Drake's 7 Dees Nursery

Every once in a while good ideas grow into great ideas. Nurseries hover on the fantastic side of good ideas, design by itself is also pretty grand. Put the two together and, boom, you have the freshly renovated Drake's 7 Dees Design Showroom and Garden Center in southwest Portland, a WOW idea brought to you by some of the finest talent in the Portland nursery trade.

In 2009, Drake's which many of you may know from Drake's out on the east side of town and their landscaping services, purchased the former Langdown Florist & Garden center location on SW Scholls Ferry Road, across the street from the Portland Golf Club.

This is where it gets interesting: In 2013, Drake's closed its Southeast Stark retail space and was going to do the same with this one. Instead, they decided that with this great old space they would hire some incredible talent and change the focus to design, for which their operation is known. Anna Kullgren (of the blog Flutter and Hum), who is herself an experienced interior designer and plant goddess with an eye for sustainability, is tasked with helping to turn this charming space into a garden-design destination. Then there's the fabulous Gina Cardoza, the plant expert extraordinaire, and, of course. William McClenathan - yes, that brilliant William of television's Garden Time fame with so much experience under his belt that it's silly. The point is this: They have turned this small, retail nursery space into a place to, yes, shop for plants, but also into a garden-design showcase. You can visit for ideas from their vignettes within the nursery setting itself, find inspiration and quality products all under one roof. Plus, you can hire landscaping help right here to get it all done.
How clever is that?
Let's look around a bit.

Drake's 7 Dees goal is to provide design ideas and inspiration, as well as becoming a community resource for learning about gardening sustainably. One thing I really love is that all of their products are chemical and synthetic-free. An organic nursery- I LOVE it! And they have stopped using neonicotinoids. A very important step in the right direction for our pollinators and world health overall. Yay! Gardening for the planet for the long-term also by using long-lasting materials such as stone, not plastic to add to the landfill.

The nursery itself is not overwhelming, rather it is a manageable space. It consists of a selection of garden rooms full of design ideas and themes on the perimeter of the nursery. Tables of perennials, annuals, grasses, shrubs and trees fill the center with an enticing selection. Well-chosen garden trellises, art and containers are grouped throughout and plenty of garden products, tender succulents and houseplants are in the greenhouse/checkout area. There will be more innovative displays in the future - they are nowhere near finished from a design perspective. The grand opening a few weeks ago was, I have the feeling, the beginning of some beautiful visionary ideas from a lot of talented people.

An eye-catching selection of containers and garden art, as well as some very charming nursery help.

For a compact nursery, they really have a great selection of plants.

The terra cotta pots made me swoon and. yes, I took one home with me. I had to, it matches the house.

Plants are arranged by type for easy shopping. Here, shade annuals in a variety of choices.

Here is the first of the garden rooms - the Pacific Rim idea room.

Fountain in the background, Asian-inspired statuary and a monolithic rock-themed focal point. Broad leaf evergreens appropriate to our climate offer suggestions as to what would works well in such an environment.

Shady groundcovers in this section, and more container varieties.

Take a break in the lovely swinging bench.

Here is part of the Rustic Edible room featuring berry plants, vegetables and herbs. There are also tomato cages and container options if you'd like to grow your veggies in a raised bed or a pot.

The water trough seen here is actually a recirculating fountain. I love the idea of a galvanized trough used this way. Behind is a raised bed with newly planted starts of veggies. Hanging baskets of colanders are a fun idea in the background.

I had to show the whole thing in action. I love this -- rustic and simple.

Functional and cool, too.

It's my understanding that William made these tables. How wonderful are these legs? I love it. This is the herb section, if I'm not mistaken.

A colorful addition to the rustic edibles area. Love this table, too.

Now onto the Modern Outdoor area. Big bold colors, large leaves and comfortable furnishings are one way to go contemporary in the garden.

Really clean lines on the rusted firepit, which could be placed just about anywhere and look great and be quite useful.

Unifying color schemes add sophistication. I really like the treatment of the ground with large square pavers here. I imagine this will change over time as Drake's 7 Dees is a landscape design company with resources at their fingertips. This is the point of the showroom nursery - to share ideas, and I, for one, am looking forward to seeing it evolve.

A bottle tree with a selection of bottles.

Some fabulous containers with a glittering, subtle palette. Nice.

There is some pretty impressive garden statuary.

Here's an interior shot of the greenhouse taken earlier this spring.

This happy face is another in the large statuary category, going up on the wall.

And all the strong men taking care of business!

Not only that, this gem of a space will soon have a coffee house. Why would you ever want to leave?

It has been a pleasant surprise for me to rediscover this nursery in its new location out on the west side of town. It was totally worth the drive, not only to see my friends, but to see the incredible amount of creativity put into making this a gem of a showcase. To have William's vision, hard work and experience is a stroke of luck for the nursery, and to have the same -- the talent and hard work of Anna and Gina is brilliant. The whole crew is great, although I don't know them all. They have all worked so very very hard to make this a showcase of a design center. I say they have achieved their goal. I know more changes are on the way, so I will certainly revisit. I would love to see some earlier "before" pictures to show how far the crew has come, perhaps in another post.

In the mean time, if you are in the area, I encourage you to get out to Southwest Portland at 5645 SW Scholls Ferry Rd and pay a visit.

That's it this week at Chickadee Gardens. Thank you so much for reading and until next time, happy gardening (and garden shopping)!