Another Fremont Nursery Closes

Mission Adobe Garden Center and the Naka Nursery wholesaler will be closing in the next few months. Full story is at http://www.insidebayarea.com/search/ci_11586550?IADID=Search-www.insidebayarea.com-www.insidebayarea.com
Navet's closed last October.
I wonder how much longer Regan's can hold on, considering the value of the land and the decline in our economy?

On the other side of the Bay, I'm continually amazed that Golden Nursery in San Mateo has managed to remain open. They have an enormous property right off Hwy 101, smack in the middle of some of the most expensive RE in the Bay Area! Let's hope these and others are able to survive these tough times.

Take heart! Some people don't care about the money!
There was an Elder Japanese man who had a strawberry field right next door to Disneyland. They kept after him for years to sell his land. He refused. He was a humble man, who just wanted to grow his strawberries. It was only after he died, that his heirs sold the property to Disney, and now we have the California Adventure.
DH and I don't ever plan on selling the main part of our farm. All the good stuff we'll protect. We do worry about imminent domain though.
Sad to hear of another great institution passing away.
WIB,
SW

Navlet's closed??!!! I worked at the Concord store 28-29 years ago....true, I only worked for one day....lol.....but, I loved the place. Used to go get truckloads of potting soil there. How sad, I hate to see things passing.

I used to get great baby fish from the pond place next to Navlet's, too---they went first.

The whole Navlet's chain didn't shut down--I know at least the Danville one is still open so I think they probably just closed down a couple that weren't doing as well as the others. It is a shame to see these specialty nurseries close--I like them so much better than Lowes/Home Depot. That's why I make a point to try and buy stuff from the "real" nurseries rather than the big box stores.

Yes, now I'll spend the rest of the evening being nostalgic about the years spent in Contra Costa. We lived in Martinez 30-some years ago...I loved Martinez. Of course, I was younger and life was simpler...that may have something to do with it....lol....

I liked Martinez too--I lived there for a few years before I moved to Dublin a couple years ago. I would never have moved either, but the commute was getting to be over an hour on a regular basis in the evenings and as much as an hour and a half at least a few times a month, so I couldn't take it anymore and had to move closer to work.

ecrane is right about Navlet's. ONLY the Fremont garden center has closed. The real estate was too attractive, so now we will have another large asian super market in the "Warm Springs District." I still think they have the best potting soil, so I will need to travel to Danville to get it. I will wave at ecrane as I drive by.
Today's paper carried an ad for Mission Adobe. Buy one - get one free for 1 gallon and larger from 2/5 through closing.
The have a China Doll that is about 20 ft tall and grows through the lath covering, but it is still sorta in a 5 gallon can that split apart years ago. I wonder if I can get a deal on it?

If you can dig it up and haul it away they just might let you have it! LOL

The Danville Navlet's is quite nice, they completely remodeled it right around the time when I moved down here (I was annoyed of course because the first year I was here when I was doing the bulk of my landscaping they were closed for remodeling!). And you can always stop by Armstrong in Dublin and Sloat & Tassajara nurseries in Danville while you're up this way to make it worth the trip!

I really miss Navlets in Fremont. I think it had many more interesting things than the brand new Navlets in Danville where I rarely find anything though I do drop by regularly. George, which dirt do you like there? I will have to try it.

I usually only make it to Mission Adobe a couple of times a season. They never seem to have much when I am there. Many years past they seemed to be much better. Is the wholesale nursery next to it going too? That would be chunk of land available along with Mission Adobe.

Yardbirds have all closed too I hear! I used to go to the big Yardbird nursery center in San Rafael before HD bought them.

Regans has been on month to month with no lease now for awhile. The city would not renew their lease. So that is bad right there. They have no idea what the city is thinking of doing. And they are very slow too. Their mail order rose business is down though they are selling many more fruit trees than ever before. I am afraid it will not be around for much longer. That would be such a shame as it is one of the better nurseries.

Even Orchards in Lafayette is having problems. They have laid off lots of workers. All the nurseries I go to where I know the personal tell me things are really bad. Armstrong said they are going to really limit their inventory.

I also noticed that HD and OSH sure reduced the amount of barefoot roses this year by a lot.

I am with you Liz, I try to keep all the local nurseries afloat. LOL. My husband would love it if they all closed. He thinks I might stay home and clean house then and he could retire.

