(Illustration by Ross May / Los Angeles Times; Getty Images)
38 fantastic independent nurseries that SoCal plant lovers will adore
For plant lovers, browsing a new nursery is as thrilling as going on a first date with a crush.
If only there were a Tinder for garden centers...
While you can’t swipe right on potential nursery matches, you can scroll through our compendium of excellent independently-owned nurseries in Southern California.
When I started my hunt for the best local nurseries, I worried that the small ones were becoming dinosaurs, giving way to the pressure from big box chains, where admittedly prices are often cheaper but the selection is less varied and more cookie-cutter. And the vibe is definitely less personal.
It can also get intense for these mom-and-pop nurseries. Just this winter, Jo Anne and Alex Trigo, the owners of Two Dog Organic Nursery, voted Los Angeles Magazine’s top organic nursery in 2020, announced they were quitting, at least for a year, after running themselves ragged operating a busy nursery and growing center out of their Mid-Wilshire home for nearly 13 years.
Jo Anne said they had been living with grow lights and flats of seed trays in the bedroom and atop kitchen counters and the dining room table for more than a decade, working 12-hour shifts every day, planting seeds, filling customer orders and maintaining inventory. She hadn’t been able to sit on her patio since they converted their backyard to shelves and tables for plants and other merchandise. They hadn’t even taken a real vacation in a dozen years.
Since the nursery has been her lifeblood for so long, Jo Anne said she didn’t know if she could give it up entirely, but on the other hand, she and her husband craved some time off to travel, relax and reenergize. “I’d like to see what it’s like to just sit and enjoy my patio, with a drink and a book,” she said.
In other words, these small businesses are a tough gig, in need of our support. So I offer this list as a beginning, in honor of the hardworking, independent, often family-owned garden centers, but with a proviso that it’s not all-inclusive.
I was surprised, delighted and a bit overwhelmed to discover there are far more independent nurseries in Southern California than I initially realized, so if I’ve missed your favorite please send an email to [email protected].
Showing Places
(Jeanette Marantos)
Annandale Nursery
Eagle Rock Drought-tolerant plants
This rustic outdoor nursery just off the 134 Freeway has most of its plants laid out in the shadow of towering power lines, but the barebones setting is offset by some seriously modest prices for a wide range of plants — from drought-tolerant and California native varieties to vegetable seedlings, kept in a wire cage to protect them from hungry nighttime visitors. They sell bulk soils too, along with an impressive selection of succulents, landscaping trees and shrubs and fruit trees (no citrus however, since they operate in a citrus quarantine area designed to prevent the spread of Asian citrus psyllid).
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(Nicole Calhoun)
Artemisia Nursery
El Sereno Edibles, native plants
This tiny nursery in Northeast Los Angeles specializes in California native plants as well as edibles, herbs and houseplants. The nursery is a worker-owned small business founded by Nicole Calhoun and Carl Harders, with plans to become a worker-owned cooperative as it grows.
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(Kelly Van Houten)
Australian Native Plants
Casitas Springs Drought-tolerant plants
Owner Jo O’Connell is a horticulturist from Australia who came to the States to create the Australian wing of Taft Gardens, found love, married and settled in nearby Casitas Springs, where she opened a nursery outside her home of drought-tolerant plants from Down Under. You need an appointment to visit in person, but it’s usually pretty easy to call and get directions to her extensive collection of exotic and mostly mature Australian plants. You can get a good idea of her offerings by browsing her website as well.
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(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
Avalon Nursery & Ceramics
South Park Edible, native, drought-tolerant plants
South Los Angeles’ only enduring nursery feels more like a wild botanic garden than a family-owned business on a busy corner. This is a full-service nursery — it even offers cut Christmas trees in late November — with a wide selection of trees (including fruit trees), shrubs, squares of sod, vegetable seedlings, roses, succulents, soil amendments and colorful ceramics, in addition to a lush “green room,” where most of the houseplants reside. Closed on Tuesdays and rainy days.
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(Jeanette Marantos/Los Angeles Times)
Brita's Old Town Gardens
Seal Beach Drought-tolerant plants
This little nursery tucked into Seal Beach’s Main Street packs a lot of interesting plants into its small space, especially in the area of drought-tolerant plants from South Africa and Australia not typically found in local nurseries. It also has a fair selection of native plants and vegetable and herb seedlings along with a good variety of annuals, perennials, shade plants and even small trees, chosen to do well in coastal landscapes.
