No faux fir for you! Make your home merry, pine-smelly and bright with holiday greenery from one of these excellent Hamptons garden centers.
Sag Harbor Garden Center, 11 Spring St., Sag Harbor, 631-725-3345
We love the one-on-one experience and extensive plant knowledge that owner Linnette Roe provides. For her, there’s one tree that offers the most bang for the buck: a specialty Balsam-Fraser cross she discovered that offers the lovely pine smell of a Balsam with the staying power of a Fraser. She offers them in 5- to 10-foot specimens, along with cute little 3-foot tabletop trees. There are also garlands, undecorated and decorated wreaths, tree ornaments, lights, ball picks, cinnamon cones, berry-filled winter branches, cedar and white pine roping, 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 shares 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
Run by the Limonius family, Buckley’s is both a wholesale nursery for local landscaping projects, large and small, and a retail garden center. Come Christmas, they pull out all the jolly stops, offering Fraser and Douglas fir trees as well as wreaths, table centerpieces, garlands, mistletoe, poinsettia, tree toppers, lights, tree stands and the like. And they deliver, too.
Marders, 120 Snake Hollow Road, Bridgehampton, 631-537-3700
Charlie and Kathleen Marder kicked off their landscaping business in 1975 on 18 acres with an eye toward unique, natural environments. It’s now a 200-person operation on nearly double the acreage, with custom garden and landscape services as well as one of the loveliest retail garden centers around. 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 Fraser firs right on Shelter Island, and will even deliver to your door. They also offer a bevy of wreaths — decorated, undecorated or custom made to your specifications — garlands, boughs and lots of wintry indoor treats, like amaryllis, Christmas cactus and poinsettias. If you’re heading to a holiday dinner or party, ask Robin Anderson to make you a special holiday arrangement in one of their elegant French galvanized 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 Fraser 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 decades-old Hamptons garden center offers excellent specimens of Balsam and Fraser firs, wreaths, garlands, mistletoe, amaryllis, paperwhites and blooming Christmas cactus. (Pssst! Be sure to look for Santa here on weekends after Thanksgiving!) Open 7 days a week, 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and Sundays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
East Hampton Gardens, 16 Gingerbread Lane, East Hampton, 631-324-1133
Fashion world expat Michael Gianelli is truly inspiring in any season, but the holidays are particularly fun here. Not only can you nab the Christmas staples — Fraser firs, custom wreaths, garlands, 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 Yule log.
