For over 100 years, Weston Nurseries has evolved in diverse and unexpected ways.
A Note from our President - New Year and a New Location!
Welcome to 2024! As we enter into the second century of our 4th generation family business, we are excited to announce the opening of our new store in Lincoln, Massachusetts at the former Stonegate Gardens. We are thankful to Bruce MacDowell and Lynne Bower-MacDowell for all the years they put their hearts and souls into building a fabulous garden center and for the opportunities that lie ahead for us.
In addition to opening up our 4th garden center, we have been hard at work outlining plans in preparation for spring to make sure we have well trained staff ready to present only the best plant material, gardening supplies, gifts, garden decor and hardscape products to you come spring.
Native plants are important to support local ecosystems and we are happy to be growing native plants under the Weston Rewilding name. Come into our garden centers and check out our great selection of home-grown shrubs and perennials, as well as those we purchase in from local growers in the area. We have a section on our website to give you ideas and inspiration if you feel like creating a native garden on your property.
New to us over the past few years are hardscape products. We have partnered with Cambridge Stone to build two new displays – one in Hopkinton and one in Chelmsford that serve to showcase the many styles of pavers and wall stone that you can use to build outdoor living spaces at your house. Please come by and talk to our staff to learn more and see if we can help you fulfill the vision of your new patio area or walkway. We can even help coordinate the installation with a local landscape company who matches up well with the type of work involved.
We have a terrific customer appreciation program that provides you with coupons for your next purchase, information on our upcoming events and promotions, and will keep track of all your purchases under your account. Be sure to sign up for it next time you are in.
Happy New Year!
Peter Mezitt | President
Since 1923 Weston Nurseries has evolved in diverse and unexpected ways. We remain true to our commitment to providing the best selection of hardy landscape-sized plant material in our area along with accurate advice on what will work best for our customers. More recently, we have begun to focus on hard good products to meet the needs of today’s customers. Much of what we practice today derives directly from Peter J. and Anna Olga Mezitt who founded Weston Nurseries and started growing landscape plants in Weston in 1923.
Born into a family of Latvian farmers in 1885, Peter fled conscription into the Russian army and worked his way across Europe, taking on landscaping and gardening jobs throughout Romania and Switzerland. In 1911 he saved enough money for passage to America, where he worked as an estate gardener and greenhouse night watchman to fund a college degree from UMass Amherst. In 1912 he married Anna Olga Purens, who shared his love of plants, and together they spent the next decade using their horticultural knowledge for rooting understock and grafting fruit trees to sell to local orchards.
Peter and Anna had larger dreams, however. In 1923 they obtained financing to purchase 80 acres off Winter Street in Weston, and on July 24 of that year they officially established Weston Nurseries. By 1930 they had 10 acres of nursery land, which quickly blossomed into 200 acres of full-scale production in the early 1940s.
One of the most pivotal events in the early history of Weston Nurseries was the introduction of the PJM Rhododendron in 1945. Peter’s son, Ed, developed the hardy hybrid and named it in honor of his father. The PJM is now known worldwide as one of the most reliable and resilient rhododendrons and it graces many gardens in New England and beyond.
By 1950, the Mezitt’s moved their homes and nursery facilities to the rolling hills and rural acreage of Hopkinton, where they expanded sales and production and continued developing new plants. The garden center on Main Street opened in 1959, with its beautiful display gardens, abundant greenhouses, and the iconic green chimney featuring the Weston Nurseries logo.
In the 1960’s, Peter’s grandsons Wayne and Roger joined the family business and continued to expand and innovate, purchasing adjoining land in Hopkinton until the nursery encompassed over 900 acres by the end of the 80’s.
In 2006, Wayne’s son Peter became President, and began the transition to a new business model more appropriate for the changing environment in the surrounding area.
Today, most of the plants sold by Weston are brought in from the best growing operations in the country. Our selection has expanded, quality is of utmost importance, and our retail and commercial customers are giving us high marks.
Weston Nurseries has four retail garden center locations: Hopkinton, Chelmsford, Hingham and our newest location in Lincoln at the former Stonegate Gardens. Weston Wholesale offers plants and landscaping products from four locations: Hopkinton, Chelmsford, Hingham, and our newest location in Middleborough. We offer a full line of landscape supplies to the trade. Our product line includes trees, shrubs, perennials, seasonal color, all types of gardening products, hardscape materials and bulk materials.
