In the heart of Debary, Florida is a nursery right off of HW 17 that is easily seen from the road by its large sign and chicken statue. Parking is easy to access for most vehicles, although trucks with trailers will have a hard time getting in and out. This place is packed with a wide variety of plants, and they carry a large inventory of each. Staff are very welcoming and ready to assist you find anything you need. In addition to plant sales, there is a beautiful wooden building containing their "Gift Room" with a semi-outdoor checkout counter. Near the checkout counter, there are shelves loaded with bags of garden soils, soil amendments, fungicides, herbicides, pesticides, garden hoses, and much more. Additionally, they sell some pretty unique lawn decorations.

In the section closest to the road, you can find a wide variety of edible and fruiting plants. Fruit trees such as pears, peaches, dragon fruit, papaya, citrus, olive trees, and much more are easily found and marked with cards. They had mature Moringa trees loaded with seed pods. I was surprised to see Cranberry Hibiscus in this section as I hadn't seen a nursery carry this plant until now. In this section there are also a lot of shrubs in large quantities as if they are ready to supply landscaping companies.

The back of the nursery really opens up and is loaded with plants in wide rows. This makes walking through with carts very easy. Back here, there is a decent variety of flowering shrubs. I noticed they carried the Florida native Firebush. However, they also carry the non-native Firebush in the rows right next to it.

Next to this section is a smaller selection of tall grasses.

There are several rows of flowering plants. I thought they had a really good supply of each kind. All flowers are marked with identification cards, native status if applicable, and a little blurb about the plant. They carry several native flowers including Tropical Sage, native milkweeds, blue curls and more. All native plants are marked as such. Included in the flowering plants are several herbs such as basil, mint, oregano, and parsley.

I was impressed by the native plant selection. My previous visit around 1 year prior had left me somewhat disappointed with the low variety in native plants. It seems that they have been adding more variety in their native plants and I hope they continue to do so.

Unfortunately, they are selling non-native look-alikes and invasive plants such as Lantana camara, Tropical Milkweed Asclepias curassavica, Giant Milkweed, and non-native porterweed. I understand that these plants are highly sought after by gardeners who have no thought of invasive status. But deep down I would hope that nurseries who are selling native plants would replace those invasive plants with their native counterparts. If you are selling native milkweeds, why offer the invasive non-natives? Why not switch the non-native porterweed with the native? Why not switch lantana camara with the native Buttonsage Lantana?

I will not pretend to know how easy it is to run and make a profit as a store front nursery. And until we as consumers transition our spending, I can not 100% blame a nursery for selling the plants consumers are buying more frequently.

Debary Nursery offers a 6 month guarantee on all their plants. You do have to bring the dead plant and the receipt in for them to honor the warranty. Pretty standard amongst nurseries. Unfortunately for contractors and wholesale buyers, they do not offer wholesale pricing.

If you are in Debary and looking for plants to add to your foodscape or your native garden, stop on by Debary Nursery. You will enjoy their variety and atmosphere while watching butterflies and other pollinators bouncing around as you shop.