Out and About: Houseplant heaven at The Plant Farm

SPOKANE—Last weekend, my mom and I had to head to Spokane while a family member was in surgery. Sacred Heart's COVID-19 restrictions only allow for one visitor every 24 hours, so we were unable to go into the hospital and decided to check out a few plant nurseries while we waited for surgery updates.

My mom and I are both houseplant collectors. Plants have become my 'quiet-place,' and I've spent several hours just wandering around local nurseries as a way to destress. We spent a couple of hours researching nurseries in the Spokane-area, and eventually decided to check out The Plant Farm, at 14208 E 4th Ave, Spokane Valley.

The Plant Farm is a sprawling plot of greenhouses, open-air growing space, and a heavenly retail front. Their sister company, Creach Greenhouses, is one of the nurseries that Nancy's Dream Garden buys from throughout the year, and I've been nothing shy of impressed so far. Both businesses are run by 76-year-old Imogen Creach, her family, and more than seventy employees.

When we first pulled into the nursery, we were met by hundreds of pumpkins, gourds, and squash, all priced to sell. One greenhouse is dedicated to their retail front, with one side of the greenhouse focusing on pots, decor, macrame hangers, and Plant Farm swag and gifts. There were a handful of pre-potted plants, and some glorious specimen plants, throughout the entire space.

In the middle of the greenhouse, tables of tropical starts in various pot sizes stole the show. Hanging planters full of vining philodendrons, ferns, and trandscentias gave the greenhouse a jungle-like feel.

The very back table was full of young foliage plants in 4" pots that were on sale for $2.99. There were lots of extremely healthy dieffenbachia 'Camille' starts, arabica coffee plants, china doll plants, assorted ferns... to name a few! I appreciated this particular table, because houseplants can be expensive to get into. Not everyone can afford $25 and up for plants, especially when you are just learning, and I appreciate this nursery for understanding. I've found that the expensive plants are usually the first to give you fits, anyways.

Even the bigger plants were reasonably priced, I thought. I picked up a Ficus benjamina, or a 'weeping fig' for $15. I'm not joking when I said I had to do some serious inspecting because the young tree was so perfect, I was convinced it was fake. They had various alocasias in 6" pots for $15-$20, and a cute assortment of rubber trees for $6-$15 (I picked up a ruby 'rubber tree' in a 6" pot for $10. It had minimal leaf imperfections). The difference between small-nursery raised plants and big box store plants is night and day!

My mom snagged a cute little peace lily, and couldn't understand when all I could say was 'good luck.' Peace lilies are notorious drama queens. The joke was really on me, after I got to reading about the china doll plant that ended up in my cart.

The staff was also incredible. They were attentive, friendly, and always ready to answer questions. While we were checking out, the cashier apologized for the greenhouse feeling 'empty' (I assumed it was just because it was November), but it turned out that this is the time of year that The Plant Farm typically starts their poinsettia tours, growing more than 25,000 poinsettias. The tours have been postponed as a result of the pandemic.

If you're not heading to Spokane but want to check out some Creach Greenhouse/ The Plant Farm plants, head over to Nancy's Dream Garden Center, in Waitsburg. Doug and Janet go on plant-buying sprees, and hand-pick many varieties to sell in Waitsburg. I recently picked up a euphorbia mammillaris, also known as a corn cob cactus, that was grown at Creach.

The Plant Farm has a great online store, at http://www.spokaneplantfarm.com, which carries a variety of plug starts, 4" pots, and more. I tend to shy away from ordering plants online because of the temperature changes, but The Plant Farm has a variety of shipping methods, including heat packs, that almost have me convinced.

Happy *indoor* planting, everyone!