When you walk into a greenhouse full of pansies and take a deep breath, you know you’ve survived another winter on Martha’s Vineyard. Now you can do it up-Island on State Road as garden centers opened for the season over the last few weeks.

Thanks to warm, sunny weather two weekends ago, Mike Saunier at Heather Gardens opened earlier than he expected. “Once I saw that the weather was good, I put the sign out,” he said. There were people shopping throughout that week and during the official open house this past Sunday, where hellebores and heathers mixed with the spring bulbs.

He’s seen an increasing interest in vegetable plants; theirs are all grown from seed in organic soil and range from cool weather vegetables such as kale and chard that can be planted now, to tomatoes and peppers that need warmer days and nights before going out.

New this year is a potting shed with antique planters, doorstops and other garden-themed bric-a-brac. They continue to offer a 15 per cent discount to seniors on Thursday and a 10 per cent discount to Our Island Club cardholders.

Mr. Saunier will supply Morning Glory Farm with annual and perennial flowers again this year while Morning Glory continues to sell their own vegetables and herbs. He has also formed a partnership with Going Native Nursery of Vineyard Haven and will provide owner Kristin Henriksen with her own space in the greenhouse.

“I’ll be selling a selection of perennials, grasses, trees and shrubs that are all native to Martha’s Vineyard,” she said. She’s been collecting and propagating native seeds at her home since 2004 and looks forward to having a retail outlet. While most of her plants are not in flower until summer, she will have a limited selection of early bloomers for sale at Heather Gardens by mid-April.

At Vineyard Gardens’s open house on Sunday, the selection of flowering plants included forget-me-nots, alyssum, rock cress, phlox and baby’s breath along with pansies, primroses and spring bulbs. Christine Wiley, who owns the business with her husband, Chuck, says they have expanded their selection of vegetables and herbs over the years, which she thinks is only somewhat driven by a downturn in the economy.

“I’ve heard a lot about buying local from customers as the whole sustainable, green, organic concept has taken off,” she said. “Why buy a vegetable that’s trucked in from California when you can get it from Andrew Woodruff?” Mr. Woodruff is the owner of Whippoorwill Farm where shares of produce are offered for the season. Home gardeners can find herbs, salad greens, leeks, peas, cabbage and other cool weather vegetables all grown organically in the greenhouses at Vineyard Gardens.

The Wileys started their business 30 years ago as a landscaping firm, opening the garden center in 1988. Ms. Wiley says that business has fluctuated over the years with changing economic conditions; they saw a 30 per cent drop in both businesses last year and she doesn’t expect much change in the coming year.

She says the garden center will continue to offer a 20 per cent discount to seniors on Tuesdays but new this year is a 20 per cent discount on all vegetables each Thursday.

They begin their Saturday free lecture series at 11 a.m. tomorrow with a talk by Ms. Wiley about spring bulbs. On April 10 Debbie Dean will discuss how to start plants from seeds and on April 17 Chuck Wiley will talk about cool weather vegetables. The lectures are held each Saturday from April through July. And, of course, Vineyard Gardens holds its traditional Easter egg hunt starting at 1 p.m. this Sunday.

Farther up State Road, Middletown Nurseries also opened last weekend with an assortment of fruit trees — peach, plum, nectarine and pear — that are not meant just for ornamental spring blossoms. “They’re all capable of producing fruit here although they may take a few years to get established,” said horticulturalist Jessica Sledzianowski. Smaller plants like nectarines could be grown in pots and brought into an unheated space for the winter but they are all cold tolerant.

Later in the season they’ll carry some unusual varieties of shrubs and trees including Japanese maples, dwarf conifers and red-flowering Kousa dogwoods. They offer a 15 per cent senior discount on Monday.

This one-and-one-half mile stretch of State Road offers everything from the ingredients for a summer salad to a plum pudding.