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(Jeanette Marantos)
C&S Nursery/C&S Garden Center
Baldwin Hills/Crenshaw Edible, native, drought-tolerant plants
For more than 30 years the Rosales family has run this sprawling one-acre open-air nursery in Baldwin Hills, offering native plants, drought-tolerant plants, vegetable starts, fruit trees and a wide variety of decorative shrubs, trees and succulents, with many of the plants grown in their production facilities in Temecula. In March, the family opened its second location, C&S Garden Center (4167 Marine Ave. in Lawndale), offering a wide selection of organic soils and amendments, garden tools, accessories and containers as well as vegetable and herb seedlings, succulents and cactus, indoor plants and outdoor shrubs and flowers. You can reach the Lawndale location by calling (424) 435-5506.
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(CALVIN B. ALAGOT)
California Nursery Specialities Cactus Ranch
Reseda Drought-tolerant plants
This wholesale business devoted entirely to succulents opens to the public on Saturdays and Sundays only and accepts only cash or checks (no credit or debit cards), but it’s an easy place to wander and get lost in the amazing array of succulent textures, shapes and colors.
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(Tom Zasadzinski)
Cal Poly Pomona Nursery at the Cal Poly Farm Store
Pomona Edibles
The nursery outside Cal Poly Pomona’s Farm Store has a big selection of vegetable seedlings, berries and fruit trees, houseplants, succulents, landscaping trees, vines and shrubs. Much of the inventory is grown by students at Cal Poly’s College of Agriculture. You can find gardening supplies at this nursery too, and while you’re there, take a minute to browse through the Farm Store, which features student-grown organic produce as well as specialty foods. The nursery also hosts its own spring tomato extravaganza called “Tomatozania,” in April featuring 220 varieties of tomatoes, plus a pepper plant version, offering about 130 varieties of hot and sweet peppers. Check its website for more information.
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(Jeanette Marantos)
Emily Garden Nursery
Santa Ana Edibles
The signage and decor are pretty basic, but the variety and quality of the merchandise — rows and rows of fruit trees, tropical trees, landscaping trees with exotic blooms — more than makes up for the lack of curb appeal. This is a place for some serious tree shopping, especially if you’ve got a craving to grow unusual fruit varieties.
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(Fig Earth Supply)
Fig Earth Supply
Highland Park Edibles
Owner Conor Fitzpatrick packs a lot of plants in this small but fully stocked nursery, with a large seasonal selection of organic fruit trees, medicinal plants, berries and vegetable seedlings as well as a wide variety of houseplants. He also sells clever garden tools, organic seeds and a range of organic soils, amendments and containers.
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(Jeanette Marantos/Los Angeles Times)
Glendora Gardens
Glendora Edible, native, drought-tolerant plants
This 4-acre nursery is part garden inspiration — with scenic paths and koi ponds (where you can feed the fish) — and another 6 acres of growing grounds, where many of its ornamental trees, shrubs and perennials are grown. This must-see garden center is designed for strolling and exploring, with a large selection of California native and Mediterranean-climate plants, berries, veggies, fruit trees, roses, succulents and houseplants along with bagged and bulk soils, pots and garden equipment. There’s even a Little Free Library filled with children’s books for antsy kids.
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(California Botanic Garden)
Grow Native Nursery at California Botanic Garden
Claremont Native plants, drought-tolerant plants
The Grow Native Nursery is a nonprofit retail nursery that “supports the conservation, education, horticulture and research efforts” of the California Botanic Garden, the state’s largest botanic garden of California native plants. It’s also a great place to find a wide selection of native plants for your garden. The website features an inventory list, and the nursery is open only Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Walk through the botanic garden — especially in the spring, when most plants are blooming — to get inspiration for what you want to plant in your yard, then browse the nursery to see if your favorites are available.
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(Jeanette Marantos)
H&H Nursery
Lakewood Edibles, drought-tolerant plants
This is another large, full-service family-owned nursery making excellent use of the ground under power lines, so wear good walking shoes. It offers a wide selection of fruit trees, berries and veggies along with garden equipment, soils and amendments, pots and lots of landscaping trees, shrubs, perennials and annuals, succulents, water-wise plants and aquatic plants and supplies for ponds.
