Tree of Life Nursery

If you are like me, you have fan­ta­sized about work­ing at a spe­cial nurs­ery — or hav­ing your own. Tree of Life Nurs­ery is just such a spe­cial place for me. Located on 40 acres off Ortega High­way in San Juan Capis­trano, TOLN was started over thirty years ago by own­ers Mike Evans and Jeff Bohn. Their mis­sion was to prop­a­gate Cal­i­for­nia native plants with the view to return­ing Cal­i­for­nia habi­tat to its nat­ural form. Since then TOLN has become the largest native plant sup­plier in the state. Both the set­ting and the build­ings on the prop­erty are won­der­ful. The staff “has exten­sive expe­ri­ence in eco­log­i­cal restora­tion, habi­tat enhance­ment and authen­tic land­scap­ing.” Tree of Life natives are made avail­able to the gen­eral pub­lic through the charm­ing Casa “La Paz” Plant and Book Store. They also offer ter­rific work­shops, includ­ing: Native Designs: Color Year Round in the Cal­i­for­nia Native Gar­den (April 3), Native Design: Cre­ate a Hum­ming­bird Con­tainer (April 10), Native Design: Incor­po­rat­ing Desert Plants (April 17), Native Design: Design Prin­ci­ples for Suc­cess (April 24), and Native Design: Plant Tour of Nurs­ery Gar­dens (May 1). They also have a 4 part work­shop in May on how to get rid of your lawn. For more infor­ma­tion go to their web­site: www​.Cal​i​for​ni​a​na​tive​plants​.com.