Specialties
Hartke Nursery has been a family owned member of the St. Louis community since 1978. Initially functioning as a retail nursery and garden center, we have developed a customer base that has come to trust us with their gardening needs and questions. We offer unique, quality driven gardening products and provide services such as landscape design and in home consultations for a fee. We sell homegrown produce during the summer months, offer a strawhouse maze and pumpkin patch in mid September through Halloween and Christmas trees, wreaths and roping during the holidays.
It is Hartke Nursery's mission:
* To be a profitable service oriented, retail plant nursery, offering quality plant material and products at a fair price, carefully chosen to best satisfy our customer's needs.
* To provide friendly service and a knowledgeable staff, ready to listen and address the special needs of gardening in St. Louis.
* To provide a working environment that is physically safe, respectful of the individual, and supportive of the advancement of knowledge in our field.
History
Established in 1978.
Ralph and Pat Hartke started the nursery in 1978 as a place to house plant material that their lawn mowing business generated with customer requests. The diverse types of plants grew (pun intended) to include more and more kinds of plants. Perennials were first sold in bags only and whatever was left over was potted up and the business grew. Ultimately, the plant types currently include trees, shrubs, roses, herbs, perennials, annuals, waterplants, bulbs, tropical plants and indoor houseplants. Though we sell ornamental plants, we also pride ourselves in the large selection of native plants, trees and shrubs we offer. Through years of designing raingarden projects, we have extensive knowledge of rainscaping principles. The current owners, Cindy and Jerry Collins, purchased the business in 1999. Jerry has since retired and Cindy has no current interest in retiring. Cindy had worked for the Hartke family for 10 years before purchasing the business with her husband.
Meet the Business Owner: Cindy C.
A love for gardening and a thirst for knowledge and sharing my experiences motivate me to foster success for customers searching for great plants and local personal advice. I have a degree specializing in Horticulture from SLCC Meramec, a Missouri State Certified Nursery Professional certificate, have earned an ISA Certified Arborist distinction, have 45 years of experience in the industry, am a landscape designer, past president of the Nursery and Landscape Professionals of Greater St. Louis, speaker, and owner of Hartke Nursery since 1999. I have worked at Hartke Nursery for over 35 years. I am committed to the niche that local nurseries fill in serving the needs of our community. It is my personal goal to provide specially selected plants for success and diversity. Building my first rain garden in 2004, my designs have been featured in many presentations by state wide experts and toured by an international perennial plant organization.