Oh....... I was out in Sunol the other day and the owner of the nursery right on the corner as you drive in said he is doing great! He is putting in a big display garden with the theme of Wizard of Oz with a yellow brick road. LOL. He is going to have tables and tons of annual color decorating them so you can see them as you go by. He said they are going to have very low prices too. The day we were there he had nothing much of interest to us, but hey it was still January even if it feels like April. Oh I also saw a tropical nursery but it said wholesale only. I was dying to go in just to see what they had.

Kell, the Navlet's Potting Soil has a nice mix, including bat guano, worm castings, perlite, etc. It is much lighter than many of the mixes. They also have a Planting Soil for use when planting into the ground. The packaging is very similar so it is possible to grab the wrong bag. I also get the 3½ cu ft bag of perlite at HD to add to most mixes.
Does anyone remember the nursery in Niles that was up against the hills near where Papillion Restaurant is? It was run by two partners. Both of them continued in the gardening arena. The Nursery that Kell is likely referring to in Sunol is LA Nursery. The LA is Lisa Arnold, the wife of one of the two partners. There is also Calaveras Nursery, but I have never been too impressed with their offerings. They seem to be mainly routine landscaping varieties. Not too many things for the fanatics at DG.

This economic hiccup that we are going through really is pretty scary. Central Chevrolet is closing after 71 years in business. The Fremont Pontiac GMC dealer closed. I have heard rumors that Dale Hardware is even going to shut down (sure hope not, I love that place.) The only sorta nice thing to come out of this is to see some affordable housing prices for our kids & grandkids, but that was at the cost of a large number of new homebuyers.

Oh well, enough depressing news. I am off to try and assemble the new green house that FedEx delivered from Costco. I hope I have better luck with it than I did with my erector set as a child. It says it should take two people a half day to assemble, so I should be able to get it done this month.

I'm going to have to check out LA nursery--I've been to Calaveras nursery and wasn't impressed, you're right that it's just the more common stuff. If you're in the market for the common stuff then their prices are pretty good, but they don't have anything unusual and fun.

Good luck with your greenhouse--if it's anything like mine, it'll be a royal pain to put together (I think I invented at least 10 new swear words in the process of assembling mine) but it'll be so worth it when you're done!

At work, we used to go to Papillion for lunch, George. YUM YUM! I think you are right, Lisa Arnolds. Liz, wait awhile to go, a long while. LOL.

Thanks George, I will try that soil! I have been meaning to go to Sloat in Danville for some worm castings. They seem to have it cheaper than Armstrong. I will stop, which I always do, at Navlets and load upon soil. I am already thinking of getting my combo pots going.

Hi,

I am new to DG, live up in El Cerrito. I was in the nursery business for 12 years, until 2007. I was a plant sales rep. Now I am just a gardening fool ans mom. We have a big lot (for here) and I am growing tons of succulents and other stuff, lots of citrus, stone fruit, berries and a lot of flowers, Annies Annuals stuff. Anybody know where I can get the huge bag of vermiculite I think its 3-4 cu. feet. Any succulent lovers out there? I am thinking of ordering a bunch of fancy echeveria from Australia, can't seem to find them in the US. I just put in another order of sempervivums from Squaw Mountain Gardens, they are great. Bought a redwood greenhouse, circa 1951 off craigslist last year. We hope to get it up this year....anyway, just saying hi. I would love to exchange plants locally, I have a lot of succulents to spare, no surprise there...

Lisa

WELCOME TO DG Lisa!! Which nursery did you sell for? Lucky you to have gotten a large lot. Sounds like you will have a great garden.

I didn't know you could order from Australia. There was a site I was on late last night that I was going nuts over. http://www.echeveriasinoz.com/photos2.html
I am new to succulant madness. I have echeveria mania real bad.

What site are you looking at to order?

Some of the Home Depots have the huge bags of vermiculite. Not all of them, but I do see it at some. I think I have seen them at some OSH stores too, but just a few.

Welcome to DG.
You can get big bag of Vermiculite or Perlite at Home Depot. I have one of each. They are usually found near the area where the houseplants are.
Also check out the soil and amendments at American Soil & Stone http://davesgarden.com/products/go/view/4900/

Check out the succulent offerings at UC Berkeley Botanical Gardens http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/836210/ and http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu/shop/theplantdeck.shtml One of our members is a long time volunteer that nurtures a large variety of succulents.
We really need to put together an East Bay Roundup. Maybe something in June at one of the local parks?
Any takers?

Welcome, Lisa!

If an OSH store has the giant bags of vermiculite, they're usually in the pull-tag section---sometimes inside, and sometimes outside in the nursery section.

I love succulents, too---especially echiverias and graptopetalums and hybrids. I have to be careful as it occasionally gets to 18 degrees F here, and I can't fall in love with the ones that turn to mush at 25 F.

