Pistils Nursery

Had an unpleasant experience at this place when i went there to buy some red worms.
To start with, the two young women (looked like sisters) who were staffing the place that day treated me like an unwelcome visitor from the first minute — very much cold-​shouldered, very odd. I was the only customer there at the time.
When i said i wanted to buy worms, they seemed even more reluctant to help me.
One went to get the worms but apparently had trouble finding worms in the worm bed. I should have left then, but instead i waited a long time, like a chump, while the second one went to look for worms.
Recall paying $ 30 for a bag of worms. But when i got home & eagerly searched through the worm bedding material in the bag very thoroughly, i found only a dozen worms! WHAT A RIP-​OFF! Those two greedy, snobby young women didn’t even have the decency to tell me that they didn’t have enough worms to sell me $ 30 worth — so they just CHEATED me!
There are lots of much better nurseries around Portland with helpful staff that don’t rip people off. I suggest Garden Fever on Fremont & Portland Nursery on Stark — always good plants & other products as well as decent service & no rip-​offs.

Beautiful, friendly and helpful nursery. They even let our 4 year old trail them around and help plant our new plants in the pits we purchased. They made her feel extra special giving her a couple of surprise rocks. Love this place

Have always loved Pistils. Really cute store with a bunch of unique cute little indoor plants. I have a hard time evaluating the store without comparing it to The Palm Room in Seattle, which is why it only gets 4 stars in my opinion. I bought a few little plants today and they potted them for me and were quick to check me out. I’ve never had bad service here, though, I’ve never had great service here either. Don’t take the time to tell you what plants you’re buying, how to care for them, what might be a good fit for where you’re trying to keep them. Just don’t really seem concerned for the plants they’re selling, which is really the biggest difference between here and my favorite plant store in Seattle.

Pistils Nursery is a great place to find plants for both inside and outside of your home.
The people who work here have always been very helpful in answering any questions I have in regards to plant care instructions. They even provide tips for making sure your plants will thrive once you bring them home.
Inside their shop contains all sorts of fun air plants, succulents, cacti, and other house plants. They have terrarium building supplies as well as other fun things to display your air plants and succulents. Pistils is a great place to grab a unique gift for someone who appreciates plants.
When wandering around in the outside portion of Pistils be sure to go and say hi to the chickens who live in a coop out back.
If you find yourself walking around the Mississippi neighborhood this place is definitely a place worth stopping into.

I was just dissed and ignored by two sales associates. This is so very disappointing, because I love the aesthetics of this store. I have also spent hundreds here in the last couple of years.
I am a plant enthusiast, and I love talking to others with the same interest. They have poor sales etiquette. It’s really simple to greet and acknowledge people or use the Internet for information for brainstorming.
The one sales associate I had a bad encounter with was arrogant. I asked her what kind of wood she is using for the panels for the plants she was putting together and she had no clue and had certainly no interest in engaging with me. I informed her that it is most likely cedar for water resistance and she doubted my knowledge and literally ignored me. She may fit the herbalist, earthy, sustainable, vegan, aesthetic, but let’s be real, Pistils, there are too many that fit this description in Portland, Oregon.
Hire people who have a passion or at least knowledge, and most importantly hire people who have work history or knowledge with customer service. This young sales associate came off as a spoiled little brat who could care less about a bad review.

There is an uncomfortable vibe in this establishment. I love visiting nurseries but this place could act a little more welcoming.

The store itself is worth a walk through if you’re into gardening or plants, but I found the sales woman to be very rude. She acted as though I was an annoyance when I wanted to check out. I’m not in the mind set that every store clerk needs to be cheery, but this lady was straight up snobby. Too bad.