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(Jeanette Marantos / Los Angeles Times)
Hahamongna Native Plant Nursery
Pasadena Native plants
This small, mostly volunteer-operated nursery was created to raise plants native to the Pasadena area for habitat restoration in the Arroyo Seco but increasingly, Hahamongna sells to the public too, and has expanded from its weekend-only hours of 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. to also be open Wednesday through Friday from noon to 3 p.m. The surrounding grounds have plenty of mature native plants, so visitors can see what those seedlings in the pots will look like once they grow to maturity. Plus, getting to the nursery is a lovely adventure that requires driving through the oak-strewn Hahamongna Watershed Park in the Arroyo Seco, past a youth camp and surrounding stables and into a serene little spot full of birdsong, equestrian whinnies and the constant scuttle of lizards and busy ground squirrels.
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(Jeanette Marantos/Los Angeles Times)
Hashimoto Nursery
Sawtelle Edibles
This is the third generation operating this family-owned nursery that the four Hashimoto brothers began in West L.A. in 1928. The nursery offers ceramic pots, wooden and concrete containers, as well as seasonal annuals, perennial shrubs and ground covers, succulents, vegetables, herbs, fruit trees, sod and houseplants.
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(Jackalope Pottery )
Jackalope Pottery & Plants
North Hollywood Drought-tolerant plants
This longtime North Hollywood garden center offers fountains, pottery, houseplants and a a variety of outdoor plants, including aquatic plants, trees, unique succulents and drought-tolerant plants “sourced locally from responsible growers.”
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(Jeanette Marantos)
Laguna Hills Nursery
Santa Ana Edibles
This family-owned nursery features its own specially designed “Top Pot” potting soil mix, along with an extensive selection of fruit trees, vegetable starts, berries, herbs, roses, annuals, perennials and “exceptional ornamental” landscape trees and plants, along with garden supplies and containers.
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(Jeanette Marantos)
Lincoln Avenue Nursery
Pasadena Edible, native, drought-tolerant plants
This century-plus-old nursery was started by a German immigrant family in 1903, then purchased in 1923 by the Takemura family, who owned it until it was sold in 2003 to the present owner, Ramon Franco, who immigrated from Mexico and became a landscape contractor and frequent customer until taking over the business. This is a great place to wander for inspiration and bird song, as well as for an enormous selection of garden pots and equipment as well as landscape and fruit trees (including citrus), vegetable seedlings, herbs and other edibles, roses, shrubs, shade and houseplants and a good selection of California native and drought-tolerant plants.
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(Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)
Logan's Gardens
Silver Lake Edibles
Logan’s Gardens owners Jimmy Williams and son Logan (the nursery’s namesake) grow more than 1,000 varieties of rare and heirloom organic edible plants at their nursery in Silver Lake but do most of their selling at the downtown Santa Monica Farmers Markets on Wednesdays and Saturdays at Arizona Avenue and 2nd Street and at the Sunday Hollywood Farmers Market at Selma and Ivar avenues. You can visit the nursery on Tuesdays and Fridays only by appointment, which you can make by texting or calling.
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(Jeanette Marantos/Los Angeles Times)
Louie's Nursery
Riverside Edibles, drought-tolerant plants
This is another traditional, little-bit-of-everything type nursery, with a big selection of vegetable seedlings, berries and fruit and nut trees, including citrus, along with ornamental trees, shrubs and blooming perennials, California native and other “water-wise” plants, roses, soils and amendments, gardening equipment and lots of pots.
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(Jeanette Marantos/Los Angeles Times)
Merrihew's Sunset Gardens
Santa Monica Edible, native, drought-tolerant plants
Look for a good selection of edibles at this 75-year-old nursery, including fruit trees and vines, vegetable seedlings and herbs, along with California native plants and other drought-tolerant plants from South Africa and Australia, annual and perennial flowers, lots of pottery, the occasional gardening workshop and a good selection of garden equipment, soils and amendments.
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(Jeanette Marantos)
Nuccio's Nurseries
Altadena Specialty
If you crave camellias and azaleas, Nuccio’s is the nursery for you. That’s all they grow, since 1935, shipping their many varieties of rare and exotic blooming shrubs all over the world. Wear good walking shoes because the choices — and layout — are vast.
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(Mickey Hargitay Plants )
Mickey Hargitay Plants
Hollywood Drought-tolerant plants
Mickey Hargitay’s garden center has been a Hollywood fixture for more than 30 years, the kind of place where staffers will carry your Monstera deliciosa out to your car while offering tips for its care. “We have done our best to keep some of the hard-to-get plants such as Monstera adansonii, Rhaphidophora tetrasperma, string of hearts, various varieties of hoya, Peperomia polybotrya, many varieties of calathea,” says Hargitay. Potting services are generally free, depending on the plant’s size. The nursery is heavy on houseplants, but look for unique and popular types of succulents and cactus as well.