With over 100 years in business, we are proud of the recent accomplishments and improvements to our business. We are most grateful for the thousands of devoted employees who have participated in the growth and success of Weston Nurseries through the decades and have made our family business part of their lives.
We are committed, sincere, and proactive individuals who treat co-workers with respect, understanding that teamwork makes the company stronger and more rewarding.
Our Business Principles:
We have developed a business philosophy that we use to guide us with strategic planning and decisions we make on how to operate the business:
What we do as a business is simple – we provide a wide range of plants, landscape products and services. However, we know that our value to you is based on providing exceptional experience centered around what we offer. We believe the purpose of why we exist as a business is to be well rooted in our communities and to provide a better living experience for our customers.
Our Core Business Values are:
– Treat our customers like they are guests in our homes
– Applaud positivity, initiative and enthusiasm with our staff
– Educate, inspire and empower both our staff and our customers
Our Vision & How We will Succeed:
– Constantly focusing on our appearance and presentation to create an exceptional buying experience for our customers
– Creating a healthy environment for our staff that fosters growth through a commitment to training
– Continuing to find ways to improve our financial outlook through fiscally responsible actions
Sustainability is a journey, and on that journey small steps can make a BIG Impact.
One of the decisions we have made in recent years that aligns with our values is to start growing native plants. We believe that providing locally grown native plant material is something that we can do to positively impact the environment. Going forward, it will be important for Weston Nurseries to offer solutions to preserving our local ecology by offering an appropriate selection of native herbaceous and woody plants that are appropriate for this region providing the most benefit to supporting local native biodiversity.
Our 100th year also brings a newly formed Sustainability Committee at Weston Nurseries that will meet regularly in order to develop short term and long-term sustainability initiatives for our business. As this program develops, we will add to the list below to communicate things we are doing.
Plastic Garden Pot Recycling! We have partnered with East Jordan Plastics (read more below) to offer a recycling program for plastic nursery pots. Please shake out the dirt from your pots, and then bring them into any of our garden centers, where you will find a bin for collection.
We are proud to be the first garden center company in the area to offer this program on such a large scale and we encourage you to bring us your used pots to help decrease our industry’s dependence on petroleum-based products.
Trunk Liner Update: For those of you who are long time customers, you probably remember our complimentary, disposable trunk liners. In our effort to take small steps for a big impact we will no longer be offering these. This small step is saving over 20,000 sheets of plastic from going into landfills. We understand that this may be an inconvenience, but hope that you will join us in working towards keeping our environment clean, safe and beautiful!
We will be offering a reusable trunk liner for $2.99 that is the same size as the previous disposable liners!
Eco-Friendly Products
Drought-Resistant Plants: Once established, plants require far less water than lawns. We provide a wide variety of trees, shrubs, and perennials that require very little water once established, including many plants that are native to this region.
Water Conservation: We carry soaker hoses, moisture meters, and water reservoir systems, as well as Hydretain, a soil additive and humectant that effectively cuts water consumption up to 50%!
Rain Barrels: We offer rain barrels that are made from recycled plastic. Attach them to a roof downspout to collect storm run-off and use the water on your gardens.
Bagged Mulch & Compost: We stock a wide variety of bagged planting mixes, mulches and compost, which can be used to maintain healthy soil biology, help retain moisture and minimize the use of herbicides. We offer a refillable bag that can be filled numerous times with our own compost produced onsite in Hopkinton.
Compost: Each year we recycle thousands of cubic yards of clippings, leaves, and grass that is brought to us from area landscape companies and processed into premium compost which is available for sale or delivery from our bulk yard.
Mulch: We take in discarded plants, branches and yard clippings from our own operation and from area landscape companies that are processed and mixed with raw bark and made into mulch available for sale or delivery from our bulk yard.
Topsoil and Soil Mixes: Fill, old sod, spent mulch and soil material from site work projects in the area is brought to us. We blend materials together to create a high organic topsoil product and a rich garden mix which is available for sale or delivery from our bulk yard.
Organic Fertilizers: We stock a wide variety of natural & organic products, including Espoma Fertilizers, which are safe for people & pets.
Some of our Environmentally Sustainable Practices
Irrigation: We use a large underground water recapturing system in Hopkinton over approximately 6 acres where water for our operations is recycled through a series of catch basins and pipes and recycled back into our ponds. We have also installed approximately 5 acres of drip irrigation to replace an overhead spray irrigation system that has decreased our water use by 80%.
