Watson’s Greenhouse and Nursery

Watson's began in 1974 as a U pick vegetable patch with a single greenhouse measuring fourteen feet by fourteen. Retail came in 1984, staffed by two people: Fran Watson and her daughter Maidee, who runs the company as chief executive today. The founder, Dan Watson, joined full time in 1990 after thirty years in education.

The Olympia store is the newest of the three and by some distance the largest, ten acres on Harrison Avenue. It took over a site that Bark and Garden Center had held for more than forty years, and Watson's has been open about wanting to carry that legacy on rather than paper over it.

Inside is a full garden center and a good deal more: annuals and perennials, trees, shrubs and roses, vegetable starts, houseplants including the rare and unusual, pottery, patio furniture, garden art, and a gift side running to books, candles, kitchen things and toys. Garden Center magazine named them a Top 100 independent garden center for 2025.