Our Story
Welcome to Pistils Nursery
Plants have the power to inspire, connect, and transform – they’re our reason for being, and a gift to be shared. We offer passion, expertise and tools to all who seek their inner green.
We founded Pistils Nursery in 2001 to share the gift of plants with our neighbors in Portland, Oregon.Â
We believe that plants are transformative. They enrich our daily experience, bringing life to spaces inside and out. They cultivate community and put us in touch with ourselves. In a time of disconnection and distraction, plants keep us grounded, teach us patience, and connect us to the natural world.
Much like we do, plants need care: they need to be nurtured in order to grow and thrive. Tending to plants reminds us how we must tend to ourselves and others – and to the world we live in.Â
At its root, our passion for plants stems from our commitment to people, and our deep belief that there is a plant for every person, an inner green just waiting to be discovered. As we continue to grow new leaves and put down new roots, we imbue each touchpoint of Pistils with a thoughtfulness that invites others into a world of possibility.
Our Team
Origin Story
Raised up around the old mining towns of Idaho, Mégan Twilegar founded Pistils with a dream of bringing the unbridled nature of the Rocky Mountains to the neighborhoods of Portland. Inspired by the shoebox structures and false fronts of the West, she and her partner built a tiny storefront set on an empty lot on Mississippi Avenue – the seedbed for a nursery like no other, an urban outpost for the burgeoning gardening movement.Â
Through our twenty years in Portland, this vision has grown from seedling to plant, and from plant to veritable jungle. We began sharing the gift of plants with our community around the country through our online shop in 2012, created an urban oasis with thousands of new and specialty indoor plant varieties with the construction of our solarium in 2016, and set new roots in Portland’s Slabtown neighborhood in 2019 when we opened the doors to our second brick & mortar location.
As we look to the future of Pistils Nursery, we’re sure the brightest leaves and most colorful blooms are yet to emerge.
1% for the Planet
Our Shipping Philosophy
We know that shipping has a big impact on the environment, and strive to reduce our footprint. Our shipping practices reflect Pistils' commitment to sustainability.
Offset: We partner with a local nonprofit to offset the carbon emissions from our shipments. That means that we (not you!) pay an extra fee so that each and every box we ship out is carbon neutral.Â
Reduce: We've done countless hours of trial and error to reduce the amount of materials necessary to pack each shipment, while still ensuring a safe and successful delivery every time.
Reuse: We're committed to reducing our reliance on single-use plastics, and to keeping what little plastic we do use out of the landfill. We save the plastics that we get from our shipments and reuse them when packing your orders. If you find a plastic sleeve or piece of bubble wrap in your box, it has been reused!
Recycle: Down to the paper tape used to seal our boxes, we strive to use fully recyclable packing materials made with post-consumer content. To that end, we recently transitioned from plastic bubble wrap and bio packing peanuts to 100% paper void fill and cushion.