Bulk Products: We operate an 8 acre organic recycling facility in Hopkinton where we collect local debris (grass, leaves, branches, soils, etc.) and process it into finished products to use on landscaping jobs. We make our own compost, mulches, topsoil, and planting mixes on site. Our compost is very clean and is USDA certified for use in organic food production.
Plastic pots: We will recycle your plastic pots for you! We have partnered with East Jordan Plastics, a Michigan based manufacturer of plastic nursery pots. They are the only manufacturer who takes back used pots to turn them into new pots. We have placed a black collection bin in all of our locations.
We ask that you shake out all the dirt before you drop them into the bin. Bins are collected from all stores weekly on our scheduled transfer date and transported to Hopkinton where we sort by type and palletize for pick up. Once we produce enough pallets to fill a tractor trailer, East Jordan picks up and brings them to their manufacturing operations where they put them through the process of breaking them down and remolding them into new plastic pots that we purchase back from them.
East Jordan takes in thousands of tractor trailers each year and they have started to make an impact on the amount of virgin petroleum our industry uses. We are proud to be the first garden center company in the area to offer this program on such a large scale and we encourage you to bring us your used pots to help decrease our industry’s dependence on petroleum-based products.
Paper: Office paper products are recycled, and we use electronic communications whenever possible.
American Conifer Society
Association for the development, conservation, and propagation of conifers, with an emphasis on those that are dwarf or unusual.
American Horticultural Society
AHS is one of the oldest national gardening organizations in the country. Get connected “to great gardens around the world, gardening education for all levels of skill, sources of information on any garden subject imaginable, a community of gardeners eager to share their experiences, other great gardening events and activities, and much, much more.”
AmericanHort
On January 1, 2014, AmericanHort was born by the consolidation of the American Nursery & Landscape Association and OFA—The Association of Horticultural Professionals. AmericanHort represents the horticulture industry, including breeders, greenhouse and nursery growers, retailers, distributors, interior and exterior landscapers, florists, students, educators, researchers, manufacturers, and all of those who are part of the industry market chain.
American Rhododendron Society
A non-profit organization whose purpose is to encourage interest in and to disseminate information about the genus Rhododendron.
American Rhododendron Society Massachusetts Chapter
Your Portal to Rhododendrons in New England
Association for Garden Communicators
The Association for Garden Communicators, formerly the Garden Writers Association, provides leadership and opportunities for education, recognition, career development and a forum for diverse interactions for professionals in the field of gardening communications.
Heritage Museums and Gardens
Heritage Museums and Gardens, formerly the Heritage Plantation of Sandwich, is a 100 acre public garden, with a nationally significant collection of rhododendrons hybridized by Charles Dexter, over 1,000 varieties of daylilies and extensive host a collection. The public garden is complemented by three gallery buildings containing a world-class collection of American automobiles, American folk art and a working 1919 carousel and rare carousel figures.
Massachusetts Arborists Association
The Massachusetts Arborists Association (MAA) is a professional trade organization that serves the commercial arboriculture industry. The MAA advances the goals of its tree service professional members through tree care education, research support, arborist certification and promotion of the value of arboriculture to the public. MAA is proud to be one of the oldest arboriculture associations in the nation, with a membership of more than 650 of Massachusetts’ leading tree service professionals.
Massachusetts Association of Landscape Professionals
The Massachusetts Association of Landscape Professionals (MLP) is a trade association that represents the leading landscape professionals in Massachusetts. MLP elevates the professional standards and business success of its members through education, certification, advocacy, and networking. MLP improves the business of its members through communication, certification, education and information.
Massachusetts Horticultural Society
Founded in 1829, the Massachusetts Horticultural Society is dedicated to encouraging the science and practice of horticulture and developing the public’s enjoyment, appreciation, and understanding of plants and the environment.
Massachusetts Master Gardner Association
Master Gardeners, experienced and trained volunteers, provide horticultural information and education resources to the gardening public, offer technical support for horticulture projects and contribute outreach programs for community events. The Massachusetts Master Gardener Association have volunteer projects throughout the Eastern half of the state and have partnerships with numerous other groups including Massachusetts Horticultural Society, Tower Hill Botanic Garden. New England Wildflower Society, and Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts, Inc.
Massachusetts Nursery & Landscape Association
A volunteer, nonprofit organization whose members are businesses and individuals involved in the production, sale, and handling of nursery stock in Massachusetts.
