QC Garden Centers: Flowers and Plants and Trees OH MY!

Spring is in the air and there’s nothing I love more in the spring than fresh flowers. The Quad Cities can boast about a variety of amazing garden shops. Get your yard ready, pick up something for a friend, or just delight in the beauty and expertise offered by the talented staff.

Last year, I finally decided to address the corner garden in our yard that had become a space for overgrown bushes and plants that I didn’t know the name of them. With the help of a couple of Facetime conversations and phone calls with two delightful women at my church, I was able to give my sweet garden a makeover. At the same time, I was introduced to the wonderful world of Quad Cities garden centers. Did you know they are so much more than flats of flowers and potting soil?

Most of them boast extremely knowledgeable and helpful plant experts. They provided thoughtful advice and plenty of options. I boldly admitted I knew very little about what I was doing, including how to sustain the garden once I got it planted. Many of the centers are also fun shops of various garden and outdoor novelties. I spent an hour wandering around Wallace's even before I talked with an expert and considering choices.

After talking to the knowledgeable staff and making my purchases, I left the multiple garden centers I’d visited feeling prepared. I got home and planted my garden. It was mid-summer which I learned was not ideal, but still should be okay. This spring I am BEYOND delighted that my flowers are starting to regrow in the little corner garden. It’s WORKING! The garden center staff and my church ladies definitely steered me in the right direction. I can hardly wait to see it unfold the next few months.

Friends from the area recommended a bunch of different garden centers in the QC. Here were some of the favorites:

Corn Crib Nursery
6924 Route 150, Coal Valley, IL
“Ooooo I LOVE corn crib! Their annual Mother's Day event is so fun. They are also super fun in the fall.” - Emilia D.

The Green Thumbers
3030 Brady Street, Davenport, IA

Friday's Fresh Market & Garden Center
6227 Northwest Blvd, Davenport, IA

Hilltop Greenhouse
11606 233rd Street W., Illinois City, IL
“Reasonable and nice!” - Debbie B.

Meyer Landscape & Design and Garden Center
2817 47th Street, Moline, IL

Shademaster Nursery
4401 W 90th Street, Davenport, IA

Teske’s Pet & Garden Center
2423 16th Street, Moline, IL
2395 Spruce Hills Drive, Bettendorf, IA

Vanessa's Open Air Market
1502 1st Avenue, Silvis, IL

Wallace’s Garden Center
2605 Devils Glen Rd, Bettendorf, IA

There are also some lovely plant sales throughout town that come highly recommended:

Longview, Vander Veer and Riverside Parks host events, as do various organizations such as JDRF, Big Brothers and Big Sisters, Guardians of the Prairie at Hauberg, and the Quad City Botanical Center. Quad Citizens also recommended Oak Hill Acres and Blossom Farms at the Freight House Farmers Market on Wed., Sat., and Sun.

“Blossom Farms on Brady is great! I first bought their plants and produce from the Farmers Market. They have such a great selection of all the annual and perennials I love so much at an affordable price.” - Dianne P.

“I love Vanessa's. It's small, nice people and they also have fresh produce in the summer.” - Laura H.

Gardening is good for the soul and Quad Citizens have great souls and lovely gardens to show for it!

“I'm relatively new to 'gardening', a.k.a. each year I plant a few new pretties to give me something (besides my kids) to care for. I love it when some of them even come back!
Here is one picture I can find. The beautiful purple flowers on the bush in the back are my aster plant I got last May. This is what they looked like by September. We started putting more flowers out each year also to help the bees. Last year we successfully grew tomatoes for the first time and found that our pollinator population from our flowers helped our fruit grow.” - Emilia D.

“I love gardening because it is a creative expression. You get to build a fully immersive living sculpture full of color, texture, and taste. I get to be connected with the seasonal changes of nature and watch how it changes every day when I walk out my back door.” - Tierney B.

“Why do I love to garden? Nature calms me when I'm anxious, opens my eyes to the intricate beauty of a bloom or a leaf, and is balm for my soul. During the past year, it's the one place that felt normal, unchanged, steadying. Bright pinks and vivid blues, frothy whites and every green in the spectrum, bounty from the vegetable garden, flowers and bushes and grasses and trees, all of it bringing joy and appreciation for the wonder of it all. And, if you're quiet and listen, there are lessons - about beauty, rebirth, stubbornness, interdependence, hope, perseverance, death, resurrection - the whole of life in an eternal circle. Gardening makes my yard a sanctuary.” - Sue S.

“The kiss of the sun for pardon…

The song of the bird for mirth…

One is nearer God's heart in a garden…

Than anywhere else on Earth.”

Meghan Cooley moved to the Quad Cities from St. Charles, IL, as an Augustana College student over 20 years ago. She left briefly after graduation and then returned to work in admissions and then marketing at Augustana College for 18 years. She now works as a consultant for admissions marketing and social media. She also does copy editing and writes for the Quad City Moms Blog. Now a true Quad Cities transplant, Meghan lives in Rock Island with her husband, Luke (R.O.W.V.A. & Augustana grad and Modern Woodmen employee) and four boys. She loves living in the Quad Cities and finds it the perfect place to raise a family, plan a date night, and go on adventures.