Grass tree (Xan­th­or­rhoea australis)

I am pleased to announce the inclu­sion of Ven­tura County and envi­rons in the Socal​nurs​ery​plants​.com fam­ily! The area between the West Val­ley and Santa Bar­bara County is home to some splen­did nurs­eries, none more so than Aus­tralian Native Plants. Located in the foothills of Ojai, the nurs­ery was estab­lished in the early 1990’s by Aus­tralian hor­ti­cul­tur­ist Jo O’Connell with the help of her hus­band Byron Cox.

Jo has an extremely inter­est­ing back­ground, hav­ing worked in Zoo Hor­ti­cul­ture in Aus­tralia and the US. She is ded­i­cated to intro­duc­ing new and diverse plant mate­r­ial for drought prone areas. “From the begin­ning, our vision was to pro­vide plants that are hardy, drought tol­er­ant, cut flower pro­duc­ing and bird attract­ing.” Whew, that’s a tall order, but hav­ing vis­ited her nurs­ery recently I can report “Mis­sion accom­plished”. It would be hard to walk out of this nurs­ery with­out buy­ing some­thing (I didn’t). Most of us are famil­iar with pro­teas and kan­ga­roo paws, but that is just the tip of the ice­berg at Aus­tralian Native Plants. (How can you not love a plant that goes by the moniker Arthropdium stric­tum?) Jo has some great demon­stra­tion gar­dens, as well as tons of plant mate­r­ial that she grows from seeds and cut­tings. She also resources new plant mate­r­ial every year when she vis­its Australia.

Alas, you won’t find most of these plants at other nurs­eries. Jo has a list of all avail­able plants on her web site: www​.aus​tralian​plants​.com. She also sells some won­der­ful books there. This is def­i­nitely a des­ti­na­tion nurs­ery; if you want to expand your hori­zons to Aus­tralia — go to Ojai.

It is rec­om­mended tha you call ahead for an appoint­ment and directions.