National Gardening Association
The National Gardening Association (NGA) promotes gardening by helping home gardeners succeed, growing in health, knowledge, environmental awareness, and enthusiasm. In the numerous ways NGA reaches gardeners, we help make home and community gardens greener and more productive. From vegetables, herbs, fruits, trees, lawns, flowers, and houseplants, we provide people with the information they need to get started in the world of gardening and grow and maintain thriving, sustainable, and environmentally responsible food gardens and landscapes.
Native Plant Trust
Recognized as one of the nation’s leading plant conservation organizations.
Tower Hill Botanic Garden
Tower Hill Botanic Garden features a year-round display of the finest plants for cultivation in New England. Carefully planned gardens and collections of ornamentals, edible and native plants, plus trails that enhance the natural features of this beautiful 132-acre property and a robust program and event schedule make Tower Hill a year-round destination.
UMass Extension Landscape Message
The Landscape Message allows landscapers, arborists, turf managers, nursery growers, garden designers and other practitioners to be in touch with local trends and challenges. The following information is commonly available for turf and landscape plant materials: Weather and general conditions reports; insect activity and population development; disease occurrences and potential disease problems; pest management strategies, including Integrated Pest Management, and other important information.
Weston Nurseries prides itself on being a part of the community, supporting local charities and philanthropic projects.
For donation inquiries, please contact customercare@westonnurseries.com and include your full name, a copy of your your organization’s name, and a brief letter of intent.
Below are some of the groups and charities we have recently supported.
American Cancer Society Relay for Life [www.relayforlife.org]
Ashland Lions Club [www.ashlandlions.org]
Ashland Pre-School PTO
Ashland Youth Baseball and Softball [www.aybsonline.com]
Asian Task Force Against Violence [www.atask.org]
Bay Path Humane Society [www.baypathhumane.org]
Brady and Henry Rokes Trust Fund
Chelmsford Center for the Arts [www.chelmsfordarts.org]
Chelmsford Historical Society [www.chelmhist.org]
Chelmsford Police
Chelmsford Tree Committee
Grow Native Massachusetts [www.grownativemass.org]
Hokinton Garden Club [www.hopkintongardenclub.org]
Hopkinton Center for the Arts [www.hopartscenter.org]
Hopkinton Community Access Television [www.hcam.tv]
Hopkinton Country Club Charitable Foundation [www.hopkintoncccf.org]
Hopkinton Education Foundation [www.hopkintoneducationfoundation.org]
Hopkinton Elementary Schools [www.hopkinton.k12.ma.us]
Hopkinton Garden Club [www.hopkintongardenclub.org]
Hopkinton Historical Society [www.hopkhistsoc.org]
Hopkinton Little League
Hopkinton Music Association [www.hopkinton.k12.ma.us]
Hopkinton Parent Teachers Association [www.hptaonline.com]
Hopkinton Parks and Recreation [https://hopkintonma.myrec.com/info/default.aspx]
Hopkinton Police Department [hopkintonma.gov]
Hopkinton Public Library [www.hopkintonpubliclibraryfoundation.org]
Indian Hill Music School – Littleton, MA [www.indianhillmusic.org]
Jewish Family Services Metrowest [www.jfsmw.org]
JFK Elementary School, Franklin [franklinps.net/j-f-kennedy-elementary-school
L Milbocker Eagle Scout Project
Lutheran Church of Framingham [www.lcfworships.org]
Memorial Spaulding School [www.memorialspaulding.newton.k12.ma.us]
Michael Carter Lisnow Respite Center [www.hopkintonrespite.com]
Michael Robertson Eagle Scout
Milford Humane Society [www.milfordhumane.org]
Milford Youth Center [www.milfordyouthcenter.net]
Natick Visiting Nurses Association [www.natickvna.org]
National Brain Tumor Society [www.braintumor.org]
Pine Hill Elementary School [www.doversherborn.org]
Project Just Because [www.projectjustbecause.org]
Rhododendron Society Trophies [www.rosebay.org]
Run Around Hopkinton Relay
Ryan Fontaine Eagle Scout for the Michael Carter Lisnow Respite Center Project [www.hopkintonrespite.com]
St. Michaels Episcopal Church, Holliston [www.stmichaelshollistonma.org]
Team Hoyt [www.teamhoyt.com]
The 200 Foundation Annual Gala [www.the200.org]
The Jimmy Fund [www.jimmyfund.org]
