The Natural Gardener really needs no introduction, as it’s far and away Central Texas’s organic gardening HQ—and has been since 1993. Founder John Dromgoole is a pioneer in the advancement of organics, environmental issues, and sustainability and is responsible for introducing much of Austin to the mentality and the methods—and has spread the gospel on TV, radio, and in public appearances for more than 40 years. Also, there’s a cat.

The five-acre Cedar Park establishment is a destination nursery that specializes in hands-on service and coaching and has demonstration ponds, disappearing streams, fountains, fish, statuary, pottery, and garden art on the premises.

Barton Springs Nursery specializes in native Central Texas plants, most of which it grows on the premises. It’s been around since 1986, and the owners and staff know their stuff when it comes to creating fantastic local gardens.

Another perennial (plant joke, hah) Austin favorite, the Great Outdoors has managed to keep its space on ever-busier South Congress Avenue filled with a large, well-curated selection—and to keep the towering oaks, waterfall, greenhouse, and winding paths a not-so-secret oasis in the big city. You’re almost guaranteed to find unusual plants there, and it has a large selection of planters, tools, decorations, wind chimes, supplies, and the like for sale as well.

Central Austinites swear by Shoal Creek Nursery for both its convenient location and its colorful, 1.5-acre grounds, where you can wander among its wide selection of high-quality plants, imported pottery, water features, gardening supplies, and gifts. There’s also another cat. And quite a few butterflies.

The longtime Burnet Road supplier of planters and pottery, statues, talavera, outdoor furniture, and accessories changed its name from “Miguel’s Imports” in 1996, when it started carrying a variety of plants suited to its southwestern styles and climates.

Native Succulents’ colorful North Lamar store and its frequent pop-ups offer a wide variety of of gorgeous arrangements, solo plants, and containers. It also hosts plant parties and—perhaps best of all—free events such as “How Not to Kill Succulents, Cacti, [and] Air Plants.”

You’ll find plenty of succulents and other unusual plants to peruse and purchase at Plant Party, but half the fun there is in the making. The appropriately petite place, located in Central East Austin, offers opportunities to host, as the name implies, parties at which you and your friends can create your own green, potted wonderlands with the shop’s inventory and the staff’s guidance.

Desk Plants, an Austin-based business that until now has been online only, opened its first brick-and-mortar store recently at the Domain. While the whole office-plant thing is clearly their marketing niche, they’re of course a great resource and shop for plants destined for your house or any other indoor spot. Their selection offers all low-maintenance and hard-to-kill indoor tropicals of all sizes, so all have to do is pick a plant, pick a pot, have it potted while you wait, and receive easy-to-follow instructions on how to not kill it. They have a hotline, too.

East Austin and succulents seem like a good fit, right? The nursery by that name, located basically next door to Tillery Street Plant Company, has a flair for creative twists on arrangements, goes in for a little fun and whimsy, and features a large inventory of plants, planters, plant hangers, and more. And a cat. A black cat, at that.

Being named after a Henry Miller book, that’s cool, right? Or maybe it’s the latitudinal thing. Either way, it’s another plant-oriented East Austin shop and mercantile with excellent taste offering a curated selection of healthy indoor plants, women-created ceramics, and apothecary and lifestyle items.

A Central Texas stalwart from back when Round Rock was a tiny bedroom community, more known for its place on the Chisholm Trail than for its microchips (or something like that), Round Rock Garden Center continues to supply the tech center to our north with plants, associated sundries, planters, classes, and advice to all.