Visiting California, where to visit?

[shaneatwell]

I'm going to be driving up the coast from San Diego almost to Oregon in July and I'd like some suggestions of places to visit of botanical/fruit interest, e.g. botanical gardens and nurseries. Interested in fruits/edibles as well as natives (esp. conifers).

Champa, Temple and Roger Meyer nurseries have been suggested in another thread. Been to Mimosa. Are there bay area nurseries that are must-see?

Lotusland and Huntington Gardens were suggested by a landscaper friend.

I spent many hours in SF Botanical last week so probably will skip it this time. (Also saw the sculpted trees in Gilroy and the awful Burbank home in Santa Rosa.) The LA county arboretum has an engelmann oak grove that i'd love to see. UCR has subtropical fruit collection, baja, and temperate forest that look interesting.

I'd like to hit Berkeley Arboretum and find their Yangmei.

Any other suggestions? Or particular things I should be looking for when I visit? I've read there are some very large cork oak trees in Nor cal. Would like to see those too.

[kh0110]

The Huntington Gardens, part of the Huntington Library, is really a worth while "detour". But you'd need a minimum half a day to really go through all the gardens and that would mean spending at least a day somewhere in the area.

[AnnonAddict]

Lotusland is awesome! Really a cool place.

(Goleta) "Beard's Tropics" a.k.a Norman Beard's awesome farm, HUGE selection of tropical fruit tree's in ground and in greenhouse, including a fruiting in-ground rollinia, tons of full size cherimoya tree's, and tons of cultivars of finger limes, peaches, nectarines, and more.

(Fullerton) Fullerton arboretum is a radical place with a very large selection of tree's, including ton's of garcinia's, a huge ice cream bean tree with a 50 foot canopy, finger lime's, in ground jackfruit trees, and TON'S more.

(Goleta) Terra Sol is a cool local nursery that also has an awesome tropical fruit collection, especially in the private section in the back, they have Mangosteen's, Jaboticaba's, and a bunch of Inga species in the back. (Find Clare and tell her that you know me, and she will probably let you in the back.)

(San Diego) Ong's nursery is a tropical fruit lover's paradise, hundreds, if not thousands of species crammed into a little slice of paradise. Quite pricey though! THey have tons of fruiting specimens of Starfruit, countless Eugenia's, Syzygium's, ANnona's, and Artocarpus. Even if you don't buy anything it is still really awesome. The people who own the place are very kind too and will let you try ripened fruit off of trees.

etc…

There are a lot more, in my experience the above are some of my favorites though.

[barath]

Here are a few random things to check out:

* The orchard / hillside plantings at the Horticulture Department at Merritt College in Oakland.

* The oldest Macadamia tree in California (and I think the United States), nestled in with live oaks, on the UC Berkeley campus (at Center and Oxford)

* The CRFG orchard at Emma Prusch Park in San Jose

I assume you already have Exotica Nursery in Vista on your list?  Also if you happen to have time while you're down there, check out the massive White Sapote trees at Clausen Nursery.  (Edit: I should have noticed you're in San Diego!)

[shaneatwell]

Thanks for the pointers everyone. The goleta nurseries sound especially interesting.

Fairly familiar with stuff in san diego as i live here. Go to Exotica about every other month.

Also found a couple lists on GW: gardens and nurseries to visit in northern california, southern california nurseries and gardens worth a visit

From those it looks like UC Berk Arb and UC Santa Cruz (for south african plants)

[Ansarac]

The beach cities sometimes have interesting selections at farmer's markets.

[Bush2Beach]

Thanks for the pointers everyone. The goleta nurseries sound especially interesting.

Fairly familiar with stuff in san diego as i live here. Go to Exotica about every other month.

Also found a couple lists on GW: gardens and nurseries to visit in northern california, southern california nurseries and gardens worth a visit

From those it looks like UC Berk Arb and UC Santa Cruz (for south african plants)

If you go to UCSC Arboretum for the protea/salvia / South African garden you can also visit the Alan Chadwick garden and Farm and Garden on campus, 2 large working farms on campus nestled in beautifull places with lots of fruit tree's & flowers.
 Golden Gate Park Strybing Arboretum us a fantastic huge 100 year old glass/wood greenhouse with multiple rooms and climates. They have a ton of the rare tropical fruit we talk about but not fruiting or prominently labeled as fruit, it's just mixed in. There is a tropical room with misters every couple minutes and 40 ft ceiling with Mango, Coconut and a lot more. There's a cloudforest room and a orchid / water room and the other room has a rotating show.
Nurseries in the Bay Area will not impress you coming from San Diego and visiting Exotica regularly.
Annie's Annuals nursery in Richmond can be really cool with lots of random plants but not fruit centric.
Prusch Park in San Jose is worth a visit. You could stop at "Tropical Fruits" nearby and get fresh cane juice, Hawaiian Lychee, Longan, Rambutan in season and the freshest Mangosteen, Durian, Jackfruit flown in.
It's completely and totally blown out but still worth it , Swanton Berry Farm U Pick north of Davenport. 1st organic strawberries in the US and July is Blackberry , Ollolieberry U Pick.
Whatever you do stick to the coast and redwood highway and enjoy/beat the heat.

[fyliu]

Although I purchased several plants there, I think Temple nursery stuff are a little expensive and, more importantly, sometimes fake. I mean fake variety, since fruit plants there are easy to identify.

You missed Mimosa (the LA one is better?) I think. That's from others in this forum.

They have soap nut at the LA arboretum, if you go above the waterfall. It's the American kind with thinner flesh.

[shaneatwell]

Soapnut is interesting. I just germinated my first, S. detergens. Want to grow some of the natives too.

[raimeiken]

I'll be heading to San Diego next month and would like to know the best tropical fruit tree nurseries to visit. I got Ong's on my list already.

Anyone know what nursery might carry different Jaboticaba varieties besides the regular sabara? Looking to get a vexator or maybe the red hybrid.

[shaneatwell]

I would call everyone ahead about the jaboticaba.

Ben Poirier's is your best bet for non-sabara. He had giant and I think vexator last time I was there. I don't remember red hybrid. Should call ahead about when he's open.

Exotica and California Tropical Fruit Tree Nursery are worth a visit. I think they only have Sabara though. The latter has some big boxed ones.

Further south Bonita Creek has a decent selection, but its hard to locate stuff. And City Farmers Nursery is fun and often has something unusual, but its hard to predict what. Animals and a restaurant right there. No Jabo at either as far as I remember.

[raimeiken]

I searched Ben Poirier on google and found his website. It looks like he has a few varieties of Jabos. and he's by appointment only. I'll keep his place in mind when I'm over there.

thanks for the info!