PHS Meadowbrook Farm

This is a great little find with a good selection of plants. Pretty grounds. But I only give them 3 stars because I made a special trip here to purchase tomato plants advertised in an email they sent… bought several of them, took them home and discovered they were not the variety advertised or indicated by the little stake in the plant.

I used to love this place, they had the most amazing, diverse selection of unusual indoor plants I had found anywhere. I moved away from the East coast a few years ago, but on a recent trip back I went to Meadowbrook (September 2014). I was shocked to find virtually all of their unusual plants gone! I inquired and was told that they didn’t have most of them anymore. I was so disappointed, I will not return there.

I go here to escape the bleak winter for at least a few minutes. Their greenhouse and main building are filled with tropical plants, succulents, cactus, and seasonal plants. If I can’t make it to Longwood Gardens and I need a pick me up, I come here. Prices are good.

I recently visited this place, and I think it’s a little-​known secret. It would be very easy to overlook if you didn’t know about it. I hesitate to give it five stars though, for reasons I explain below. There’s a massive selection, which as I explain below, I think is very good for herbs, but not very good for perennials. I think this place has a few key changes they could make that would make me really excited about them – mainly offering more native perennials and fewer horticultural varieties, and more genetically-​unique open-​pollinated plants.
I found the staff very helpful, and they seemed to have more knowledge at their fingertips (a good database in the computer + people who know enough to interpret it intelligently) than most garden centers.
I thought prices were really reasonable, although one minor complaint that I had was that I thought the prices were more reasonable on the small pots than the large. 2×2 pots of herbs, and a slightly larger round size are $ 4 and under, but the next biggest size up tends to be priced in the $ 10 – 12 price range. The effect is that if you’re lucky enough to be buying plants available in small pots, you can buy a lot of them for a very reasonable price. If you want to buy something only available in big pots you’re out of luck, especially if you want multiple copies of it. I wanted to buy some Monarda, but I wanted a lot of small ones to spread them out, and they just had it in single, big pots, so I decided to get the monarda somewhere where I can get plugs or small pots in quantity. But this complaint is minor. Prices were still reasonable, given the size of the pots.
My biggest complaint about this place though: their stock seems heavily skewed towards horticultural varieties of plants, which are almost always cloned plants, not open-​pollinated, genetically unique individual plants. As a matter of my beliefs and values, I prefer open pollinated plants, and out of prinicple, I always buy them with the exception of food plants like herbs – but even there I prefer them if it’s a plant where there is an open-​pollinated variety that tastes good.
Why do I like genetically-​unique, open pollinated plants? They fare better in the long-​run, using their genetic diversity to adapt to pests and local conditions. They also provide more of an asset to the local ecosystems when you buy native open pollinated plants, and allow them to seed into the wild.
I don’t care if they don’t look as pretty or aren’t initially as vigorous. I care about sustainability and I care about the long-​run. I want to buy open pollinated because I want my yard to have as great an ecological impact on the surrounding ecosystems as possible.
This leads into my other main complaint: this place’s seleciton is still dominated by non-​natives. While I understand this for the food plants, it just doesn’t make sense to me for the perennials and landscaping plants, especially for the shade ones. There was one species of trillium, no mayapple, no jack in the pulpit. They had several varieties of non-​native wild ginger but none of the native wild ginger. There was a horticultural variety of the polygonatum species native to East Asia (Polygonatum falcatum) but not the native species (Polygonatum commutatum) nor the beautiful false Solomon’s seal (Maianthemum racemosum) which really thrives in this climate. They had Allegheny foamflower, but nothing natural – just two horticultural cultivars. I want to buy the real stuff, straight from nature and cultivated for genetic diversity, not looks.
So I think this place has a LONG way to go if they’re to become a leader in sustainability and ecological impact.
I want to keep coming back here and working with this place, because the people here were really nice, knowledgeable, and attentive, and even with my complaints, I found a lot here that I was enthusiastic about, and I bought some very vigorous and reasonably priced herbs. So far, of the plants I bought here, all but one are doing well, the other has developed a bit of mildew but I think that’s just a function of the unusually wet weather following me planting them. So I think the health and quality of the plants here is fine – if anything significantly above average compared to a typical commercial nursery.
But I really want to see this place take it up a notch ecologically. I really want to see more native plants, taken from local populations and grown in open-​pollinated environment so each plant I buy is genetically distinct and adapted to local conditions, and will help support wild populations of this plant. This way when we plant these plants in our gardens, they’ll be helping to maintain the integrity of the local ecosystems for generations to come. I think gardening isn’t just about temporary beauty, it’s about ecology.

When i was little, one of my favorite books was «The Secret Garden». This place is just as magical & beautiful as the book. I went last weekend for the spring open house… my son & i wandered around the gardens in amazement at beauty of the numerous fountains, flowers, cool gates & beautiful plant displays. The store itself had a large array of flowers, shrubs, veggies, trees, gifts & a very knowledgeable staff. I can’t wait to go back!

If you are a gardener you know you can go to the big box stores like Home Depot and Lowes and buy plants. You’ll find the basics and maybe and occasional interesting specimen. However you don’t know what you are missing until you visit here. This is where you find unique specimens, great quality, and fair prices. Any serious gardener in the area comes here at least once a year. It’s absolutely worth the trip.
Note that their website says they are in Meadowbrook, PA. Many GPS units won’t recognize that address. Use Jenkintown and you’ll find the correct street address.