About Us
Blackcreek Nursery & Garden is a local family owned and operated business located in Southeast Georgia, about 35 miles from the coast. What started out as a (somewhat obsessive) passion for all things DIY, has evolved into a business to share our love of nature.
I'm Debbie Odom. I have been a professional grower since 1991. However, my passion for growing things started as soon as I was old enough to get my hands in the dirt. My grandmother loved many things.... Her God, Her Family, and creating things. She was the original DIY person in our family. I'm so fortunate that she passed on her love of cooking, sewing, and gardening to me and it was that love of gardening that set me on my journey to grow plants for a living!
Our nursery in Bulloch County has not always been a retail nursery. We started building the nursery here in the mid 1990's ago as the production nursery for Gene’s Nursery in Savannah which specialized in Camellias. The ‘growing’ nursery as we called it, was located on my family’s homeplace, and for over 3 decades, we grew Camellias for Gene’s Nursery and also for our online business – CamelliaShop.com.
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The original growing area in 2008 for growing Camellias wholesale. This area became became our Tea Garden in 2012.
Through Gene's Nursery, we grew many plants, but in the mid 2000s, we downsized to only grow Camellias and Tea Plants. These plants were sold at the nursery in Savannah and we also shipped to customers throughout the USA. We supplied thousands of Tea Plants to farmers and tea operations all across the USA.
Even before Covid-19 hit, our business faced the winds of change and many challenges that left us with an unclear path for our future and for the growing facility we had built. My daughter Lindsey and I played with numerous ideas for what we thought would not only encompass our passion for everything DIY but would also make a living for our families. And then 2020 came rushing in and with it, COVID-19 and our future seemed even more uncertain.
Gene’s Nursery closed in 2020 for 8 months due to state and county restrictions regarding Covid-19. This left us in a particularly vulnerable situation and out of that chaos, and a lot of soul-searching, we decided that we would convert our growing nursery into a retail nursery that would serve our local community here in Bulloch County GA. We knew from the start, that Tea and Camellias would be a huge part of what we were to offer customers. Edibles and Perennials are another interest for us. There are so few choices for finding good quality edible plants, both common and unusual.
Our original plans were to open Blackcreek Nursery in the spring of 2022 but the challenges that businesses in the horticultural industry have faced due to the pandemic gave us a new perspective on our lives and what we want to accomplish. In early fall 2020, we decided to fast-track our plans with a scheduled open date of March 2021, not 2022! Who does that? Building a business in the middle of a pandemic. We hoped we were not crazy!!!
Our Motto is “Keep Going ~ Keep Growing” because when the going gets tough, that’s all you can do because stopping is not an option!
It was a steep uphill battle all the way, from converting from growing space to retail, electricity, well, driveways, rock paths, shade houses, irrigation & sales office, rain, wind, and plant shortages, but we jumped every hurdle in 6 months and opened for retail on March 26, 2021.
We could not have done anything that we have done if were not for Ben, my husband of over 40 years! He wears many hats including Dad, Papa, our design-it-build-it-fix-it, and the maker of all of our dreams come true! He gets very little time in the spotlight, but he deserves it all!
We couldn’t be happier with our progress, especially for the GREAT customers and community support that we have received.
From Start To Finish in 6 months.....
Today, we specialize in Camellias, including Tea Plants, Perennials, and Edibles. In addition, we carry a line of landscape ornamental shrubs and trees. As growers, we find that we can offer our customers first-hand knowledge on how to grow our plants. We do buy in some of our plants, but growing is our passion.
We are particularly interested in the ‘oldies’ but goodies. With so many branded plants sold by big box stores and large garden centers, the wonderful old cultivars of many plants are lost in today’s sea of high-priced, hybrid, and patented plants. As a grower, we are in the unique position of finding these old garden favorites and bringing them back to the forefront as they should be. Plants like Confederate Rose, Mystery Gardenia, and even “Pink Perfection” Camellias are plants that are near and dear to our hearts. We’re always on the hunt for diamonds in the rough, and when we do find them, we promise to bring them to our garden!
In March 2022, after 30 years of growing, our partnership with Gene's Nursery had come to an end. Gene's Nursery closed its doors after serving Savannah Customers for over 60 years. Gene's Nursery will continue to be a fond memory and we will cherish the friendships we have made over the years.
Blackcreek Garden Market
Come visit our Garden Market, which is our version of the ‘She Shed’ at Blackcreek Nursery. We stock a lot of our own specialties like our Magnolia Moon & Co., Soap & Bath products, candles, specialty and herbal tea, apparel, gifts & gardening supplies.
The Herbal Shop ~ We have always been attracted to herbs and how they can heal the body mind and spirit. It is that interest that has led us to create our Herbal Shop and we have been working diligently to supply it with a great collection of herbs and teas that you can use in your own quest for a more natural way of life. We will be offering some classes soon that can help you learn more about herbs and the many things you can do with them.
The Blackcreek Tea Garden
One of our special interests is growing Tea and it has been for over 30 years! Camellia sinensis is responsible for the beverage we all love to drink – Tea! All Tea, whether it’s green, black, or oolong, is made from the leaves of this very special plant. And Tea grows fabulous in Georgia. We are not only growers, we are plant breeders and have developed many of our own cultivars.
Although we have enough tea planted to harvest and produce our own tea as a farm crop, that’s not our goal. We have just completed the last phase of planting our 1/2 acre tea garden and with that, we are now able to do what we love best – Teaching! We began in 2022 with our first Tea classes and we hope to offer many more in the future!
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