Decker’s Nursery is much more than a garden center that offers the finest plants and landscaping accessories, we’re your full-service horticultural resource center. A visit to Decker’s Nursery on Long Island is an experience that you’ll remember and return to often for all the fresh and beautiful gifts from nature we put at your fingertips plus the valuable knowledge we’re always ready to share.

Decker's Nursery Always in full bloom during the spring

Stroll through our gardens and we're certain you'll make a creative connection to your landscape as you identify all the perfect solutions you're looking for. We carry a vast selection from plants, trees, shrubs, annuals, perennials and rose bushes to vegetables, herbs and tropical plants for both indoor and outdoor use. We offer all the sizes and species you could ever imagine and we pride ourselves on unique species you may not find elsewhere. If you're creating, or considering, a planting project please make Decker's Nursery your first stop. We're confident you will find everything you want and you'll receive the right advice to make your vision a reality.

Garden Center

We have an extensive garden center with every gardening supply you could possibly need including tools, lawn care products, organic and conventional fertilizers, pest management products, soils, watering supplies, mulches, garden accessories, hooks, planters, coco liners, gift items, staking/bracing tools, baskets, troughs and much more. If you bring your concerns to the Garden Center, you will leave with confidence that our "problem is solved."

Reliable & Passionate Service

We never forget that our job is to make gardening a pure joy, a labor of love. To help ensure the easiest, most convenient and enjoyable experience for you we offer delivery and planting services and Decker's Nursery is conveniently open 7 days a week - all year.

Frequently Asked Questions

Plant Nursery FAQs

The joy of cultivating your own garden or taking pride in specimen trees usually starts in a plant nursery. The beauty displayed in plants often reflects the knowledgeable care provided to them early in their lives. Any landscape projectshrubbery installation, flower bed or vegetable garden benefits from healthy plants that get their start from an expert who knows what they need to flourish. 

Our company has served the residents of Greenlawn and Long Island for 10 years with a full-service garden center, floral creations, educational resources and high-quality products, but even so, you may have a few more questions about nurseries and how they function. We’ve compiled a few of the most common questions below. However, if you are still in need of expert assistance, we’d love for you to stop by the shop or call us at (631) 261-1148

  • What is a plant nursery and what services do they provide?

    Similar to the watchfulness that people receive from caregivers who understand their needs, expert care at plant nurseries does the same thing for young plants. Starting even earlier with seeds, they provide a place where germination can occur. Horticulturalists grow new plants from cuttings and divisions as well as seeds. Retail nurseries sell seedlings and bigger plants to the public, businesses, commercial gardeners, institutions or private estates.

    Development of the new growth starts in small containers that provide a nutritious growing environment. As plants grow larger, experts move them from trays to 4” pots or gallon containers that accommodate specific needs. Some nurseries offer plants that homeowners can transplant while others use them as stock for budding or grafting, complex horticultural methods of development that require knowledge and expertise.

  • What are the different types of plant nurseries?

    The abundance and variety of plants available today allows homeowners to choose several different ways to obtain greenery for luscious landscapes that complement a home and increase its value. Homeowners can find a variety of plant life, including annuals or perennials, saplings, seeds, fruit trees, bulbs and flowers at three different types of nurseries depending on their needs. The three different nursery categories are wholesale nurseries, retail nurseries, and mail order suppliers.

    • Wholesale Nurseries - Price and quantity considerations usually influence buying decisions that lead homeowners to wholesale nurseries. More likely to specialize in smaller starter plants than in specimen trees, wholesalers at a plant nursery provide access to larger quantities of plantings to landscapers and developers.
    • Retail Nurseries - Homeowners who appreciate the guidance that retail nurseries provide can find higher-end or larger specimen plants at garden centers that specialize in understanding clients’ needs. Retail nurseries may please valued customers by offering accessories that include birdbaths, window boxes or garden tools.
    • Mail-Order Nurseries - The convenience of mail order may encourage some homeowners to decide to use nurseries that offer at-home delivery, but some inconveniences may impact the decision. Mail-order companies often avoid shipping any heavy containers by selling “bare-root” plants. They may also offer specialty plants that local nurseries do not provide.
  • How do nurseries grow plants?

    The process of growing plants in a nursery starts with putting seeds in flats with wire bottoms. In germination, the seeds produce roots that grow through, dry out and die to encourage more root production. They are then moved to half pint containers that allow the roots to grow through air holes to repeat the cycle of letting the root tips die to develop a strong, fibrous root system, a key to helping transplants thrive. Environmentally responsible nurseries avoid chemicals and use post- or pre-emergent herbicides as well as organic or inorganic fertilizers instead.

  • Why do nurseries keep some plants in bags?

    Bags create a damp and warm environment for plants and encourage healthy growth. They serve other purposes as well by making plants easy to handle and transport. By taking up less space than rigid pots, they allow nurseries to enjoy the economies of storing many plants in a small space. The bags can provide a greenhouse-like environment that prepares them for transplanting without disrupting their root systems.

  • What does a nursery bed do?

    While it may sound like a place to rest, a nursery bed more specifically provides a protected growing spot for selected plants without concern for design. Gardeners may put seedlings, cuttings or seeds in the bed until they can find a place in the plot. Its primary purpose makes it a place for plants to demonstrate their growth habits, color and resistance to disease before taking a place in a garden. Usually out of view where no one other than the gardener can see it, a bed can work equally well for ornamental or edible plants. Vegetable gardeners who practice succession planting can use the bed to prepare crops to take the place of earlier ones when they exhaust their productivity.

  • How many types of plants do nurseries offer?

    Home gardeners can choose from three types of plants that complement different areas in a landscape.

    • In-container - Plants that nurseries offer in containers may include perennials and annuals as well as shrubs and small trees.
    • Bare-root - Garden centers often offer bare-root roses and some large hedge plants that make transplanting a convenient process. Nurseries may dig them from a field during the dormant season and put them in cold storage until spring arrives.
    • Balled and Burlapped - Large shrubs and trees that may exceed the size of containers for convenience or weight factors may have a protective covering wrapped around their root balls. Dug from the field, they may lose a significant portion of their root systems, but they recover with proper planting and watering.
  • How do nurseries and greenhouses differ?

    In a warm, humid and protected environment, greenhouses provide the perfect place for plants to propagate. Used mainly by botanists, dedicated gardeners, and commercial plant growers, they allow sunlight to enter a glass-enclosed space while preventing heat from escaping.

    Plant nurseries are very similar to greenhouses in that they provide ideal growing spaces for plants as well, but they are not usually closed in and typically are used in a commercial setting. Nurseries often encourage customers to buy the plants that they’ve developed by arranging them in open air settings. At our garden center, we welcome everyone to admire our plants, savor the seasonal aromas, and learn about the techniques needed to grow your own garden at home.