I had a very unique and productive first visit to Pistils Nursery. I visited this business with the intent of buying containers for my two succulents, and redeeming both a «Little Boxes» offer for a free air plant and a Unilocal check-​in offer for a free 2″ succulent. Thanks to the helpful staff and the store’s vast selection, I left with a newfound love for these sun-​bathing, water-​retaining desert plants.
Pistils Nursery have a wide array of indoor and outdoor plants. The store floor is very cute and well-​decorated for people who just want to peep in for a quick look. There’s also an outdoor area that we didn’t have a chance to see, but from the pictures on Unilocal it looks beautiful.
My fiancé and I entered knowing almost NOTHING about plants, and left about two hours later with a breadth of knowledge about bulbs, succulents, terrariums, air plants, aeriums and more. We were helped by a young brunette employee who was EXTREMELY helpful and knowledgeable. We explained to her our needs and she helped us create the perfect terrariums and aerium that now sit on display in our home.
My favorite part was the terrarium bar. I never knew such a thing existed! Pistils Nursery lets you bring in your own container and succulents, and you can create your own terrarium with their supplies (they also have containers and plants for sale that you can choose from). There’s rocks, activated charcoal (for absorbing excess moisture), sand and soil that you can purchase by the scoop. You can even add fun gems and geodes to your terrarium (prices vary).
Long story short, I left the shop extremely pleased with my newly decked out terrarium and aerium, and I’d highly recommend visiting Pistils Nursery for your indoor plant needs. Prices are slightly moderate, but the products and service exceeded my expectations. Can’t wait til I’m back there again!

Came here with my mom, we were excited to learn about succulents and purchase some to make some terrariums. The lady working made us feel incredibly dumb and stupid for asking questions about how to care for the succulents. We went in and said we would like some help and she was nothing but rude to us. I really want to like this place because it’s adorable, but my goodness they were so rude to their customers.

Rude person working here tonight. Brought my mom in and was really really disappointed.

Beautiful! I happened to be wandering down Mississippi Ave and this place caught my eye. There are a wonderful collection of small plants, succulents, and all the materials necessary to create a terrarium. The outdoor space is just as lovely and there are chickens! I heard some strange sound and looked below to see a chicken pecking at some young plants. Check it out!

This place is fantastic. Beautiful plants, lots of variety, interesting «kitchen witch» herbal remedies. Definitely recommend it

As good as it gets.
Friendly, caring staff.
Great selection.
Nice location.
Decent prices.
Quality plants, pots, dirt, etc.
My guy bought me a indoor plant + pot for my birthday, and Pistils potted it for me, and gave me excellent care advice. I will come back for more plant babies!

I absolutely love this shop. Recently, I went on a nursery hunt thinking to try somewhere new. Pistils was the only plant shop I had visited in my adult life and I assumed shops like this must be a dime a dozen in PDX. I was wrong. After visiting several other shops, I realized that Pistils really is special and unique and drove to N. PDX to find a plant. I found 2. I also realized I totally overpaid for a pot at Portland Nursery that was generic and not really what I wanted. At Pistils I found two beautiful, modern-​looking pots that were under $ 20 — this is normal for all their pottery! And their plants all seem incredibly reasonable to me too. Staff was just as friendly as my last visit, suggesting plants that fit my needs and answering my questions. I love that they feature local artists and have large varieties of indoor/​outdoor plants. They also gave advice for a plant at home I was having issues w/​and made recommendations based off a picture I snapped and their advice has worked, its much happier with more sunlight and less water! I found my local plant shop!

The store is quite small and charming in it’s own endearing and trendy Portland/​Mississippi Avenue character, but the lack of space presents a problem for the browsing experience. I’m accustomed to getting lost in Portland Nursery, picking up top quality specimens at Sammy’s, or admiring the arrangements at Christopher David for inspiration. I understand Pistils positioning in smaller, indoor, and semi-​arid/​desert species. In that case, it would make more sense to focus more intensely on what they do best and mirror the website, which is phenomenal.
I really wanted to give five stars, but I left only slightly wanting more. The building, the neighborhood, and the furnishings are all great. I walked in actually wanting to be tempted into an impulse buy right before Christmas. The store’s website is truly engaging, but seeing the store in-​person is a little bit of a disconnect. Plants are unique from specimen to specimen, so there is plenty of reason to go to the store/​nursery to view the product. The website is great because each product is showcased without distraction and it is clearly labeled with pricing and specifications. Bringing clarity and eye-​level engagement to the brick-​and-​mortar could improve the retail experience and justify Portland rent and taxes.
As nursery’s change dramatically with the seasons, I imagine revisiting and hopefully find something to satisfy my plant addiction. Any critique I may give is hopefully constructive and the lack of space in these boutique shops is a challenge that many small business face.

