Los Angeles members please give me a heads up

I am going to Los Angeles next month. Can you please give me some good places to visit for plants? Nurseries, gardens, etc. I live in zone 10b (South Florida) and I like tropical hard to find plants. I am also a photographer. Not big on roses or Cactus/Succulants. I am more the passion vine, jade vine type. I tried the "Go Gardening" which is cool but the distance is not working. That makes it a little difficult. Thanks a bunch! See you soon! : )

Oh I guess I should mention... I would probably go about 50 miles if it was somewhere really goo.

Well, I like San Gabriel Nursery, which is inland from downtown L.A.. They have a pretty good supply of tropicals, both indoor and outdoor (for here). Mostly you will find a lot of Mediterranean plants in Los Angeles - but a few places have some tropical for we throwbacks.

M&M Nursery in Orange, CA for fairy garden's

Do you want to see plants, or buy them?

Both

At the top of this forum there is a sticky that has a bunch of info on different places to go. I lived in LA for 28 years and there are 3 places I can think of off the top of my head. You may want to google them to see if they have what you are looking for. The Huntington Library, The Arboretum, and Descanso Gardens. Good Luck
Lisa

Thanks to all and happy gardening!!

Cyndee

Oh there is a cool place to look at in Ojai, that is an artsy garden art place divided into rooms with plants, I love it, but you can only buy the art and stuff for the garden, but there are great plants there and somewhere by Thousand Oaks there public gardens, and I love the nursery in Canoga Green Thumb.

Is the Asian garden thing still somewhere over by Balboa Park or by the dam or something?

These places are not in LA, but might be worth the trip if you're looking for something off the beaten track. I don't know if they'll have a lot of tropicals, since tropicals aren't my thing, but they should have a host of things that will do well in your area (which is the same as mine) and that would blend well with a tropical theme. It is impossible for me to walk into these places and not walk out without at least one plant.

My faves in Orange County are: Cottage Nursery Gardens in Westminster (formerly Heards Gardens), Brita's Old Town Nursery in Seal Beach and Laguna Gardens on Laguna Canyon Road.

This message was edited Jun 15, 2009 11:03 AM

Well I finally made it to California. A year late but it was well worth the wait. I came back with a suit case full of plants. I didn't get to go to any nurseries in LA area because this was our daughter's first trip to LA so we made LA all about her. I went a few days early and stayed in Anaheim. I visited M&M Nursery in Orange, Cottage Nursery Gardens in Westminster, Brita’s in Seal Beach, Kartuz Greenhouse, and finally Green Thumb Nursery in San Marcos.

M&M Nursery in Orange
It is a very nice nursery with very sweet plants that are great for fairy gardens. I wasn't sure exactly what type of plants that meant but if you visit this nursery it will hit you, "OH, I get it". Lots of dainty miniature sized plants. Unfortunately, most of their plants won't make it where I live. I did bring a couple plants home from M&M because I really love the plants and since their prices are fairly reasonable I decided to take a chance. I loved this Nursery and the people where friendly and helpful, if you asked.

Cottage Nursery Gardens in Westminster
I do not recommend this Nursery. Their website doesn’t tell you what they sell or what their actual address is but I found it any way. The nursery was EXTREMELY overgrown. They had very little in the way of plants for sale or anything else for that matter, and the one sales person/owner that I saw was very rude. I will not waste my time going back on my next trip.

Brita’s in Seal Beach
I love this nursery. It is located in the middle of a quaint area with little shops and restaurants. There were several employees including Brita and they were all friendly and helpful. Brita walked around with me chatting and helping me decide what to take back to Florida and how to get it there as if she had all day. Brita has two house kitties and a puppy. Even they were friendly. They have great plants and their prices are definitely reasonable. I got several Abutilons and a Clivia. I would have purchased more but they wouldn’t fit in my suit case. Note to self: Next time, bigger suit case.

Kartuz Greenhouse in Vista
I have been on their website many times so I was very excited to actually visit. This is not a commercial type nursery. They sell mostly hard to find tropicals online in the way of starter sized plants. Michael is the owner and they run the nursery from his home where he has several huge greenhouses. Bill does the shipping and Robert is the phone guy. They were a pleasure to swap stories with and I got several plants that I have been wanting for a long time and some that I didn’t know I wanted or had even seen before, nine total. I am so glad that they allow people to come to their greenhouses. I highly recommend a visit either in person or online. If you do tell them that Cyndee from Florida says “Hi”, oh and if you like Mexican food you must stop at a little restaurant at the end of the street it is in the shopping plaza on the corner called Colima’s, 1850 Hacienda Dr. Don’t let the faded menu signs throw you. The food is great. Try the California Burrito or the Taco Salad, they are HUGE and awesome!! You will need a doggie bag!

And my last nursery…

Green Thumb in San Marcos
This is a commercial type nursery, kinda like Home Depot on Steroids. They had LOTS of great plants and the prices of most of their plants were reasonable. They also had plants that you would not find in your average nursery or Home Depot. I highly recommend this nursery and hopefully next time I can check out a couple of their other locations.

Well, that was my trip! Hopefully you will find a new and exciting nursery that you didn’t already know about or maybe a new great Mexican Restaurant from my trip. Oh we also went to an In-N-Out Burgers and Joe’s Crab shack. I will definitely be checking those out again next trip!!

Happy gardening and thanks to all of you that made suggestions!

Glad you had a good trip and found some good plants. Now, the important thing is, did your daughter enjoy the trip? LOL

Kathleen
Not far from Kartuz!

As much as I love to garden In-N-Out Burger would have been the highlight of my trip.
Glad you had a good time.

LOL!! Ya KaperC, she had a great time. There was no plant searching once she arrived. I might have peaked but only if they looked at me first. There was one Clivia that really wanted to come back with me but they wouldn't let me barrow a piece. It's on the list for next trip though. The first day we went to Hollywood Blvd. She posed with more Cartoon Characters than real people. She did make it a point to find Shirley Temple's Star. Then we went for a drive and happened to find Michael Jackson house and she was really excited about "The Fresh Prince of Bel air". She is 15 so I had to show her the "interesting" people at Venice Beach. She really liked Venice "Interesting people", cute skateboard boys, and shopping. And as a bonus we took he to a Marijuana Festival. Ya, as we were walking towards Venice Beach we saw some tents. "Hey look they are having a festival". Jokingly my usband says, "Ya, it's probably a Marijuana festival" and it was. Sooo there was a very tall "Tree" Fairy there talking to some small children collecting money for "Fertilizer" to help him grow. Of course, she got a picture with the tree Fairy. So day day two she already had a lot to talk about. We also took her to check out UCLA. It is such a beautiful campus. We showed her where the Gator Alumni go to watch the Gator games. She wants to go to UF. We went to the mall. And last but not least we took her to Malibu to see "cute boys" surf. It could have been warmer and she wasn't ready to leave but I think she made out OK. Thanks for asking!

1lisac it is a close call. In-n-Out was awsome! We had it "Animal Style". I felt a little uncomfortable ordering anything animal style with my daughter present but it was definately worth it. I wish we had one in Florida. Yum!!

Well thanks for reading my thread. Keep in touch and happy gardening!