Let me help you find a nursery in the Southern California & Los Angeles areas.
Websites worth clicking on
Inside Rolling Greens
Scrolling through the nursery websites on Socalnurseryplants.com, I have come across some terrific content in unexpected places that I would like to share. Always remember that nurseries often put coupons and sale notices on their websites. I’m dividing the sites into two sections; the first one follows:
East Valley:
- www.sgnurserynews.com (San Gabriel Nursery): a newsletter, monthly advice, photos of exotic plants they carry
- www.theodorepayne.org: see the great classes they give on native gardening
West Valley:
- www.papayatreenursery.com: videos on how to prune specific fruit trees like curry leaf and cherimoya; “ask Alex” feature; in the news/miracle fruit; guide for choosing rare fruit trees for your yard.
Los Angeles:
- www.armstronggarden.com: Gardening from A to Z answers many of your questions; a Save Water feature; Garden Guides help gardeners at every level; a garden forum.
- Mickeyhargitayplants.com: a beautifully designed website with music that will take you to the tropics; check out the links, you will be surprised!
- www.rollinggreensnursery.com/: a gorgeous website with music.
Orange County:
- www.lagunanursery.net: news and events; owner Ruben Flores offers a free walking tour in the Laguna area most Saturdays at 10am.
- www.Californianativeplants.com (Tree of life nursery): Guest speaker series, lots of native plant information.
- Tropicalvibe.com: Lots of information on palms, and their selection and care.
To be continued.….….
On the web: Potted storewide sale; 9/10 — 9/19; 20% to 75% off; www.pottedstore.com
1,000,000">1,000,000
My office
One million of something is an interesting concept. 1,000,000 used to be a lot of money, a lot of people, a lot of cars! Fortunately, it’s still a lot of “hits”, or visits to a website. SoCalNurseryPlants.com just reached 1,000,000 hits — yes, there are ways to track these things — and I’ve been waiting to see this number for the last few weeks. Interestingly enough, I also have 627 subscribers on today, 6/27 — synchronocity!
I feel fortunate in that there is no other place in the world where this website would flourish like it does in Southern California, with a large population of gardeners, many gardens and nurseries and year around growing season. I’m also lucky that I have something to say twice a week, and the skills to say it with. (High school journalism comes in handy!) I’m no spring chicken either, and I’ve had to learn a lot about computers, software and photography. So take heart if you want to reinvent yourself — if I can do it, so can you!
What makes a destination nursery?
A mossy fountain at Laguna Nursery
This is a difficult post to write because most nurseries are special in some way. Every community needs and deserves a generalized “garden center” for obvious reasons (especially since Target has closed all of theirs — yea!). So I’m not necessarily talking about service, selection or price. With destination nurseries something more indefinable is usually in play, starting with the passion of the owner. Most of the nursery men and women I’ve met love what they do — which is lucky for us in this harsh economic climate. But it is much harder to specialize because it cuts down on clientele. So, need Australian plants? Go to Jo O’Connell’s Australian Native Plants Nursery in Ojai. Jo provides Australian plants to the Huntington Botanical Gardens, among many others. Want your roses grown locally and acclimatized — Otto and Sons in Fillmore has an enormous selection. How about a custom topiary spelling out your name? Get it at Eden Nursery in Orange County. Two nurseries that specialize in jaw dropping fountains, planter arrangements, orchids, garden furniture and accessories: Laguna Nursery in Orange County and Rolling Greens Nursery in Culver City. Upland Nursery in Orange County has 350 varieties of plumeria. Does your spouse want to see a phenomenal car collection while you shop for petunias? The only place for that is Simpson’S Garden Nursery in San Diego County. Also in San Diego County: Botanical Partners with every bamboo imaginable, and Jungle Music for collector’s palms. The owners of these nurseries (Ralph Evans and Phil Bergman, respectively) will give you help in deciding what will do best in your garden — they want you to succeed and come back for more. Of course, that is true of all nurseries, large and small, general or specialized.
I have a “Destination Nursery” listing at the bottom of my categories on Socalnurseryplants.com. For more information on each nursery, go to the category for that nursery.
The Evolution of a Website
Lily pads at the Getty Villa, March 7, 2010 photo by Susan Hirsch
It occurred to me the other day that some of you might be interested in the evolution of my website. Having enjoyed gardening for many years, I had two frustrations: first with locating nurseries in the sprawling city of Los Angeles, and secondly with seeing nurseries closing. Anyone who has done a search for nurseries will empathize with the former; if you’ve seen a favorite nursery close you will relate to the latter. My primary goal was to build a website to help the public let their fingers do the walking when looking for a new nursery or plant, thereby making it easier to patronize and support them as well.
The hardest thing for the layperson who needs to design a website is finding someone to help. I searched online and when I saw something I liked, I contacted the designer. Prices ranged from 300.00 to 5000.00 and up. Socalnurseryplants.com is somewhat unique in that it combines a permanent database for the nurseries and a blog using the WordPress platform. Many designers would or could not tackle it until I was fortunate enough to find Sketchpad Publications. In talking to the owners, Larry and Norma Holt, I felt I should take the plunge and put down the deposit. That gave me a deadline, forcing me to start assembling my database by visiting nurseries to take notes and photographs; to date I have been to 90% of those on my website and will eventually get to every single one. I used my daughter’s 10 year old Kodak digital camera and got excellent pictures. It was amazing what can be captured on camera when you start really looking.
Next was the process of learning WordPress. It wasn’t hard with Norma and Larry’s help. Oh, and I also got a refurbished Apple laptop, switching from a PC. That has proved to be a great move.
Now I’m having so much fun with this project, I don’t know what to do with myself. It’s constantly evolving since my first post in September, 2009. I have had about half a million viewers, and been profiled in the Los Angeles Times and Sunset Magazine online editions. The best part is learning something new everyday –that part is the fountain of youth!