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(Jeanette Marantos/Los Angeles Times)
Parkview Nursery
Riverside Edible, native, drought-tolerant plants
This is the larger of Parkview’s two nurseries, with long wide tables of vegetable seedlings and herbs, native and drought-tolerant plants, annuals and flowering perennials, exotic shade plants and rows and rows of trees, both ornamental and fruiting. You won’t find any citrus here, however, as the store is in a citrus-controlled area, but its smaller sister store at 3841 Jackson St. in Riverside has a huge selection. Both stores also offer a vast collection of containers, soils and amendments and garden equipment.
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(Plant Material )
Plant Material
Glassell Park Edible, native, drought-tolerant plants
Terremoto landscape architect David Godshall, who co-founded Plant Material with business partner Matt Burrows, likens this nursery’s aesthetic and spirit to a “punk-rock plant shop.” You’ll find indoor and outdoor plants at their three L.A. nurseries, with a heavy focus on native plants and seeds, along with certified organic vegetable and herb seedlings and regionally appropriate drought-tolerant plants. They also offer a small selection of garden tools, soils and amendments and useful accessories. The Glassell Park location is a little oasis of birdsong and greenery on traffic-heavy Eagle Rock Boulevard, and there are two additional locations, one at 3081 Lincoln Ave. in a repurposed Altadena gas station and another at 3024 La Paz Drive in Silver Lake. All three locations are open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.
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(Ricardo Orti)
Ricardo's Nursery
Long Beach Edible, native, drought-tolerant plants
This 9-acre wholesale and full-service retail nursery was started by Mexican immigrant Ricardo Ortiz in 2007 and grows many of its own landscape and fruit trees, flowering perennials and succulents, as well as some California native and other water-wise plants. The nursery also offers a large selection of vegetable seedlings, berries, herbs, vines and houseplants.
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(Joseph Pesiri/Roger’s Gardens)
Roger's Gardens
Newport Beach Edible, native, drought-tolerant plants
This popular gardening and outdoor garden center has made a name for itself for its themed garden displays, on-site Farmhouse restaurant, gift store and elaborate holiday pop-ups — especially its annual Halloween boutique, such as its “Malice in Wonderland” in 2019. But this enormous destination nursery also offers a vast selection of all kinds of plants, from vegetable and herb starts to a sea of succulents, shrubs, annuals and perennial flowers, decorative trees and fruit trees, berries, indoor plants and native plants. You’ll also find tools, fountains and a potting station, in case you want to select a pot from its huge selection.
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(Lisa Boone / Los Angeles Times)
Rolling Greens
Culver City Drought-tolerant plants
The garden and home design flagship store rests on 2 acres in Culver City and offers a wide selection of plants as well as garden tools and accessories. (Its Beverly Grove store, 7505 Beverly Blvd., is smaller, with a focus mostly on houseplants, succulents and home decor.) Owners Greg Salmeri and Laurie Resnick travel the world to shop for home and garden goods. Bonus feature: Customers can create their own container arrangements at the stores’ Arrangement Bar.
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(Jeanette Marantos / Los Angeles Times)
San Gabriel Nursery & Florist
San Gabriel Valley Edibles, drought-tolerant plants
The street and parking area around San Gabriel Nursery & Florist is pretty bleak, short on greenery and heavy on traffic and blaring car alarms. But step inside the nursery and it all fades away into a fragrant oasis of color, serenity and piped-in chamber music. You can get lost just studying its many types of seeds, including Asian varieties. Customers pull red wagons laden with plants in a kind of stupor, taking in the many varieties of roses, vegetable and herb seedlings, berries and fruit trees, plus a huge selection of houseplants, garden equipment and containers, landscape trees and shrubs, perennials, annuals and drought-tolerant plants, including California natives.
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(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
Sarvodaya Farms & Nursery
Pomona Edibles
This farm-based nursery run by farmer/mentor Rishi Kumar is open Tuesday to Saturday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., selling organic soils and amendments, irrigation supplies and a large selection of organic vegetables, fruit trees, berries and herbs, some unusual or rare. Trees are grown in fabric grow pots, not plastic pots. Members who support the Sarvodaya Institute are eligible for monthly gardening classes taught by Kumar.
