Sunday, January 17, 2010

Exciting visit to my favorite garden design center

 

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Whenever I come back to San Francisco for a visit, I always have to make a pilgrimage to my favorite garden design center Flora Grub. This is really a gardening design mecca, its almost impossible not to grab an item or a plant at every single display and vignette that this center shows off. Don’t you love all these succulents, all color coordinated.

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I mean who wouldn’t want one of these amazing leucadendrons with all the beautiful variegated foliage?

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Or this delicate looking but very hardy Grevillea.

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Or some amazing blue containers with those well coordinated palms, cordylines and osteospermums to go in a monochromatic theme.

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The thing I love about this place is that it really inspires the imagination and creates all these amazing displays for how it may apply in different gardening scenarios.

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There’s also a lot of zany vignettes and showmanship going on at this center.

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I love the indoor and outdoor spaces, it really feels like you are in a complete environment seemlessly moving indoor to outdoor spaces. I think I can even live here :)

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Look at this amazing Protea Nerifolia, its already blooming and ready for you to take it home and plant it like you’ve been growing this for ages, perfect for a mediterranean garden.

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Indoors, there are beautiful tables of garden books, garden tools, gifts and this amazing hanging plant sculpture.

 

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In fact there’s sculpture all over the place, including this beautiful large scale piece out in the parking lot, do you think i can pack one of these into my suitcase?

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Fortunately, my suitcase was already full so I was content to go home with a camera filled with amazing ideas…well and I did get a few books and tools and, and….and.

12 comments:

Teresa said...

What a great place to shop at. Gardening there must be so much fun. thanks for the take along on your shopping trip.

Noelle Johnson said...

Hello Noel,

So much color and texture...I love it!

Rosie Nixon Fluerty said...

Oh if only Scottish garden centres were like this. Amazing inspiration I am sure just walking through there - how many hours did you spend there Noel? I would want to spend the whole day there.

I wonder how they water that indoor sculpture of houseplants

Rothschild Orchid said...

Wow, I want to go there!

RO xx

Liisa said...

What an amazing place to spend an afternoon. I love the plant sculpture... and the bicycle... and the car planter... and...

Steve Asbell said...

I love the combination of the cordylines with the Mediterranean fan palms, especially since I already have them growing together in my garden! It makes me want to add some more...

Liza said...

I love that plant sculpture! Thanks for sharing!

Noel Morata said...

rosie, the staff are friendly, theres a coffee bar, lots of fun books to browse...yes i can spend the entire day there. if i still lived in sf, i would love to work there all the time since gardening people and customers are the best!

Anonymous said...

Great pics in this post! Was that a Black Aloe, I saw in one of those pics? Very cool.

Barry said...

This was a wonderful tour.... just what I needed on a dreary, foggy day with snow still blanketing the ground. Thanks for taking us along, I can see why it is a favourite!

rebecca Sweet said...

Love this post! I live about 30 miles from this nursery and it's where I like to spend my birthday 'outing' with my friends...I look forward to it every year! You've done a wonderful job capturing it's allure....great pictures!

Kimberly said...

I can see why you love this nursery. I especially like the old car garden! I have two large retail garden shops near my work...I occasionally spend my lunch time walking through the isles. It's certainly not the same as your garden center but it's nice and relaxing among the plants! I like the photo of the leucadendrons. I'm going to add this to my list of potential plants to add to my new poolside crinum garden.

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