Working on Mississippi Ave has made me double my «self care» monthly shopping budget and Pistils has a lot to do w/​that.
So I kill plants for the most part, but air plants are a little easier for me. I just have to soak them once a month! I have now started to make terrariums and bring home air plants as gifts for my roommate at least once a month.
The friendly creative staff even helped me put together a hanging terrarium insulation at the restaurant I manage!
I am so lucky to have such great neighbors on Mississippi Ave and can’t wait to do more collaborative creative plant projects and events w/​Pistils Nursery in the future.

Plants are essential to life.
We eat them, and we cultivate them on lands around our homes. Sometimes both.
I have known Pistils from roommates of them when their nursery was in a neighborhood. They are homegrown. They have been active in the Mississippi neighborhood.
In the nursery world, the plants come in pot sizes. You have to carry that pot home to plant it, so size matters.
Pistils is small size material, but they do also have larger transplanted items toward the back. They have a good selection of low water plants and some unusual dramatic plants. They have some gift items inside in a homey atmosphere.
And they have chickens! Always a hit for small persons!
(And happy 100^th 2014)

I am in love! I am in love and I don’t care who knows it! Pistils Nursery is the most adorable, amazing plant shop I’ve ever visited. I want to live within its confines, nestled among the succulents, air plants and anything else the urban gardener might fancy.
And fancy is right! This little shop is exquisitely merchandised and feels so much more spendy than it actually is. I loved browsing through all of the thoughtful displays, mentally decorating my apartment. I adored the «terrarium bar» with an awesome antique cabinet repurposed to hold various mosses, sands and other materials you would need to get your creativity on. I noticed that they offer private classes, and I’m all about taking one in the future.
BUT WAIT! THEN WE WENT OUTSIDE!
Behind the smallish storefront opens up a huge lawn filled with enough bushes, shrubs and trees to satisfy the largest of gardens. And then there are the chickens! OK, so maybe city-​chickens are old hat to you more seasoned Portlandians, but this newbie still squees with delight at the site of these fine-​feathered urbanites.
The staff was crazy friendly and knew their product well. There were numerous items I’d consider buying for friends as a gift. I will be back, and soon.

As someone who’s been known to stop into similar Kinfolkish nurseries mostly to browse whatever obscure artisan jars/​soaps/​candles are for sale, I register about a zero on the scale of botanical knowledge. Yet I aspire to Do Better. Pistils is the kind of place that’s compact enough to feel welcoming (as opposed to intimidating), and offers plenty of options for the apartment-​dweller or anyone who wants to emphasize interior as opposed to exterior collections.
I picked up a cool kokedama (bonsai-​influenced moss ball with a fern growing from it), and the woman behind the counter was very helpful with advice, suggestions, and instructions for care. It’s a lovely plant, perfect for someone who prefers order and structure with a dash of wild, and I know I’ll be back for more to add to my new collection. The inside of the shop has a large selection of other ferns, terrarium and aerium plants, and succulents. I didn’t venture into the outside pathways, but clearly there’s a skillfully arranged selection of larger (and more outdoor-​oriented) flora there. Though this isn’t the kind of massive nursery where you can find anything and everything garden-​related, whatever you can find here will be lovely.
The welcoming vibe extends to the website, where they have a cool blog with helpful tips and information, plus a link to their events calendar. They host workshops on all sorts of things and clearly intend to be not merely a nursery but a venue for sharing knowledge. Looking forward to my next visit!

I’ve been here 4 times (so far) and each time I find something new and different that I just have to have. The prices are way higher than most larger nurseries, but for unique hard to find plants I’m willing to pay the price.
I love that there are free range chickens roaming the property and in the spring there are dozens of cute little chicks in big galvanized tubs peeping and chirping in the background.
All of the employees are SUPER nice and SUPER knowledgeable! There is absolutely nothing negative that I can say about the staff, they’re wonderful.
It’s Mississippi Avenue, so of course parking is ridiculously difficult on weekends (and some weekday evenings). But it’s a great little neighborhood, so park a few blocks away and walk :)
Whenever my mother is in Portland for a visit, she wants to go here. It’s just a fun little place to stroll through.