Here's a photo of my favorite graptoveria, which has done quite well here. I sometimes have pups I could share, if you're interested.

Hi all, Thanks for the welcome. I sold for Four Winds Citrus, Village, Por La Mar, Oregon material...some dry good and statuary, and Botanical Interests seeds,. I worked fro a sales group that took on several growers at a time, we sodl a lot to OSH, Depot, Lowes...and some real nurseries too :-)
I used to get the big vermiculite at OSH but they don't carry it anymore. I've been using perlite and its just ugly, too floatie.

Kell, check out www.echeveria.com. They ship to the US, you just get an import certificate on the web and that's it. Also, this one

http://www.roraimanursery.com.au/sales/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=12225

Both have insane photos of Echeveria that just look unreal..maybe they are? Hopefully I will not find out the hard way when I order.

I once spent a few weeks clicking through about 50 pages of Google hits for "echeveria grower" these were way down the list.... so yes, I am totally nuts about echeveria too, they are my favorites, though I love mixing them with Semps, Aeoniums, grapto.s and all the rest.

I saw there is a Succulent Society sale in San Jose April 4. Has anyone been to that? I went to the SF one last year, very nice. I spent about $100 in 40 minutes, could have stayed all day and gone broke.
I am pretty much done with the nursery.

I would definitely show up to meet some of you in the East Bay. I don't run into many plant geeks up here, so it would be nice. beautiful graptoveria Imapigeon, I'd love to tradeplants sometime...anything you are looking for?

Thomas Hobbs anyone?

if you haven't discovered this guy yet , he has a couple of the most beautiful garden books I have ever seen. Shocking Beauty, and the Jewel Box Garden. beautiful photos, and very inspiring use of succulents. Succulent pizza's, walls, and succulent paving...very cool stuff.

Also, Harland Hand

http://www.harlandhandgarden.com

This garden is about 3 blocks from us and is amazing, 50 years of hand mixed cement work with lots of succulents and other plants...the website is nice, but in real life it will give you goosebumps:-)

Hi Lisa, welcome to DG!
(couldn't get your echeveria.com link to work)
Shocking Beauty and the Jewel Box Garden are my favorite books and well as books by Little and Lewis! I also love Designing with Succulents by Debra Lee Baldwin and Succulents for the Contemporary Garden by Yvonne Cave. I picked up most of my succulents at various nurseries around here and Sebastopol (Lone Pine is good) and many of the more common ones at HD and Lowes.

imapigeon, I have that same graptoveria, picked it up at Annie's and it's been the easiest thing to grow. I have popped off pieces and now have them in several spots.

The Harland Hand Garden has the technique I want to use on my pond edges. I got on their list last year when someone posted the link, but I got a nice e-mail back from the lady saying they weren't doing any open time last year. I SOO want to go there and see the concrete work in person!

I also like the Thomas Hobbs books. Very inspirational.

A friend and I usually go to the show & sale at Jardines de San Juan Bautista, which it looks like will be April 26/27. If you haven't been to this restaurant, they have great food and a fabulous succulent garden in their courtyard. You can't really see the garden when the show's going on because it's chock-a-block with tables and plants; to do it justice you have to go at least twice...LOL! Last year there I also got a few nice succulent plants being sold by people outside that were not part of the show.
http://www.jardinesrestaurant.com/events.htm

ABSOLUTELY I would love to trade plants, Lisa! I don't have anything terribly exotic---my main requirement is cold-hardiness. Most of my plants look like crap right now because of the cold and rain, but I have a few that can handle it and look good year-round.

I used to work weekends at Nursery Clearance Center when we first moved to Gilroy---probably before your time, as it was almost 20 years ago.

CaSue, we cross-posted---I think I also got one at Annie's last year; it's a little different from the one I had, so who can resist?
I love all the "chocolate" ones, especially when planted with the blue ones!

I also couldn't get the echeveria.com link to work, but there's a site www.echeverias.com Not sure if it's the same one or not

PotEmUP, I'd love an East Bay Round-up. Count me in!
Welcome, Lisa. You'll love this site. I'm fairly new myself and have had a lot of fun finding all sorts of useful information.
ww

I'd definitely be up for a roundup too--there was one out in Stockton 2 summers ago but nothing last year so we're definitely overdue!

