In the OC Register

I'd never heard of some of these.

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/life/homepage/article_677286.php

Oops! The link requires a password. What is there?

I'm so sorry, didn't realize. Here's a cut and paste of the article:

Exotic exploration
Head south to find unusual and specialty nurseries in San Diego County.

By CINDY McNATT
The Orange County Register


PRICKLY OUTLOOK: Sweeps of cactus as far as the eye can see occupy a sizable portion of Daylily Hill in Escondido.

CHAS METIVIER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
MORE PHOTOS

When fall is in the air, the gardener gets the itch to get out and get to the nursery. But if you like your horticultural hopping to feel like an event, try San Diego County on for size.

San Diego is to the hard-core plant collector what Napa is to the wine connoisseur. You can hardly drive the back roads of this garden-inclined county and not stumble across growers and greenhouses for commercial, wholesale and retail trades, and a lot of plain old horticulturally inclined folks who sell plants in their front yards.

Happenstance is how I found Daylily Hill a few years ago. I was headed south on the Escondido (I-15) Freeway en route to Las Pilitas Nursery for berry plants. (I am determined to attract Western bluebirds to my back yard.)

But a wrong turn on Old Highway 395 put me in the driveway of Daylily Hill. And there was that picturesque hillside planted in succulents, with the spectacular ponds below, that I wrote about two weeks ago.

Plant adventures abound down any dirt road. Kartuz Greenhouse, for instance, is a fascinating tromp through several steamy greenhouses full of collector begonias, oddball perennials, and hoyas for the gardener who doesn't have enough of these space-age-looking succulents.

"We get gardeners from all over Southern California," said Steve Brigham, owner of Buena Creek Gardens in San Marcos. With his new bird and butterfly garden installation, and acres of plants to buy, a visit here can take up half your day.

Or if digging your own is your idea of horticultural fun, Weidner's in Encinitas has field-grown pansy digging days when you and your family can search out the pansies that pull at your heart strings, dig them yourselves and bring them home.

Because San Diego County is a place where nurseries can spread out, and the population is dense with enthusiastic plant people, nurseries have the luxury to specialize. Herb farms and fairs, gourd festivals, greenhouses supporting what look like acres of ferns, and friendly folk with dirt under their fingernails have us trying to squeeze one more nursery into each trip.

Since there is something in San Diego County for every kind of gardener, we put together a beginner's list of specialty nurseries that you may want to visit among hundreds that can searched out on the Internet. However, heed these rules of the road:

Call first. Many of these nurseries keep odd hours.

If you don't find what you're looking for on our list, go to www.digitalseed.com, click on San Diego Gardener, and then click on Specialty Nurseries. The Digital Seed site is dated, so be sure to check addresses, phone numbers and hours of operation before you start out.

A Google search of San Diego nurseries will also yield a wide variety.

Our list is brief but has been updated. At top shopping speed, plan to hit four nurseries in one day.

• Rainbow Valley Azalea Growers
4159 N. Mission Road
Fallbrook, (760) 728-0964
www.bloomingazaleas.com
Azaleas

• Bird Rock Tropicals
By appointment. Call for location.
Encinitas, (760) 436-3088
www.birdrocktropicals.com
Bromeliads, tillandsias, cryptanthus, orchids, display gardens

• Cactus King Nursery
1534 Crest Drive
Encinitas, (760) 753-6939
www.cactuskingand succulents.com
Saguaro, edible cactus, agave Tequilan

• Rusty Acres Herb Farm
4233 Rosa Rancho Lane
Rainbow, (760) 731-7349
www.rustyacres.com
Herbs, hundreds of lavenders, lavender crafts, heirloom and winter tomatoes

• Rainbow Gardens Nursery
By appointment.
1444 E. Taylor St.
Vista, (760) 758-4290
Epiphyllums, cacti, hoyas, cycads

• Solana Succulents
355 N. Highway 101
Solana Beach, (858) 259-4568
www.solanasucculents.com
Rare and exotic cacti and succulents

• Welburn Gourd Farm
40635 De Luz Road
Fallbrook, (760) 728-4271
www.welburngourdfarm.com
All about gourds. Shoot for Oct. 8 gourd and pumpkin festival.

