The Succulent Gardens Nursery

  I first became aware of this nursery when they began to exhibit regularly at the  San Francisco Garden Show. Succulents were not widely available in my area at that time and I was thrilled to find a booth at the plant market filled with beautifully grown plants- I had not had many opportunities to buy cacti and succulents since leaving San Diego in the mid-80's.  Robin Stockwell , the founder of the nursery became enamored of succulents in the 70's, the same decade that I began to collect them, however  his collecting became a career while mine dwindled after weather related losses the first winter we spent in Norcal. The Succulent Gardens booth at the SF Garden Show eventually became one of the most popular in the plant market coinciding with the increase in the plant buying publics interest in succulents. Strategy and timing was required to navigate through the enthusiastic shoppers. Mr Stockwell has since sold the nursery though by some accounts he still is involved at a consultant level.  I did notice that they did  not appear  on the exhibitor list for the show this year, but considering how much that event has deteriorated in the last couple of years I can't blame anyone for bailing out.

 The nursery itself is is Castroville , an agricultural town near Monterey , and is basically a series of large greenhouses bordered with fantastic display gardens. I took a ton of photos both before and after shopping. I don't have much verbiage to offer; we'll let the plants do the talking.


  The gardens sprang up from the base of the hoophouses , on terraced slopes, around outbuildings and along the roadside. In most cases there was not much bare soil to be seen.

 Yes, this is basically a hedge of Aloe plicatilis (reclassified as Kumara plicatilis by the taxonomy gods) which ran further off the frame to the left.

 The Agaves were plentiful, large and pristine.

 A few things were noticed in the garden that I was hoping would be found on the sale tables:

 Senecio palmeri, which I have slain twice and was hoping for a third attempt.

 Echeveria agavoides 'Ebony' .Badly want, no dice.

 I believe this to be some sort of Dyckia, but I'm prepared to be corrected. It was quite small-maybe 6 to 8 inch foliage height and well, I thought it was cute. Cute but not for sale.

 So many large , mature cactus as well.

  Succulent Gardens is an easy side trip from either Monterey or Santa Cruz. Though they are known primarily as a wholesaler, they are open to the public daily . Check their website for hours.