Homegrown plants, trees, and shrubs for Middle Tennessee hom

Riverbend Nurseries was founded in 1990 on 80 acres of land. Today, Riverbend utilizes 500 acres of family-owned and -operated land to grow 1,500 different types of trees, shrubs, annuals, and perennials, not to mention houseplants, organic vegetables, and herbs. 

“We grow 90 percent of what we sell here,” begins retail manager Lynn Vaughan Smith, who has been with Riverbend Nurseries for eight years. “Our products aren’t shipped from across the country and have never been in a tractor-trailer. They are taken across a field or from one side of the road to the other,” she explains. 

That helps Riverbend Nurseries keep prices down, especially compared to area competitors. 

“Because we grow here, that makes our products a bit less expensive,” adds Smith, before noting that there is no sales tax on Riverbend’s plants, as the nursery qualifies for an agricultural sales tax exemption. “That is something we can extend to customers. So, if the price tag on a tree says ‘$200,’ it’s $200. There are no hidden fees. The price tag you see on the plants is what it is,” she says.

Smith believes that her team’s customer service also helps differentiate Riverbend from other nurseries.

“We pride ourselves on making our customers feel at home, and also trying to answer their questions and educate them the best we can,” she says.

To that end, Riverbend Nurseries offers educational classes on an ongoing basis, like one recent session that focused on helping attendees pair the right plant and the right pot, as well as picking the right plants for your yard.

“You always want to pay attention to how much sunlight you get in your yard. If you have six hours or more, that would be considered full sun. If you have six hours or less, that would be considered shade. Also, you want to know how tall and how wide a particular plant is going to get,” elaborates Smith. “For example, if you have a window and it’s four feet off the ground, we’ll try to guide you to something that is only going to be three to four feet tall, as opposed to six or seven feet tall where you are going to have to continually cut it. We want to guide you in a direction where it’s less work for you and better health for the plant and makes for a more enjoyable experience all the way around.”

With that in mind, Smith says a good portion of Riverbend’s customers is brand-new homeowners.

“A brand-new home that has no landscaping—or you don’t like the landscaping the builder put in? We can guide you in the right plants for that,” she says. “Or if you’re looking to spruce something up and add, we are able to do that. If you’re looking to plant a garden, we have organic garden soil that we grow here, as well as all the mulches and pine straw you need to spruce up your beds.”

Another big part of Riverbend’s customer base is people who have just bought a house, and the landscaping is overgrown or hasn’t been taken care of, and they want to re-plant.

“We also have customers who live in condos and want to do container gardening. We even have people who live in apartments who just want houseplants,” says Smith. 

Finally, Riverbend sees quite a few customers who have moved to Nashville from elsewhere and are struggling with the clay loam soil.

“We try to guide them in terms of how to plant in the clay,” offers Smith, before reminding readers that almost everything Riverbend sells is grown on-site, so it’s going to grow elsewhere in Middle Tennessee, where Smith has lived and worked her whole life.

“I think it’s a great place to live,” she says, speaking about Williamson County. 

And she can hardly imagine working anywhere else.

“When you are working someplace for eight years or longer, you are working for ownership that treats you well. We’re like a family here,” she concludes. “We have employees who have been here 20 or 25 years. When you have people working for you that long, you’re doing something right.”

Contact:
Riverbend Nurseries
2008 Lewisburg Pike
Franklin, TN 37064

(615) 468-2008

riverbendnurseries.com