About Us

Our nursery was born out of a love of gardening and a passion for unique and uncommon plants. I wanted to create the type of nursery that a plant collector like myself has always dreamed of visiting. It is thrilling to offer to other gardeners, plants that evoke the same excitement within me when I come across a rare horticultural find. As a gardener, plant performance has always ranked high on my list of botanical attributes, as so, the plants we offer have proven themselves garden-worthy specimens.

Our Nursery
Bustani Plant Farm is a specialty nursery in Stillwater, Oklahoma offering plants through mail order and at our nursery, which is only open on designated Fridays and Saturdays. What we offer are unique, uncommon, hard-to-find, rare and unusual plants not available at most garden centers and nurseries.

We are a true nursery meaning we grow all the plants we offer on site and don’t order them in. This involves growing our own stock plants for cuttings and for collecting seed. Our seedlings are started and watered with rain water that we collect from the roofs of our structures. Growing our own plants ensures that we have complete control in producing a top quality plant for your garden.

Who We Are

Bustani Plant Farm is owned and operated by the husband and wife team of Steve and Ruth Owens.  A lifelong horticulturist, Steve was inspired to garden by his father and grandfather.  In order to do the nursery fulltime, he recently stepped down from his position as host, writer and producer of the popular TV program Oklahoma Gardening.  Steve worked for the program for more than 11 years, the last 7 as show host.  The 30 minute show airs on the Oklahoma Public Television Network and continues to be the most popular Oklahoma produced program with an audience of around 200,000 viewers each week.  While doing the show, Steve was also a member of the faculty of the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture at Oklahoma State University and held the title of State Specialist in Consumer Horticulture with the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service.

     In 2007, Steve’s first book was released.  Its title is ‘Best Garden Plants for Oklahoma’, co-authored with Laura Peters and continues to be a top selling item at book stores across the state.  Steve is a gardener, horticulturist and plant hunter with a passion to search the world and find the best plants to offer through Bustani Plant Farm. 

     Ruth has spent the majority of her professional career in the field of accounting, including an 8 year stint with the OSU William S. Spears School of Business.  In the fall of 2007 she left her post with the university to devote herself full time to the nursery.

     In April of 2009 we hired our first full time employee.  We are fortunate to have Jenny Chaney, a recent graduate of OSU with a degree in Horticulture.  She actually worked for us part time during her senior year.  Jenny is from Bristow, Oklahoma, likes women’s college basketball and funny movies.  Her favorite plant is Dianthera.

     Thomas Campbell is an OSU student who works for us part time during the school year and full time in summer.  From right here in Stillwater, he is a Wildlife Ecology major and has a great love for the outdoors.  His favorite plant is the Carrion Flower.

     Mary Fuhlhage began working here part time last spring and came on full time in the fall.  Also an OSU student, she is studying Secondary Education and calls Eureka, Kansas home.  Mary has a keen interest in the science of space and has spent a few summers as a camp counselor at Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama.  She was recently featured in an episode of TLC’s ‘Little People Big World’, when one of the young cast members attended Space Camp and she was his counselor.  Her favorite plant is Coleus ‘Finger Paint’.

     With us since 2004 is Panther, our stately nursery cat and champion mouser.

Our Nursery Location
Our nursery resides just southeast of Stillwater, OK in USDA hardiness zone 6b. Annually we receive around 35-40 inches of rain per year. Our average minimum temperature for winter is right at or just below 0 degrees F. The coldest temperature I’ve experienced here has been -22 degrees F. Summers are hot and usually dry with numerous days above 100 degrees F, often several in a row. The average planting-out date for tender plants is usually between April 15th and April 21st. Our first hard frost usually comes around late October or early November.