No faux fir for you! Make your home merry, pine-smelly and bright with a tree and all other wonderful forms of holiday greenery from one of these excellent Hamptons garden centers. Many are open seven days and offer delivery and the gamut of decorating go-withs, from ornaments to garland to mistletoe.
Sag Harbor Garden Center, 11 Spring Street, Sag Harbor, 631-725-3345
If we’re permitted to pick favorites, Sag Harbor Garden Center is it. Owner Linnette Roe knows her stuff and kindly shares her knowledge, along with an excellent array of Christmas trees: Balsam, Cook (“What’s cool about those is they smell like a Balsam but the branches are stronger and when you crush the needles, they give off a tangerine-like scent,” says Roe), Frasier fir, and a specialty Balsam-Frasier cross, that offers the lovely pine smell of a Balsam with the long-lasting staying power of a Frasier. There’s also three kinds of garland, undecorated and decorated wreaths (the ribbon, pine-cone, starfish combo is especially Hamptons adorable), as well as tree ornaments, lights, ball picks, poinsettia and amaryllis (pro tip: after the latter blooms, just keep it watered until next year and it will come back). Best of all: She shared her property with Kidd Squid Brewery, where you can get seasonal beer on tap, mulled wine, hot cider, and cocoa to sip while you shop.
Buckley’s Farm, 75 Montauk Highway, East Hampton, 631-324-0966
Started as a little flower shop by Charles and Heidi Limonius 62 years ago (the name comes from the original owner), today Buckley’s is run by the next generation of the Limonius family and operates as both a wholesale nursery for local landscaping projects, large and small, and retail garden center. Come Christmas, though, they pull out all the jolly stops, offering Frasier, Douglass, and Normann fir trees, wreaths, table centerpieces, garland, mistletoe, poinsettia, tree toppers, lights, tree stands, and the like. And they deliver, too.
Marders, 120 Snake Hollow Road, Bridgehampton, 631-537-3700
How times have changed. Marders, which began in 1975 when Charlie and Kathleen Marder kicked off their landscaping business on 18 acres with an eye toward unique, natural environments, is now a 200-person, organic operation on nearly double the amount acreage, offering custom garden and landscape services as well as a lovely retail garden center. It’s here you’ll find an excellent selection of Canaan, Concolor, Fraser, and Nordmann Fir Christmas trees, along with wreaths, pine cones, garlands, boughs, decorative branches and holiday ornaments.
Hampton Nursery & Landscape, 205 Montauk Highway, Hampton Bays, 631-728-1160
Fraser Fir fans rejoice! This is your one-stop shop for your favorite variety of Christmas tree, along with wreaths, garland roping, kissing balls, tabletop trees, rosemary trees, holiday lights, ball picks, and even you’ll-never-know-until-you-smell artificial trees. Delivery available.
Grady Riley Gardens, 80 N. Menantic Road, Shelter Island, 631-749-5575
No need to get on a ferry when Grady Riley Gardens has such a lovely selection of stately Frasier Firs. Ranging from three to eight feet tall, they’ll even deliver it to your door. They also offer a bevy of wreaths in all sizes—decorated, undecorated, or custom made to your specifications—garland, boughs, and lots of wintry indoor treats, too, like amaryllis and Christmas cactus, and by mid-December poinsettias. If you’re heading to a holiday dinner or party, ask them to make you a special holiday arrangement of winter greens in one of their elegant French galvinized vases, and you’ll surely be invited back next year.
Aspatuck Gardens, 303 Montauk Highway, Westhampton Beach, 631-288-3222
Open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Aspatuck offers a bountiful assortment of locally grown wreaths, mixed greens, poinsettias in all shades, amaryllis, paperwhites, kissing balls, and super fresh Frasier Firs for the main event, along with old-world style Christmas ornaments to go with them.
Fowler’s Garden Center, 175 North Sea Road, Southampton, 631-283-5515
This nearly 90-year-old business (formerly Lynch’s Garden Center until 2015, when another long-time farming family, the Fowlers, purchased it) is a great spot for excellent specimens of Balsam and Frasier firs, along with wreaths, garland, mistletoe, amaryllis, paperwhites and blooming Christmas cactus. They’re open 7 days a week, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sundays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
East Hampton Gardens, 16 Gingerbread Lane, East Hampton, 631-324-1133
Fashion-world ex-pat Michael Gianelli is well known for his sumptuous, splashy way with garden and home design, and his work is truly inspiring in any season, but the holidays are particularly fun here. Not only can you nab the Christmas staples—Frasier firs, custom wreaths, garland, quirky ornaments, and the like—but this is also a great spot to pick up a bespoke hostess gift if you’re attending the festivities around someone else’s Christmas tree.
