Mary Ann King, owner of Pine Ridge Gardens in London Ark., always loved to grow things. And she has always wanted to try everything.

For example, when she decided to grow vegetables for her family she grew 12 kinds of tomatoes and ten kinds of beans.

That love of gardening grew into a nursery business that is now well known across the country for its wide selection of native plants that King grows mostly from seed.

“I was a founding member of the Russellville Farmer’s Market,” King said. “When the family grew up and I did not need so much from the vegetable garden, I turned to growing every kind of jonquil and the other minor bulbs. Then, I started growing all the kinds of iris. And after that I started growing perennials from seed.”

In 1992 King ordered her first greenhouse and took horticulture classes at the local college.

“My focus is on plants for birds and butterflies now,” King said. “I grow what you can't find other places.”

More than half of the customers who buy from Pine Ridge Gardens come in from Mississippi, Texas, Louisiana, Missouri and Oklahoma to make the drive down gravel and dirt roads to King’s 65-acre site.

Many opt to order from the online or print catalog and have plants shipped to their homes.

“More people are interested in native plants now,” King said. “With the proper selection, you can have a garden that takes less care and is more drought tolerant.”

The next open house will be March 29 and 30. You have to call or check the Web site for additional dates.

“I’m open on Saturday and Sunday almost every other weekend until mid-June and then I re-open for September and October,” King said. “People come every week by appointment, too. They schedule a visit here along with other driving destinations.”

In addition to a dozen areas of trees and plants, Pine Ridge Garden has an arboretum that King put in place when she gave up raising cattle. Most of the trees and shrubs are natives that are thriving on a natural setting and only the rain they receive from nature.

You can take a self-guided tour to walk among unique specimens such as Zanthoxylum (toothache tree), Gooseberry bush, American Yellow-wood (Cladrastis kentukea), Mexican Buckeye, Sloe Plum shrub, Carolina Silverbell (Halesia tetraptera), etc. Most of these plants are native to the Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas area.

Around the pond, visitors can walk along dozens of plants growing in their natural setting which provides an opportunity to observe their growing habits and what they will look like at their mature size.

King shares her knowledge as she walks.