Bird­houses at Mis­sion Hills Nurs­ery, San Diego

I’m going to try to time my updates on my web­site to the President’s State of the Union Address every year because it adds grav­i­tas. Not that this is such a seri­ous endeavor; it’s a lot of fun, and the best idea I’ve ever had. Since Socal​nurs​ery​plants​.com went active last Sep­tem­ber I have vis­ited and/​or researched over 100 nurs­eries. Soon Orange County and San Diego city and county will be online. I’ve also decided to add the Santa Bar­bara area since vis­it­ing nurs­eries is my pas­sion (tech­ni­cally SB may be Cen­tral, not South­ern, Cal­i­for­nia). There is also the thrill of dis­cov­ery: every once in awhile I’ll be tool­ing down the road and dis­cover a nurs­ery I can add to my web­site that wasn’t on any of the data bases I’ve researched. It’s also fun to answer the queries that come in, includ­ing where to buy a cer­tain kind of per­sim­mon tree in Orange County and a good source for procur­ing 24 Bay Lau­rel trees.

I’m also dis­cov­er­ing the nurs­ery busi­ness is a vibrant and pro­fes­sional indus­try. Just visit the fol­low­ing web­sites for inspi­ra­tion: www​.proven​win​ners​.com, www​.mon​rovia​.com, www​.burkard​nurs​eries​.com, www​.sgnurs​erynews​.com, www​.greenar​rownurs​eries​.com, www​.sper​lingnurs​ery​.com, and www​.arm​strong​gar​den​.com. All are infor­ma­tive and give sea­sonal and design advice. There are nurs­ery men and women who are pas­sion­ate about bam­boo, orchids, cacti, suc­cu­lents, top­i­aries, roses, palms, bon­sais, Cal­i­for­nia natives, plume­ria, trop­i­cals and more. Some South­ern Cal­i­for­nia nurs­eries are 60 to 100 years old (Mis­sion Hills Nurs­ery in San Diego). And don’t think of nurs­eries solely in terms of “plant­ing your patch”. They are great places to go for an unusual gift (many have gift shops) or an inspi­ra­tional stroll on a sunny day.