Water plants at Upland Nursery

I may have to move just to get closer to Upland Nurs­ery in Orange. What a trip this place is. The day I dropped in I was for­tu­nate enough to run into one of the own­ers, the ebul­lient Jerry Hsu. For me, it was an E-​ticket at Dis­ney­land. Jerry is the most enthu­si­as­tic busi­ness owner you’ll ever encounter. His pri­mary pas­sion is plume­rias — he has 350 vari­eties. Stretch­ing a mile deep along a nar­row space under power lines (like many nurs­eries), Upland doesn’t so much reveal itself as unfurls. A green­house here full of suc­cu­lents, a row of 30 vari­eties of Japan­ese maples there, cacti, bon­sai, it is a collector’s dream come true. Not a place to buy pan­sies or impa­tiens (do that next store at Vil­lage Nurs­ery), this is the place to stretch your gar­den­ing mus­cle. I (almost) never buy plants when I’m research­ing for Socal​nurs​ery​plants​.com, but I bought some­thing here. I’ve been informed it’s called a Princess plant but to me it looks mar­t­ian. Regard­less, it is fab­u­lous and now resides hap­pily in my suc­cu­lent gar­den. Shop here, you’ll be in good com­pany: William Shat­ner does, as well as the Bel­la­gio Hotel of Las Vegas.