Petitti Garden Center - Avon (Cleveland), OH

Petitti Garden Center - 33777 Chester Rd., Avon, OH

It was now about 4:30 in the afternoon, and we still needed to go north to Avon, which is on the south shore of Lake Erie. Pettiti's has several locations in the Cleveland area, but the one in Avon is the newest, having just opened in March of this year.


We first got a glimpse of it as we traveled west on Interstate 90 and we nearly drove off the road from the gawking. We had to go past it and north a bit, then back east on a smaller road. We passed a Walmart that was much larger than ours and looked like it had a generous garden center, so even though we'd been rubbing elbows with a much higher class of greenery, you just never know, so we stopped there for a bit. I did come out with a small Nishiki willow, which I returned to our local Walmart once we got home. (There was a good reason for that.)

Petitti's was open until 8:00 p.m. and it was after 6:00 when we got there. Plenty of time to look around, right? HA! We were so naive about this place, but that changed when we walked in the front door. Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore. Or as the gentleman behind us said, "Good God Almighty..."


You know, I don't know if I can adequately put into words a description of this mega-nursery. It's the Cabela's of gardening. You name it; they've got it, and more. Oodles more. I wanted to promptly rent a U-Haul and load it up. And that greenhouse! The ceiling is 40 feet tall.








There was a large assortment of fountains and statuary.













All their trees and bushes were 50% off, which wasn't a huge temptation for me until I came to the Japanese Maples.





Gorgeous large specimen trees, including 'Autumn Moon' and another green one that I would have purchased, even though I'd already spent too much money. Problem was, we had no room in the van for it.



If you are ever in the Cleveland area or even remotely close, you have to visit Petitti's. In fact, find a reason to be near them. It is unlike anything we'd ever seen and though they didn't have the 'Pink Octopus' Campanula either, I think they had everything else.


We didn't find most of their plant prices to be any higher than anywhere else, nor those of the pottery, of which they had a huge selection. It's just that they have such a large and beautiful selection of all things gardening, you'll find things that you didn't know you needed until you got here.






This is just the Heuchera section:

Only the ones in the blue pots are $19.99. They are the 'New in Blue', which are the new introductions.






I'm not sure where you might use this big pot, but it was cool. A woman said to my mom, as she stood for this picture, "Either that pot is really big, or you're really short." A little of both, I think!

Just in case you're interested in purchasing the urn - $3999.99 and it's yours. Plus delivery.





They even had a pet shop within their store. I didn't notice any pets for sale, but they had everything you might need for them!





There was a Smith & Hawken section. Lowe's had a smaller one of those, too.







Just for this weekend, the Scott's Miracle Gro NASCAR Busch Racing Series Car #60 was on display in the greenhouse.


Other displays...













































We left for home at about 8:30 and we talked about what a wonderful trip we'd had. I don't think there's anyone else in the world that I'd rather travel with on a trip like this than my mom. She's always up for any kind of adventure and though she's 72 years old, she has more energy than I do (she always has). Some of my best memories of times with my mom are these gardening jaunts that we take every now and again.

We were almost home, going around Defiance and chatting away when I noticed flashing lights in my rear view mirror. I looked down at my speedometer and it read 56 mph. I said to Mom,"I don't know if he's trying to pull me over, or if he's headed somewhere else, because I'm not speeding." But he didn't go around, so I slowed and pulled to the side of the road. Yes, he wanted me. Gulp.

Apparently, we were in a construction zone and the speed limit was 45 mph. We'd both missed the sign that was posted several miles back and because of the holiday weekend, no one was working and it was dark, so we didn't notice the construction to the west of the highway. He generously let me go with only a warning and I was grateful. With construction zone fines being double, that would have likely cost me more than I'd spent the entire weekend. Whew!

We got back to my house around midnight, where Mom discovered that Romie had locked her keys in her car. She'd put them on the floor and he'd not found them, assumed she'd taken them with her, and locked up her car. She took our van home and would drive back out in the morning with the spare set of keys.

So while exhausted from all the running around and the adrenaline rush from seeing all the wonderful nurseries and the flower show, this was one of the most enjoyable gardening trips Mom and I have taken yet.