Last month I was invited to attend a small, local plant group’s monthly meeting in the Los Angeles area. My wife and son were out of town that weekend, so what a great opportunity to stay at Disneyland with my 8-year-old daughter and the next morning attend the meeting and tour a “must-see collection of plants.” So…
Realizing a dream and starting a nursery
Starting a new business is no easy task. Fellow business owners will tell you that if you want to run a successful small business and enjoy what you do at the same time, then you should turn your hobby into your business. That is exactly what happened to a friend of mine that got bitten by the palm…
Online shopping makes it too easy to fuel your Bromeliad addiction
I have a few old-timer friends that have been collecting plants and building their garden for over 40 years now. When they ask me where I get some of my rare plants and I tell them off the Internet, they just laugh. They remind me that “back in their day” they would either have to travel…
The cultivation of Clinosperma macrocarpa seedlings
This is the second of two blog posts that are being published to showcase an article that was written by myself and another palm lover; the article was intended for the Palm Society of Southern California’s quarterly journal. As I stated in the first post, an unscrupulous treasurer robbed the PSSC coffers and left them broke. So the journal is…
Rancho Soledad Nursery Tour
Over the last two days I’ve had the enjoyable pleasure of heading to what is probably my favorite nursery. Rancho Soledad Nursery has been around since 1954 and is the creation of the late Jerry Hunter. The nursery can be found on a 25-acre lot in the rolling hills of Rancho Santa Fe, California. The…