What you need to know about growing camellias and azaleas

David Gooler, who gardens in Pasadena, responded to a recent column where I mentioned that Nuccio’s, the famed camellia and azalea nursery in Altadena, had been sold. 

It turns out that, due to the property’s zoning restrictions, the sale did not go through. So anyone who is interested in acquiring a five-acre nursery, including an additional 80 acres of undeveloped land, is welcome to make an offer. I should note that Gooler is such an enthusiastic patron of Nuccio’s that he took it upon himself to paint parking stripes on the nursery’s parking lot together with a space designated for handicapped parking. 

The nursery’s third-generation owners, 77-year-old Tom and 74-year old Jim,  whom Gooler calls “salts of the earth,” have engendered the sort of relationships with customers that other businesses can only dream about. Gooler mentioned that the land where Burkard’s renowned nursery stood in Pasadena until it was sold in 2016 has also encountered zoning snafus so that it remains empty until today. 

Finally, Gooler informed me that Bellefontaine, another legendary Pasadena nursery that has been owned and operated by the same family for three generations, will probably be sold in the near future.

After receiving Gooler’s email, I spoke with Jim Nuccio about the future of the nursery business. “We used to deliver our plants to 25-30 nurseries in the San Francisco area, and now we only sell to six,” he reported. “Niche nurseries like ours and smaller nurseries in general are probably going to disappear. You will have a few major growers that will specialize in around 50 different plants for sale to home improvement centers so the selection for the typical gardener is going to be drastically reduced.” 

I was astonished to learn that Jim himself drives his nursery’s delivery truck to San Francisco, a trip that he makes 12-15 times a year. He says that regardless of what happens with the sale of his nursery and land, he and his brother do not plan on working for more than another two years. Jim noted that the land for sale is sacred to the Gabrielino-Tongva tribe, which has expressed some interest in its acquisition. There is also an endangered bumblebee on site.

I asked about propagation of camellias and azaleas and Jim related that May and June are the best months to do this. At his nursery, shoot tip cuttings, no more than three inches in length, are inserted into 18 inch square flats with around 200 cuttings per flat (10-12 rows of 20 cuttings per row). His nursery makes 75,000 cuttings per year. He uses a propagation mix that consists of 50% perlite and 50% peat moss. His nursery has a misting system that goes on every few minutes to water his cuttings for 20 seconds at a time and recommends that, in lieu of such a system, it would be wise to keep cuttings under a plastic dome to maintain the humidity around the cuttings. After experimenting with dipping his cutting bottoms in root hormone, he found that it made no difference in his propagation success. However, he recommends as an insurance policy that homeowners use liquid Dip ’N’ Grow hormone solution for propagation purposes. 

And then I received an email from Linda Prendergast that Tree of Life Nursery in San Juan Capistrano, which specializes in growing California natives, will be closing at the end of next year. A visit to the nursery website at californianativeplants.com reveals that everything from plants to equipment is meant to be liquidated by December of 2025, by which time the habitat that previously existed on the nursery site will be restored. On a positive note, Annie’s Annuals and Perennials, California’s elite exotic plant nursery, has been purchased by one of the nursery’s managers and her mother. Curious Flora Nursery (curiousflora.com) is the new name of this horticultural enterprise, which will remain at its Richmond location. At the moment, no mail orders are being taken, but this service is expected to resume before spring. These orders will be handled by Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden supply (groworganic.com), which has purchased the Annie’s Annuals brand and catalog.

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A quarantine for homegrown fruit and vegetables is now in place over an 87 square mile area in Orange County due to the presence of oriental fruit fly; eight of these insects were trapped in Santa Ana and Garden Grove. This area is bordered on the north by Anaheim, on the south by John Wayne Airport, on the west by Huntington Beach, and on the east by Highway 55. You can find the quarantine map at cdfa.ca.gov/plant/off/regulation.html.

If you live in this area, you must consume any fruits or vegetables grown on your property in that location. Over recent years, dozens of fruit fly outbreaks have been controlled by means of a fruit fly attractant or pheromone mixed with Spinosad, an organic pesticide. The mixture is applied to street trees, street lights, and power poles at a height of 8-10 feet. When male fruit flies ingest the mixture, they die. More than 200 fruits and vegetables are gobbled up by fruit fly larvae after the adults lay eggs inside the crops. This pest arrives here in produce brought or sent illegally from Southeast Asia, Africa, or Hawaii.

California native of the week: Chaparral clematis (Clematis lasiantha) is a vine that flowers for as long as six months out of the year. It winds its way up into trees, shrubs, or pergolas to a height of 20 feet, preferring a shady exposure. It will even grow in deep shade, albeit at a slower rate, but can handle some sun as well. Flowers present a vibrant display of white petals topped by an abundance of golden stamens, followed by highly ornamental, spidery seed pods. Chaparral clematis has wide distribution, found along the coast from San Francisco down to Baja California while growing inland to the Sierra Nevada range as well. It is extremely drought-tolerant. It may require irrigation once a month but, properly placed, should never need to be watered. Chaparral or pipestem clematis is deciduous and may become invisible during winter only to regrow the following spring. I called Plant Material (plant-material.com), a purveyor of drought-tolerant plants and garden accessories — with locations in Altadena, Glassell Park, and Silver Lake — and learned they are expecting to have chaparral clematis in stock within the next four weeks. 

Is there a nursery you think more people should know about? What makes it special? Please send its name and location to joshua@perfectplants.com so I can pass the information along to readers of this column. Your questions and comments, as well as gardening challenges and successes, are always welcome.