great for this, as it’s easy to find & use and comes in formulations for just about every kind of plant. Be sure to follow the package directions for mixing & how often to apply– too much fertilizer will damage plants as the salts build up in the soil.

An exception: New Guinea impatiens should not be fertilized very often– you’ll get a great, bushy plant with healthy leaves but no flowers!

All of our baskets contain slow-release fertilizer and water-holding gel, which makes them easier to care for as well as long-lasting, but they absolutely still need regular watering and feeding to truly thrive.

Some plants will still tend to get long and leggy. If your basket starts to get bare on top, you can cut it back. We do this to our crop at least once over the summer, especially with baskets containing petunias or calibrachoa. Take a pair of heavy scissors or shears, and cut off everything even with the rim of the basket or planter. It will take about two weeks to reflower, but the plants will branch more and cover up any bald spots, and your baskets will look brand new.

Do you recycle pots, trays, etc?

We re-use everything that we can. We are able to use plastic pots, flats, trays, hanging baskets, etc, provided they came from us to begin with. This has to do with how we fill those items with soil~ most go through our flat filler, and everything has to be the same size and the right shape to keep the machine from jamming.

There is usually a large bin on the edge of the parking lot with a sign indicating that you can return these items.

We are unable to re-use damaged/broken pots and baskets, empty 4-paks, most containers purchased at other locations, as well as broken garden tools, plastic bags, and other household garbage. Please discard or recycle these items rather than returning them to us.

Where’s Sammy?

Ah, the elusive Sammy. We hate to say, there is no Sammy! It’s Sammis Greenhouse, pronounced Sam-miss, not Sammy’s Greenhouse. The owner’s name is Leo Sammis.