Have plants, will travel! Some of us will drive for hours for the love of plants—or for the fun of enjoying a good nursery, with unique offerings that are not available near home. We are within a few hours of some world-famous summer road trip destinations. Disneyland? Vegas? No way! Give us a nursery to peruse, and we’ll take the wheel. Yes, it’s true that microclimates are an important factor. However, most plants at these far-flung nurseries will grow perfectly well on the Central Coast.
Before you start your engines, some advice: Make room in the car, or folks in the backseat may be sitting next to a thorny cactus! Don’t let plants overheat. The best spot is on the floor, behind front seats which provide shade. If you are in a truck, the best place for plants is in the bed, right behind the cab, covered in a light tarp, tied down with bungie cords. Take plants out of the car immediately when you get home if the weather is hot.
Also be sure to call the nursery ahead of time or check the website for seasonal hours.
THE HIGHWAY 80 CORRIDOR
ANNIE’S ANNUALS & PERENNIALS
Home of the flower floozy
740 Market Avenue, Richmond
510.215.330
anniesannuals.com
When Annie’s Annuals & Perennials opened a couple decades ago, it was a revelation. Never before had gardeners seen such a huge retail nursery with a broad, beautifully curated and well-organized selection of plants. Today, all the plants are still grown ethically (non-toxic, bee friendly) and sold in the same 3-acre space, all year long, with brilliant signage.
Annie’s caters to every type of garden and gardener. They sell a vast selection of California native plants, which you would otherwise not be able to access from a nursery, period. There are rows and rows of cutting garden flowers, bedding plants, succulents, landscape grasses, interesting edibles, indoor plants, and more. Their own-root roses are highly recommended.
A shiny gem in a rough part of the East Bay, Annie’s is just a few miles off Highway 80 and Interstate 580 in Richmond. There are often events and free plant talks on Saturdays.
Annie’s plants are available online (but more expensive), and the website is just as organized and helpful as the store. A good selection of their 4-inch plants can be found at Dig Gardens in Aptos and San Lorenzo Garden Center in Santa Cruz. Thank goodness; as a landscaper, I rely on Annie’s Annuals for diversity, selection and especially for selfseeding wildflowers.
MORNINGSUN HERB FARM
Plant a tea garden and pet the donkeys
6137 Pleasants Valley Road, Vacaville
707.451.9406
morningsunherbfarm.com
Morningsun Herb Farm has more varieties of lavender than any other nursery I’ve heard of. They propagate an astonishing 45 different types. Some varieties are small, some are very blue, some are pink, some are more fragrant and some taste good—there’s a whole world of lavenders to learn about.
Overall, the nursery grows 150 types of culinary herbs, with more than 20 varieties of thyme, oregano, mint, hyssop, 40 types of scented geraniums, nearly 100 salvias and California native plants, plus an expansive selection of heirloom tomatoes and other edibles.
Morningsun is on a scenic country road a couple miles off Highway 80 in Vacaville, on the way to Sacramento and Tahoe. Owner Rose Loveall’s parents had a small walnut orchard here, and it became a nursery in 1995. There is room to stretch your legs as you shop, walking through the nine hoop houses and across the grounds, with demonstration gardens and lavender fields. Bring a picnic—there are tables.
Leashed dogs are welcome, and there’s room for kids to run and play. Bring treats for the donkeys!
They host many makers workshops and other events, but call in advance to check on availability of specific plants.
If you can’t get on the road, visit their website, for information on growing and using lavender and many other herbs, including dozens of recipes.
THE NORTH COAST
MOTHER GARDEN NURSERY
A nonprofit conservatory of biodiversity
15290 Coleman Valley Road, Occidental
707.874.9591
nursery.oaec.org
Occidental Arts & Ecology Center is in a stunning locale, near the famous Bohemian Highway, in West Sonoma County. It is not far from towns popular with visitors, like Sebastopol and Petaluma. The center is an 80-acre resource, demonstration, education, advocacy and community-organizing hub that develops “strategies for regional-scale community resilience and the restoration of biological and cultural diversity.”
Take a trip to OAEC among the tall oaks and redwoods, and you may feel the rumble of a paradigm shift within. They welcome visitors for tours of the demonstration garden, retreats, permaculture certification workshops, internships and volunteer days.
Within this idyllic setting is the Mother Garden Nursery, which will introduce you to adventurous plants, beyond your imagination. The focus is culinary and medicinal herbs, pollinator and habitat plants and soap/fiber/dye/perfume plants. They also have a wide selection of perennial food plants for permaculture design applications, plus a collection of more than 60 curated salvias!
The folks at this nursery love perennials because they are “the gardening equivalent of changing to low-flow shower heads or energysaving appliances.” Perennials need less fuss, less water, less fertilizer, less fossil fuel and may be more robust. All plants are CCOF-certified organic.
SOUTHWARD BOUND
LAS PILITAS NURSERY
The holy grail of native plant nurseries
3232 Las Pilitas Road, Santa Margarita
laspilitas.com
Arriving at Las Pilitas in the foothills of the Santa Lucia Mountains, it may feel like you’ve reached a holy site: it’s one of California’s first, and most influential, native plant nurseries. It played a key role in making gardening with native species a “thing.” The nursery sits among oaks, pines and elderberries, with hillsides covered in buckwheat. A gentle creek flows.