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(Brittany Levine Beckman//Los Angeles Times)
Sego Nursery
Valley Village Edibles
This old-school family-owned garden center is short on technology (no website or Instagram) but heavy on selection, especially for edible gardens, and shoppers can pull their plants around in adorable red wagons! The nursery features its popular resident cat, Finneas (who loves to lounge on a shelf with signs warning “Do Not Touch! Beware of Cats!”), as well as houseplants, vegetable starts and other edibles, landscaping plants and a range of seeds, sod, containers (including fabric pots), organic garden soils and amendments, garden gear and a huge selection of roses and other flowering plants.
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(Russell Akiyama)
Sunflower Farms
Torrance Edible, native, drought-tolerant plants
This full-service retail and wholesale nursery and landscaping business has been owned and operated by the Akiyama family since 1975 and is a lovely, restful place to wander. The nursery offers a wide selection of California native and water-wise plants, roses, vegetable seedlings, herbs, fruit and ornamental trees (including citrus), succulents and houseplants as well as sod, garden supplies, pottery and soils. The nursery also offers periodic gardening workshops and sells firewood for pickup or delivery.
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(Lisa Boone / Los Angeles Times)
Sunset Boulevard Nursery
East Hollywood Edibles, drought-tolerant plants
Ask plant professionals for their favorite nursery and Sunset Nursery is often at the top of the list. This family-run nursery, established in 1959, has a small wedge-shaped footprint on a busy street with very limited parking, but that doesn’t keep customers away. The store is always busy, with a deep inventory of vegetable and herb seedlings, succulents, California native plants and houseplants, along with organic soils and amendments, pots and garden equipment. Note: The entrance and parking are on Fountain Avenue.
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(Jeanette Marantos)
The Nursery by Southwinds
Irvine Edibles, drought-tolerant plants
At first glance, this nursery’s expansive grounds feel more like a botanic garden, with shaded winding paths, water walls and small waterfalls and a meadow dotted with olive trees. This is partly a landscape design company, so this is a good place to wander for inspiration, but there’s also lots of extraordinary containers and interesting outdoor furniture (with some eye-popping prices) and a large and surprising variety of outdoor plants, from succulents to multiple varieties of tomatoes, peppers and lettuces. It offers a good selection of drought-tolerant and California native plants along with many other landscaping trees, shrubs and organic soils and amendments.
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(Marie Astrid Gonzalez)
Theodore Payne Foundation Nursery
Shadow Hills Native plants
The Theodore Payne Foundation, a nonprofit organization devoted to researching and preserving native plants, restoring native habitat and propagating and growing a huge selection of native shrubs, trees, wildflowers, bulbs and seeds, is the center of SoCal’s native plant universe. Visit the nursery and demonstration garden Tuesday through Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. for inspiration, and pop into its store for collections of seeds for wildflower displays and pollinators, as well as related books, art and other items. TPF also maintains the Wild Flower Hotline, providing regular updates in the spring about the best wildflower-viewing spots, and puts on the Native Plant Garden Tour, a self-directed walking tour of more than 30 Los Angeles-area yards where at least 50% of the landscaping involves native plants.
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(Debbi Stone)
Trancas Canyon Nursery
Malibu Edibles, native plants
This garden center has a small footprint, but it still packs in a lot of plants, including roses, flowering perennials, succulents, vegetable and herb seedlings, native and drought-tolerant plants and houseplants, along with containers, gardening equipment and decor.
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(Jeanette Marantos / Los Angeles Times)
Tree of Life Nursery
Native plants
In the late 1970s, Mike Evans started a nursery dedicated to growing and selling California native plants on 40 acres in the hills outside San Juan Capistrano. In those days, the location was remote and other nursery owners thought he was nuts — who wanted to landscape with plants many regarded as weeds? But, some 40 years later, Tree of Life Nursery is thriving when many of its competitors have closed their doors. Visit this nursery Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. just to savor the fragrant plants, marvel at the rustic buildings made from straw bales covered with adobe plaster, and browse the selection of books, gifts and an exceptional collection of containers. Just try leaving without buying at least one of the more than 500 species of California native plants — one of the largest collections in Southern California.
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(Jeanette Marantos/Los Angeles Times)
Yamaguchi Bonsai Nursery
Sawtelle Edible, native, drought-tolerant plants
Don’t let the name deceive you. Yamaguchi has its own greenhouse and specializes in bonsai plants and houseplants, but it also sells a wide range of outdoor plants for sun and shade, including California native and other drought-tolerant plants, succulents, orchids, roses, flowering perennials and pond plants, as well as fruit trees, vegetable starts, berries and herbs. The nursery also offers a huge selection of pots, soils, amendments, statuary and other garden equipment.
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