Going to Seeds
One might think that after writing about gardens for five days (that’s my job), I would take the weekend off and go to the beach or mountains, but, no, that’s when my wife and I often go in search of new plants for the garden.
On these expeditions we usually head for northern San Diego County, where dozens of specialized nurseries sell thousands of unusual plants that thrive in Southern California. This is the fall planting season, so it’s the perfect time to mount such an expedition. Spending the night makes it a leisurely weekend outing.
We booked a room at an interesting-sounding place called Quails Inn, which a guidebook said was on Lake San Marcos, right in the heart of North County nursery country.
We left early Saturday morning, arriving in San Clemente for breakfast, and headed for a favorite spot by the old wood pier built in 1926--a clutch of cafes, coffeehouses and hotels that are right across the street from the pounding surf. To get there, take the Avenida Palizada exit off Interstate 5 and follow the signs to the beach and pier, winding your way down the palisade to Avenida Victoria.
There are several places to eat, but the Beach Garden Cafe has the most tables outside and the best view of surfers getting closed out in the hollow waves.
It was too early to get sidetracked by all the shops and galleries sprouting in old San Clemente, so we headed for the nurseries farthest south listed in the “Nursery Hopper’s Guide to North County.”
This is a handy list and map that shows how to get to more than a dozen of the more interesting nurseries. You can write for a copy to North County Nursery Hoppers Assn., P.O. Box 231208, Encinitas, CA 92023-1208, or call (800) 488-6742, or pick one up at any of the participating nurseries. It gives their hours (some are closed on Sundays). You really can’t find your way around North County any other way. This used to be very scenic countryside with few roads and lots of chicken ranches, avocado groves and flower fields--and parts of it still are--but North County is rapidly filling with partially built tracts, malls and incomplete boulevards.
Our first nursery hop was to Cedros Gardens in Solana Beach. It’s at 330 S. Cedros Blvd. ([619] 792-8640), right off Lomas Santa Fe Drive, an exit from the freeway. Head toward the beach and make a left onto Cedros.
We were barely out of the car when we were bowled over by a passion flower vine named ‘Ruby Glow,’ with huge, radiant purple flowers of unbelievable complexity. Stiffening our resolve, we had to pass it by because we were looking for interesting things to plant in a shady section of our garden.
There was also a question about how we would get something in a 5-gallon can, trained onto a 6-foot-tall stake, into our car, even though it’s a big, room-for-our-family-of-five Bonneville.
Traveling with plants is not difficult, but it is limiting. You really can’t drive from San Diego to Los Angeles with plants sticking out of the trunk like you can from the corner nursery. Over the years, I’ve come up with these four rules:
1) Buy the smallest size you can. I try to buy only 4-inch or quart pots.
2) Always put plants in the trunk, never inside the car, where the sun can beat through the windows and burn the foliage (it only takes minutes), or sticking out where the wind will desiccate the leaves.
3) Use newspapers and old towels to wedge the plants in the trunk.
4) Park in the shade whenever you can.
Nearby Solana Succulents, at 355 N. Highway 101 ([619] 259-4568), was the nursery equivalent of a fine jewelry store. I have never seen so many sparkling succulent plants in such exquisite settings.
Owner Jeff Moore told me that there are more growers of cactuses and succulents in North County than anywhere on Earth and that he travels around cherry-picking the crop for his nursery. Many are displayed in elegant little stoneware pots made by artist Stephen Johnson.
Next we shot up to Samia Rose Topiary at 1236 Urania Ave. in Encinitas ([760] 436-0460), just to see some of their amazing topiary animals. We were entranced by a pair of wild horses, with manes made from variegated grasses.
Thoroughly into our nursery hopping, we headed east toward San Marcos, where two of our favorite nurseries are right next to each other. From Interstate 5, take California 78 east to the Twin Oaks Valley exit. Go north to Buena Creek Road and take a left.
You’ll come across Buena Creek Gardens, and right next door is Judy’s Perennials. Buena Creek is a true plant-lovers nursery, and it was having a fall sale that weekend, so the place was full of fanatics. Owner Steve Brigham not only has assembled an amazing variety of plants, from tropicals to drought-resistant toughies, he’s planted most of them in beds or on a hillside so that you can see what your purchase will look like when it grows up.
We put a few more plants in our car and then went next door to see Judy’s, which is more garden than nursery, though the plants arranged on the driveway are for sale. This garden is best in the spring, but even now there were things to see, including one spectacular shrub called beauty berry, covered with bright purple fruit.
Our trunk nearly full and our feet tired, we headed for the hotel. Quails Inn Hotel was not quite what we expected: a trifle too tidy and colorless for our taste. But it was quiet--miles from freeways or boulevards--and the rooms were big, cool, very clean, and ours had a large balcony with a view of the lake (you have to request one of these).
Even though the inn has a fine restaurant, I wanted to eat at Neimans in Carlsbad, a restaurant in a stunning old Victorian mansion that used to be one of two called the Twin Inns. Way before freeways, the Twin Inns were the watering holes between Los Angeles and San Diego.
The mansion that remains has a huge circular, carousel-like dining room that’s a treat to simply sit in. I assume this was built as a dance hall, probably added in the 1920s during one of many remodelings. The last redo was in 1996.
I had Mediterranean-style squid, and my wife went for the chicken and shrimp, and both were tasty. We even had time to walk around this charming town that seems to be striving to become a Carmel-of-the-south. Be sure to check out the old Santa Fe train station next door to Neimans that has been beautifully restored.
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That night I don’t think I’ve ever slept so soundly; it was so quiet except for the soothing sounds of seabirds. Seabirds? In the morning we discovered a great reason to stay here--the lake is chock full of waterfowl. There was a great blue heron standing on a pontoon boat right outside our balcony. I’d never seen one so close. A giant white egret soon joined it, and out on the lake was a flotilla of swans, armadas of ducks and coots.
Checkout time rolled around, and we got back on our nursery trek, going to Encinitas Gardens ([760] 753-2852) on Santa Fe Drive just at the corner of El Camino Real in Encinitas. Owner Jim Duggan really likes drought-resistant plants, and we bought a couple, including a native California abutilon, A. palmeri, with gray leaves and yellow bellflowers, that he said he had seen growing in shade. I hope so because it sure is pretty.
Finally, we went to Anderson’s La Costa Nursery ([760] 753-3153) on 400 La Costa Ave. in Encinitas, just off the freeway. They have designed a nursery as delightful as any I’ve ever been in, full of hidden paths, secret gardens and cascading fountains. We spent an hour or so just walking around.
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Budget for Two
Breakfast, Beach Garden Cafe: $15.36
Afternoon coffees: 4.85
Dinner, Neimans: 37.60
Quails Inn: 139.00
Room service breakfast: 12.51
Road lunch: 14.70
FINAL TAB: $224.02 (plus plants)
Quails Inn Hotel at Lake San Marcos, 1025 La Bonita Drive, Lake San Marcos, CA 92069; tel.