• Living Cycads
Home-based business. Call ahead.
2124 Camino Cantera
Vista, (760) 945-0594
Rare cycad seedlings and unusual palms

• Cordon Bleu Daylilies
418 Buena Creek Road
San Marcos, (760) 744-2810
Associated with Buena Creek Gardens (below), www.buenacreekgardens.com
Thousands of daylilies and designer iris

• Weidner's Gardens
Opens Nov. 1
695 Normandy Road
Encinitas, (760) 436-2194
www.weidners.com
Begonia, fuchsias, dig-your-own pansies, new introductions

• Exotica Rare Fruit Nursery
2508-B E. Vista Way
Vista, (760) 724-9093
Rare plants and fruit trees. If the gate is closed, honk your horn.

• Pacific Tree Farms
Closed Tuesdays
4301 Lynwood Drive
Chula Vista, (619) 422-2400
Rare fruit, nut and ornamental trees

• Daylily Hill
32163 Old Highway 395
Escondido (no phone on site)
www.daylilyhill.com
Cactus and succulents, thousands of roses, daylilies and grasses

• Cedros Gardens
330 S. Cedros Ave.
Solana Beach, (858) 792-8640
Totally organic nursery, seaside plants

• Buena Creek Gardens
418 Buena Creek Road
San Marcos, (760) 744-2810
www.buenacreekgardens.com
Uncommon flowering plants, 4-acre butterfly display garden and plants

• Samia Rose Topiary
1236 Urania Ave.
Encinitas, (760) 436-0460
www.srtopiary.com
Closing at the end of October, so you may get some bargains. Topiaries of all kinds, including herbs

• Cordova Greenhouses
902 Encinitas Blvd.
Encinitas, (760) 944 6984
Flowering houseplants, foliage, croton, ferns, coleus

• Las Pilitas Nursery
Closed Sundays
8331 Nelson Way
Escondido, (760) 749-5930
www.laspilitas.com
Native trees, shrubs and perennials, specific bird and butterfly plants

• Kartuz Greenhouse
Call first.
1408 Sunset Drive
Vista, (760) 941-3613
www.kartuz.com
Gesneriads, hoyas, begonias, passion vines

• Myrtle Creek Nursery
2940 Reche Road
Fallbrook, (760) 728-5340
www.myrtlecreeknursery.com
Grounds-grown cottage perennials, shrubs, trees

They left out:

Grigsby Cactus Gardens
2326-2354 Bella Vista Drive
Vista (760) 727-1323
http://www.cactus-mall.com/grigsby/index.html
Cactus & succulents; check website for hours

Steven Hammer's Sphaeroid Institute
845 Mason Drive
Vista (760) 631-7898
http://www.sphaeroid.cactus-mall.com/index.html
Succulents; by appointment

Tropic World Nursery
26437 N Centre City Pkwy
Escondido, (760) 746-6108
cactus, succulents, other plants

Encinitas Gardens
1452 Santa Fe Drive
Encinitas (760) 753-2852
Used to have a great selection of various plants; hopefully they still do.

Man, I could so do a road trip! or just move there.

Sue, I just moved FROM there. Or close enough. And I can say I wish I had access to all those nurseries now that I have the space to grow things. One thing I DON'T miss are the Santa Ana winds though. My plants are happier without those too.

hiya stellapathic,

Don't sell the area up there short. Paso Robles has a few really great nurseries and Nipomo also has a few. Don't forget to check on the plant sales held regularly by Cal Poly's horticulture dept.