Founded in 2000 by landscape contractor Bert Wilson, it was closed to the public for several years after he passed away. Recently, daughter Penny Nyunt got the nursery back into production and reopened. Nyunt, who calls herself a “plant nerd,” is likely to greet you and will help you pick the right plants. She is hands on.
An attractive, solid greenhouse is packed with well-organized and tidy looking specimens for sale—currants, penstemons, monkeyflowers, buckwheat, sages, etc. The plants are perky, with authentic genetics. Many may be rare or hard to find. Hardy shrubs and trees—like some of the 45 manzanitas they sell—sit outside in black cans.
Las Pilitas also sells its own famous introductions, such as Celestial blue sage, described as “11 on the stun-o-meter” and named after Bert’s wife Celeste. Another is penstemon margarita BOP, named for a chance seedling of a blue hill penstemon, which sprouted up at the “bottom of the porch” (thus the BOP), with profuse blue and rose-purple blooms. Today it’s at nurseries everywhere.
Most people know Las Pilitas through its website, a top reference for learning how to design and garden with natives. There is even a handy tool where you can type in your zip code and get a list of plants native to your area. You can click deep into this site for endless detailed content on the plants, like what to plant for specific birds or butterflies. You can also buy plants online.
ON THE WAY TO YOSEMITE
MOUNTAIN SAGE NURSERY
For plant enthusiasts who like coffee, nature photography and music
18653 Main Street, Groveland
209.962.4686
mtsage.com
I wish there were nurseries with this setup closer to home. A regular stop for travelers in and out of Yosemite (on the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir side), Groveland’s Mountain Sage is a full nursery and garden center with a coffee house, gallery and an outdoor festival venue. It’s a community gathering space for farmers markets and gardening events, with books, gear and gifts by local makers. You’ll also find information on activities like hiking, camping and fishing.
Mountain Sage’s proprietors are biologists and ecologists Robb and Regina Hirsch. Regina’s family settled in Groveland in 1869 and Mountain Sage is housed on a quaint old family property. She also founded Watershed Progressive, a design-build collaborative for public sites, especially schools. Robb takes visitors into the backcountry for photography and backpacking trips. The author of The Nature of Yosemite: A Visual Journey, Robb exhibits and sells his large format, fine art photographs of grand landscapes and intimate wildlife scenes, in the gallery.
The nursery features the best local coffee drinks and plenty of hangout space to sip, journal, read, scroll or chat. There are smoothies, snacks and light fare. If you need to get online—say you are working remotely—you can plug in and jump on free Wi-Fi, while sprawling on a couch.
Mountain Sage sells California native and non-native droughttolerant and fire-resistant plants. They feature salvias, lavenders, spireas and dogwoods, as well as evergreen trees like ponderosa pine, cedars and oaks. Some of these plants belong in the Sierra Foothills, but many do just fine on the Central Coast.
STAYCATION IN MONTEREY BAY AREA
LOVE APPLE FARMS
Scratch your passionate itch for tomato plants
5311 Scotts Valley Drive, Scotts Valley
831.588.3801
growbetterveggies.com
For many gardeners, growing tomatoes is a highlight of summer. These gardeners travel far and wide to Love Apple Farms, near Santa Cruz, for its enormous selection of ethically grown, heirloom tomato starts. Many locals also make an annual pilgrimage (or two or three). Not everything cool is far away.
Their tomato plants come in every shape, size and color. There are meaty, heart-shaped oxheart types like German strawberry, orange Russian and Love Apple’s own sexy beast. There are the sumptuous, psychedelic beefsteaks like Berkeley tie-dye, Hawaiian pineapple and black beauty. There are straight-up yellow, orange, purple and brown heirlooms. It’s not all edgy; there are traditional mainstays like San Marzano, plum regal and mortgage lifter. You will also find peppers, eggplants, other vegetable starts and culinary herbs.
There are tomatoes for many microclimates, with excellent signage. I complained to owner and founder Cynthia Sandberg about my neighborhood on the Westside of Santa Cruz, where it’s often cold and windy. Is this area just for little orange sungolds? In a snap, she rattled off heirlooms that do well in cool coastal conditions: new girl, black cherry, chocolate cherry, celebrity plus, Momotaro, hippie zebra, sweet million, yellow pear, Brad’s atomic grape and green zebra, among others. The nursery also has everything you need to grow tomato plants organically, and they share their own “recipes” for growing bountiful crops.
Love Apple is currently expanding their site, adding open hours and days, considering including fruit trees and vines and opening an Italian restaurant—with fresh produce from their farm. Check their website for year-round workshops and events.
About the author
Jillian Steinberger-Foster is a regenerative landscape gardener and designer. She is co-owner of Terra Nova Ecological Landscaping with her husband, contractor Ken Foster. They have a thriving homestead on the Westside of Santa Cruz and three active rescue dogs.
