GardenBook

 The weather forecast for my weekend in Santa Cruz last month was not ideal, and I spent a great deal of time looking at the sky and consulting the National Weather Service for the timeline of the expected rain. My hotel was in Aptos, a beach town south of Santa Cruz that was only a 15 minute drive from my destination- Succulent Gardens Nursery in Castroville. Heavy rain was predicted for after 1pm, and the nursery opened at 9. My window of opportunity was wide open, and my hope was that there would be blooming Aloes to see.  And there were !     This hedge of Aloe plicatilis (now reclassified as Kumara plicatilis) along the exterior of one of the greenhouses is impressive any time but the winter blooms elevate the vista.  Here is a variegated version, barely noticable in it's partially hidden position.   Because I have abysmal Aloe naming skills , and the display gardens are unlabeled , I'm afraid I have few ID's to share.  I recall...

  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 invo...