Did you get that plant ID done?

best to a fellow transplanted Lagunatic,
don

Hi don,

Nope, never did find out what the tree is, and I just hope I'm not overwatering it or anything, though I looks perfectly healthy so far. I plan on checking out Paso Robles soon----as soon as I can get a day off work, that is. This has been tormenting, having to work pretty much every day since I've moved here. And all I want to do is play in the garden. Then yesterday I read in the local paper that twice in the past couple of weeks people in my neighborhood have seen a mountain lion eating a domestic cat. Also one of the local landscapers came face-to-face with him at 8 am one morning, also within a few blocks of here. So far I haven't had the nerve to take my cat Lionel out for his walk today. He, of course, doesn't understand my reticence. In Laguna it was the traffic and the coyotes and now this. Know of any good mountain lion scare tactics? What can I get that is easily carried around while I'm out there and would make a really big, really scary noise if he came around?

Thanks for the Cal Poly tip. Again, I have to have some time off to do anything like that, but I'll put it on the calendar when they happen.

Air horn. It's the size of a can of spray paint and can be purchased at most home centers or sporting good stores. It makes a whale of a racket.

best,
don

That's the answer then. 'Course it may give Lionel a heart attack but the first place he'd run is inside, and hopefully the lion wouldn't follow him there. I still feel like I can't let him wander around the yard anymore though. If he were out yonder and a big cat came over the fence, no way I'd be able to be quick enough to scare him before it was all over. Now I'm considering getting one of those huge fenced in cat structures so he could go out at will. Lionel's lanai.

Good Morning, I'm new so undoubtedly these nurseries have been mentioned in the past ( I haven't checked all past messages yet) and I'm not aware, but have to comment. I live in Fallbrook and I know what great nurseries we have down here, but you know.....we all have that need to find ALL great nurseries and my best times were when my 2 close friends and I would take picnic lunches and hit the road to that great nursery "somewhere else".
Usually to Mary Lou's Country Garden in Westminster (still miss her), Tree of Life on Ortega Hwy, Chris Wotruba's Perennial Adventure at her house on Mt Helix. Cambria is one of my favorite places to go for ANY reason and go there as often as I can (have even made day trips from here when that's all the time I have) and I miss Sharon Lovejoy's Heartsease nursery there, the garden is smaller now...can there be anything better than a roadtrip to a nursery?

.

This message was edited May 10, 2006 7:03 PM

Hi, wcgypsy, noticed you started to add to this thread this evening. I'm glad, even though you decided against it, because it reminded me to tell you that I looked into Sharon Lovejoy after reading you note the other evening. Please, please, dmail me and let me know if you're going to be in town. I'd love to poke around in the nurseries with you. Also, haven't had the time to check out Chris Wortruba's but my brother lives within spitting distance in La Mesa.

Hi Stella,
I don't know that Chris Wotruba is any longer doing her perennials, it's been mucho long time since I've done that one, but she always had the more unusual items and I believe SharonLovejoy still winters in Cambria and is still doing the Country Living mag thing. I've been trying to figure out for several years now how I could move to Cambria (as are many of us, I'm sure!) I think I was given an omen several trips ago when I was poking around in the garden at Heartsease and went inside only to find out that I'd been locked in, turned out that the person working that day had gone for change and not realized anyone was there, told her not to worry, it was just the universe giving me a nudge. My aging father lives in Modesto and I try to make it up there about every 6 weeks..my indulgences are to go up the back side of the Sierra (stop in Bishop at Schat's Bakery) and cut across through Yosemite; I'm anxious now for Tioga Pass to open for the season, going into withdrawal. So, when the pass is closed I usually treat myself to going over to Cambria and down on the way home. I t does mean having to struggle with the traffic out of Santa Barbara, but worth it, even if I'm on a tight schedule and only sit at the beach north of town and read for an hour. I do like the other nursery there in town now, don't remember the name and the bakery though now that it's changed owners they no longer have my lemon tarts and almond tarts. If I'm feeling in need of "real" pampering, I go through Yosemite and Cambria both! Anyway, consider yourself well-blessed to be living there. We lived in Laguna at one time also, but it was 32 years ago and my husband still whines about missing it every time we're there,but the traffic and overflowing poulation ruined it for us long ago. Like so many wonderful spots in California, once it's gone, it's gone.I hope you wake up every morning and say, "i am really lucky!"
Sherry