Before becoming a botanical garden in 2002, Yew Dell was home to the Klein family’s commercial nursery for many years. Today, we continue that tradition by growing and expanding our nursery operations.

Yew Dell’s nursery produces plants for display throughout the gardens, for research and evaluation, and for sale to the public. Our mission is to provide the best garden plants to gardeners and plant enthusiasts.

Each year, we search worldwide for plants that show promise for growing well in Kentucky. We bring these plants to Yew Dell and carefully evaluate them for vigor, pest resistance, ornamental value, invasiveness potential, and overall performance. When a plant proves to be a good fit for our region, we develop propagation and production methods so our nursery team can grow it and offer it for sale.

Every year we scour the planet for plants we think are worth testing in Kentucky. We bring them to Yew Dell and put them through evaluation on the grounds – testing their vigor, pest resistance, ornamental features, invasiveness potential and overall performance. When we find a plant that we think deserves wider use in the region, we work out propagation and production systems and then our nursery staff members get to work propagating and growing the plant so we can offer it for sale.