89 Eleven Plant Stories from My Garden
September 8, 2023
91 Seaside Growers Nursery
October 6, 2023
Solana Succulents
355 N Hwy 101 # A, Solana Beach, CA 92075 • (858) 259-4568
I f you love love love succulents and cacti and want to get poked, prodded, and pricked by a thousand spiny things, then Good Lord Almighty, this nursery is for you!
The amount of inventory here is overwhelming—AP was beside and beyond herself—though some of it I’m certain has been there since Solana Succulents opened way back in 1992.
You enter through a wrought iron and wood gate, then down some steep steps—and good luck not falling flat on your face.
Then you see hundreds of varieties of succulents and cacti everywhere…and the whole place is a hot mess. The owner, Jeff Moore, has lived on the property for 29 years so it must be his kind of hot mess!
See what I mean? Hot mess!
It got this way because Mr. Moore LOVES all things succulents and cacti, and I think he must love them crammed together everywhere and all at once. So many varieties!
He has written 3 books and does a fabulous Instagram page—so you know he’s obsessed with these plants. Which is what makes his nursery such a succulent and cacti paradise.
Though it is definitely not an ADA compliant paradise. Goodness gracious, we found it barely APS compliant! (AP & Sheri.)
How do you reach a plant you would probably buy if you didn’t have to navigate over 10 other pokey plants to get to it?
I asked myself that exact question and came up with no answer. Which is probably one reason I didn’t attempt to buy anything here.
Besides, nothing was priced, and you KNOW how I feel about NO PRICES!!!
AP and I cautiously weaved our way along some of the aisles (if you can call them that), looking things over and not noticing the aisle dead ended up ahead. We’d suddenly come face to face with a fence or a giant cactus and have to turn around and weave back through the torture again!
At one point I had to step over a threatening-looking cactus because there was no safe way to get around it. I got one foot over the spikes but in bringing the other one over, my flip-flop flopped off. So I had to go back over, retrieve it and climb once more over the spines which I swear had grown longer. I almost got a foot cramp from flexing my toes to keep the flip-flop on this time.
Well that little adventure brought on some real giggles. And speaking of flip-flops,…
Not my flip-flops!
Here’s a flip-flop story that has nothing to do with succulents or cacti but you will get why I have to tell it.
A client hired me to give her backyard a makeover. For the redesign, I had to do a “take-off”—which means making detailed measurements of the yard. (Worse job ever and I could tell you stories…but not now…)
So I’m on my way to the backyard through the garage, and there was the client’s husband on a treadmill. He pointed the way to the side door and as I’m about to step through it, something sticks to the bottom of my flip-flop. I looked down to see one of those rectangle pads that have thick sticky goo and are used to catch rats. It covered the whole bottom of my flip-flop.
I hate it when awkward stuff happens in front of clients, but the husband hadn’t noticed so I quickly ducked outside. I tried to rip the sticky trap off using my other foot. But you get the picture, right?…Now the damn thing is stuck to both flip-flops!
I’m thinking, “What do I do?” and, “Quick before the wife shows up!”
I step out of the flip-flops and peel the sticky trap off them, which I toss subtly back through the door, put the flip-flops on and proceed toward the backyard. Well my feet go forward but the flip-flops don’t. They’re stuck to the concrete walkway.
Now I’m standing in my bare feet laughing at myself, plus it’s 100-degrees out so I’m sweating like crazy on top of it all.
I bend down and peel the flip-flops off the concrete then push the soles into some mulch so they won’t be sticky anymore. I put them on and proceed down the walk, but I hear this “crunch, crunch, crunch.” I look back and I’ve left a trail of mulch.
I am dying laughing now, but when I get to the lawn the wife comes out so I put on my professional face. I proceed to take measurements, all the while, I’m wiping my feet—like a dog after peeing—to erase the remnants of trap and mulch.
Well I had to confess, didn’t I? And my client says, “Oh my granddaughter does that all the time. She forgets the trap is there and lets out a terrifying scream and we know immediately what she’s done!”
Oh for plant sakes, put the damn rat trap away from the door, People!!!
I love flip-flops, Readers, but they do have a way of making trouble!
Now back to Solana Succulents and a another reason I may not have made a purchase that day. Honestly, I don’t think Mr. Moore cares if anybody buys his plants. Maybe he doesn’t like to part with them. Here AP and I were—a couple of potential customers—and he didn’t show up to say hi or ask if we needed help (or band-aids) until we were well into the thick of the hot mess.
But I have to say, he tends to his plants really well. Must be some sort of Succulent Whisperer. You’d be amazed how he can make such dangerous plants produce beautiful flowers like these…
Have you ever picked up a flowering cactus to look more closely but when you reach to grab the pot your arm touches one of those hairy cacti with spines that stick to your skin or into your skin?
Well that has happened many times to me—’cuz it takes me more than twice to learn a thing—and is why I carry duct tape to use as wipes. Like that rat trap, you touch it to those spines and they stick to it, not to you. (You’re welcome!)
Now here is a plant I’ve always wanted to have…
What…that big ugly thing in the huge pot? NOT!!!
Speaking of big…only on the coast can they grow them like this…
After your painful tour (very little waltzing involved) through Solana’s “Spiny Paradise,” you’ll find conveniently located right on the premises this little shop you can pop into for some self care on your body.
Know what I mean?
