Brief History of O’Donal’s Nursery
O’Donal’s Nursery has been in existence since the 1950’s. However, this property has been a nursery for over a century. The present company took shape after the garden center site was purchased from the Jackson family in 1959. The Jacksons had operated a nursery on this same site for several generations, after Tom Jackson began the original firm in the Stroudwater section of Portland in 1850.
The O’Donal family lived in the building now serving as the garden center. Royce O’Donal was involved in landscaping and arboriculture while re-structuring the over-grown nursery areas. As it took shape, the nursery required more and more time away from outside services, eventually leading to an elimination of landscaping services when nursery sales were able to support the firm.
The original 10 acres of the Nursery and Garden Center site were initially used for field-growing of trees and shrubs. Over the years, production of plants in containers increased, and more of the Nursery was dedicated to potted plants. O’Donal’s continued growing plants in fields across the street and down the road.
In the fall of 2006, Jeffrey O’Donal purchased the company from his parents. Jeff retired in 2023 and O’Donal’s Nursery and Garden Center became an employee-owned cooperative.