Janet, I just love your plant. I just ran out to see if I had it in the hoophouse and I do not! I do have Echeveria Opalina which looks very similar to me. I am soaking wet. There are huge puddles in my backyard which got my good shoes all wet. If it weren't for winter, my plants would look so good. So many have rotted that were left outside. And they all looked so good till we got cold in January. The good news is I have decided I need more succulents when I was looking at the ones I have in the hoophouse. LOL

I have Shocking Beauty and the Jewel Box Garden too! We should start a club!

Lisa, loved your sites. So it is easy to get an import license? I got one for seeds online a few years ago but I forget where I went. Do you have link? I really want to import plants from Thailand!!!

Sue, you loved Lone Pine? Shoot, I must go back there. I have been a couple of times pre my recent plunge into succulents so I guess I did not do it justice.

Janet, what chocolates ones do you have? Besides Echeveria 'Black Prince' I only have seen a couple.

Kell, that's a beauty! I think it was Palmbob who said that there's a lot of difference between indivdual plants even if they're the same variety. The one I posted above (and I don't remember where I got it) has longer leaves than other gratoverias I've found. Aren't succulents fun?

I have a trailing chocolate sedum that I buy every time I see it. It's very hardy, too. I had it in one pot and it's done well, so now it seems every time I see one in a 2" or 4", I buy it. (Again because individual plants seem to have different characteristics.)

Here's one of my favorite combo pots that still looks decent with all this rain and cold.

Oh, and I'm soaking wet too because I had to look at another plant from another thread for a better ID...LOL!

I love your chicken pot! Got mine at Lowes this past fall.
I pulled most of my potted ones under the house eaves or patio arbor to protect them from the rains but the few I left out and some several planted in the ground were a bit damaged from the hail we had on the 11th, worst hail ever here! I posted pics on this thread in case you didn't see them, about half way down on the 11th. http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/949831/

Yes, I SAW your hail pictures...good grief!
Your chicken pot is wonderful, too! I also have that plant on the right as well (haworthia, I think?) One of my faves. Right now it's wintering over on the shelf outside our bedroom window that I plan to tile and turn into something really attractive. At present it's kind of a catchall spot. It doesn't like full sun in the summer here---too hot, and it gets crispy and sulks.

Shoot, I am chicken less!

Hey Sue, no hail here! My friend Brinda has to get a new roof because she had hail the size of baseballs. Her car roof too got ruined. Oh you know Brinny, Sue. She had huge hail about a week ago.

I love both your pots! I am going to do so many combo pots with all the succulents I am collecting.

What traling chocolate sedum, Janet? We so need a picture!

Manana, I promise. It's dark out now, in addition to the wet...LOL! I'm working from home tomorrow, so I can take one.
It's MY LAST WEEK of work before retiring WOOHOOO!

Wow, baseball size! I won't complain about the pockmarks in my succulents.

I have had that haworthia in the same pot outside for years, as you can see, it's increased and stuffed the pot, easiest thing to grow, I never do anything with it.

Here's a favorite aloe that's throwing pups.

We should start a succulent thread here and Kell can post all her new babies and tell us where she found them and then keep us entertained and inspired as she pot combos are created!

My front door walkway collection

DONE!
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/955766/

Great combo pot everyone, I hope to post some of mine soon;-)

Echeverias.com-sorry that is the url. They have incredible large varieties, I just wonder if they are too good to be true and will be disappointing when I get them...


This is the page with instructions to import to the US. I have emailed them and they say they ship to California frequently with no problem. They ship unrooted large heads, say they travel well and root just fine... I will post results after I get them.

My Squaw Mountain order came today... all potted up. I can't wait to go out and clean up all the mush and oxalis!!

I check Home Depot and OSH for the large vermiculite, no luck. I guess I will have one of the small nurseries order it for me. Thanks for the tips anyway.
http://www.echeverias.com/export.html

Lisa please do post the pics of the succulents you get from echecveria.com. They have some I would love to have. Where did you get your import pemit? I am dying to order some plants from Thailand too. I bought an agave on eBay without one but never got the plant.

To get back to the title, I went to the Target nursery at Newpark Mall and it is closed!!!! That was a good one too. I hope they are not going to close a lot of their nurseries. They are like fast food nurseries, great for that quick fix.

The Target one right by my house closed too but there are a couple more that I go to that are still open.

I was at Longs in Oakland the other day and an employee told me they are waiting to hear if CVS is going to close their nursery. He said CVS is a drugstore only and the talk was they were going to. SHOOT!

And BTW, they are having a half price sale on all their pots. Clay, glazed and I think plastic too. They had a huge inventory Saturday.

That would really be a bummer if they closed the nursery, that's one of my favorite places to shop since they've got cool stuff and awesome prices. I'll have to head over there this weekend and check out the pots!