Andre Viette felt his family and his flowers would thrive more vigorously in the verdant Blue Ridge Mountains than on Long Island.  New York was where his 16-year-old Swiss immigrant father, Martin, first started growing perennials while working as an apprentice gardener.   Martin established his own nursery in 1929 hybridizing lilacs, phlox and daylilies.  In 1976, Andre established a 200-acre farm and nursery in Fisherville, a small community between Charlottesville and Staunton.  Operating the nursery and farm with his wife Claire and son, Mark, they grow over a million plants a year and are visited by approximately 15,000 garden lovers annually.

The nursery display gardens feature over 1,000 varieties of daylilies with extensive collections of peonies, oriental poppies and iris.  It is a splendid sight to see fields of colorful flowers.  Specialty gardens have well-labeled rare and unusual perennials.

Andre Viette, a world-renown horticulturalist who serves on the board of the American Horticulture Society, has a weekly Saturday morning radio show currently heard on over twenty stations from 8:00 to 11:00 A.M.  Listeners can call in with gardening questions for Andre and his co-host Jim Britt.  There are lots of call since, as surveys indicate, about 75% of all households in the country engaged in indoor or outdoor gardening.

The garden center is open at no charge April through October on Monday through Saturday from 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. and Sunday 1:00 to 5:00 P.M.  A mail order catalog is available for a nominal fee by calling (540) 943-2315. 

Directions: From I-64 (if you are traveling west from the Richmond area), take Exit 91 north. You will turn right onto Route 608, them make a left turn and head west on Route 250.  After you go under a train overpass you will turn right onto Route 608 (there was a little jog onto Rte. 250, but this puts you back onto Long Meadow Road).  The nursery is 2 ½ miles on the left.  From I-81 traveling south, take Exit 225 and turn left onto Route 275, which will turn into Route 254 East.  Then make a right turn on Route 608.  The nursery is 2 ½ miles on the right.  Traveling north on I-81, take Exit 221, turn right and go east on I-64, then follow directions above.