Signal Mountain Nursery

About us

Signal Mountain Nursery is a family-owned and operated garden center. Located in beautiful Signal Mountain, Tennessee, we have proudly served the Chattanooga area for 70 years. Our emphasis is on customer service and high quality plant material. With the majority of our plants grown locally, we offer top quality plants and a knowledgeable staff to assist you with all your gardening and plant questions. Visitors to Signal Mountain Nursery enjoy the garden-like atmosphere that helps provide ideas for their own garden.

At Signal Mountain Nursery, you will find a wide selection of flowering annuals, perennials, trees, shrubs, ground covers, and tropical plants. The staff members are knowledgeable of growth habits, season of bloom, and soil treatment, and are always eager to assist you with plant selection or landscape design. We also carry related products that contribute to successful gardening such as soils, mulches, fertilizers, and garden chemicals.

In addition, we have a gift shop that offers a large selection of gardening and decorative items to adorn your home and outdoor living space.

We invite you to visit us in person and enjoy the beauty of Signal Mountain Nursery.

Our history

Before Signal Mountain Nursery, there was Parry Nurseries, founded in 1947 by Ben Addie and Arthur "Scotty" Parry. In the 1940's, Ben worked as a secretary for McDade Orchids. Following the end of WWII, McDade sent Ben to England on business. On the ship, she met a young Brit named Arthur Parry, called Scotty, and "liked him very much." They married and the young couple soon launched Parry Nurseries on Signal Mountain, focusing on peonies. Eventually, they switched to daylilies, growing 12 acres of the hardy perennials and introducing hundreds of varieties, including 32 of Ben's very own.

The current owners, Laurel Parry Steele and David Steele, met while attending Middle Tennessee State University. They married in 1972 and moved to Calhoun, GA, where David worked at the University of Georgia doing agriculture research. However, after the death of Scotty they chose to return to Signal Mountain and throw their shoulders to the wheel at the nursery. Thus, in 1977, Signal Mountain Nursery was founded on the remnants of Parry Nurseries.

Laurel and David's daughter Kim currently manages the nursery along with her husband Mark Bonastia. Three generations have grown Signal Mountain Nursery from a small two greenhouse nursery to a vibrant garden center with over 45 greenhouses that delights customers today.