Mad River Gardens

Great local independent garden supply shop, with one of the best selections of tree stock around. Conveniently located right off the 101 at the Guintolli/​Janes road exit. Stay/​look to the west side of the highway.
I stop here periodically when I can’t find what I’m looking for at my neighborhood dirt store. They carry a full line of garden implements, as well as specialized garden supplies just for our area here in Humboldt.
They always have a great selection of fruiting and ornamental trees during the bare root and spring seasons.
Knowledgeable staff has always been professional and kind to me in all my dealings, competitive prices and a good supply of most everything you might need for keeping your garden, trees, plants green and healthy.
Worth a visit, easy access from the 101.
3.5 stars — rounded up for the great tree selection.
396

Awesome nursery!!! Great variety especially if you’re a mint lover like me! I bought 6 different fantastic varieties. I’m going again today to snag more strawberries thanks guys you rock

This is a wonderful nursery with an amazingly knowledgable staff. They have a good size selection of healthy house plants which is what I was looking for and the prices are completely reasonable. Awesome customer service from every employee I encountered too!

We have been coming here for years and are always so impressed with how friendly and helpful everyone is. They’ve got it all. Highly recommend!

I’ve spent around $ 75.00 at the Mad River Gardens Nursery, and I really regret every dollar I’ve spent there because the staff is incredibly rude, disrespectful, and unwilling to help customers, even when you ask them for help.
I was there today, 3÷25÷15, and asked the clerk «Sara» for help. I said I needed a flower that was blue. She said «yes, I” be right with you». I waited for almost 10 minutes as I looked around, waiting for assistance. She just walked away, and took no interest at all. It was of absolutely no importance to help the customer. In fact, when I walked back up to the counter to look for her, she was gone, but the man with the beard was standing there, and said to me «oh, I guess you found something blue». So she obviously told this man that I needed assistance, and was looking for blue flowers, and he too offered absolutely no assistance.
The last time I was there, which was just a few days ago, I walked in the front door, said hello to an employee standing there. he asked me if I needed help, I said «I don’t know, we’ll see». There was a different female employee behind the counter, and I said hello as I walked past her. She very rudely said absolutely nothing. I received very shabby service on that purchase as well.
In fact, the very first time I shopped there, which was about two weeks ago, an older woman, who seemed like the owner was also very rude, and aggressive in her tone, when speaking to me. I think people who spend money at local business’ deserve better customer service, and common courtesy. Mad River Gardens Nursery, the owners, as well as employees, have no respect, or regard for the people who spend their hard earned money there, and keep their business active.
Today, I finally just walked out, and made no purchase, and I strongly encourage others to do the same exact thing. I walked out the door, and drove directly to ACE Hardware. I can buy plants at many places, but I’m starting to shop less at the private local business’, and more at the corporate owned stores like ACE, Walmart, and online entities like Amazon. I’m just sick and tired of these people acting like they can shit on their customers whenever, and however they want, and we just have to take it. No, just walk out, and spend your money somewhere else. Hopefully, we’ll see places like Mad River Gardens go out of business. I think that would be a better service to the community.

Many people told me that this place is expensive so I never went here. I left feeling like I got a very good deal and I thought the prices were very reasonable for high quality plants.
Seems like long-​term Arcata residents love this place cause the staff seemed to know everyone who came in.
I went in looking for air plants. From the moment I went in the staff was continuously asking if I needed help. Everyone here seemed very knowledgeable about plants and I got exactly what I needed. I got two air plants and a palm all for $ 10.
I’ll for sure come back here. They have such a great selection.

This is the best plant nursery on the coast and everyone knows it: be prepared for them to run out of popular stock! Great array of shade plants, herbs and small fruit orchard plants. Everything they have will do well on the coast. I like that they carry Territorial Seed.

At MRG, I found the garden tool I needed for $ 10 less and of much better quality than the other 4 businesses nearby. Quality matters and the lower prices are a bonus.
I like the way they do business. It shows.

Great service! Ended up going twice in one day because I know they have everything I’m looking for and are much closer than any competitors. I will be coming back, their variety is amazing and their team is knowledgeable: D LOVE IT

This place is awesome! Very friendly staff, good selection. It’s a little pricey, but hey, support the independent nursery!

My wife and I set aside some time to visit nurseries on this trip. We visited this one first. We loved it. The selection is large, the staff is friendly, knowledgeable and outgoing and the prices are reasonable.
They have several seed racks from many different companies. If you can’t find the seeds you’re looking for here, you probably don’t need them anyway! Their bookshelf contains books on every topic you can imagine.
We were quite impressed with this nursery.

Super friendly and knowledgeable staff. This will definitely be my go to garden store.