A Quick Visit To Rancho Soledad Nursery

Overwhelming!  This is one small section of the place:
Rancho Soledad Nursery, San Diego County photo 2-8-3455_zps60839e72.jpg
Visiting Rancho Soledad can be overwhelming.  You can easily spend the day there looking around at the growing fields, the shade houses, and the plants growing on the steep sandstone slopes around the property.  There are not just succulent plants.  A huge shade house entirely filled with huge Dioons...
Dioon-ville photo 2-8-3469_zps997f5974.jpg
...that we did not even get to.  Row after row of beauty.
Dyckia photo 2-8-3467_zps22ed8d56.jpg
On a dry sandstone slope, a beautiful Agave ovatifolia.
Agave ovatifolia (I think) photo 2-8-3450_zpsc07b9154.jpg  
 This jaw-dropping thing was nearby--is it a A. guingola hybrid or special selection?  Look at those marginal teeth!  That blue-white coloration!  Update:  A. guiengola 'Moto Sierra'

Agave 'Chainsaw'? photo 2-8-3448_zps0ef9dbde.jpg 
Probably good we were not there long.  Certainly good there wasn't enough space in the vehicle for all we wanted to bring home.
Rancho Soledad Nursery, San Diego County photo 2-8-3453_zps26b2547a.jpg 
I wanted that pair of Aloe sabea!
Aloe sabea photo 2-8-3452_zps2d04addf.jpg
They have some beautiful tropical plants as well. 
The other plants at Rancho Soledad photo 2-8-3472_zpsc6f4982a.jpg 
Aloe spicata aka Aloe sessiliflora.  
Aloe spicata aka A. sessiliflora photo 2-8-3445_zps695689a6.jpg
Aloe sabea blooming in the background there.
Aloe spicata aka A. sessiliflora photo 2-8-3470_zps81937533.jpg 
Oh my!
Rancho Soledad Nursery, San Diego County photo 2-8-3457_zpse568676b.jpg 
Labeled as Agave 'Blue Ember'
Agave 'Blue Ember' photo 2-8-3463_zpsd78892b3.jpg 
Whoa!  Agave nizandensis x Agave isthmensis.
Agave nizandensis x A. isthmensis photo 2-8-3459_zpsb395f3ed.jpg  
I came home with a very inexpensive Aloe dorotheae and Agave 'Blue Ember', which doesn't come up on a google search.  Hmm...is it new?
Agave 'Blue Ember' and Aloe dorotheae photo 2-8-3474_zps41a48299.jpg  
 What a visit!
Rancho Soledad Nursery, San Diego County photo 2-8-3456_zps1e3927a5.jpg 
We also went to the San Diego Cactus/Succulent Show/Sale;  I'll blog about that next time.  Right now, exhaustion is setting in.  
Spent Dasylirion bloom photo 2-8-3471_zps68d9058f.jpg 

Comments

  1. WOW, this is really overwhelming, particularly for people like me gardening in a cold climate. Never before saw so many different succulents together. Thank you for showing us this spectacle.

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    Replies
    1. Glad you enjoyed it! It's a wonderland for plant lovers.

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  2. How I wish we had anything like that in the Uk. Spectacular plants.

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    Replies
    1. Barely scratched the surface with the photos. There was so much more.

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  3. Wow what an amazing place, much temptation there, I am surprised you only bought two plants. :)
    xoxoxo ♡

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  4. Replies
    1. If you ever visit San Diego, it's a must-see.

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  5. Wow! That first shot has rendered me speechless.

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  6. I could get in a lot of trouble there...wow! I'm glad you were able to narrow in on two beauties to bring home. Could have easily become so overwhelming it became all or nothing!

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  7. Glad that huge expanse of fun is so far away, and most wouldn't grow here even if I happened by with a large U-Haul... Looks and sounds like a fun visit.

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  8. Wow, wow, wow. We may make a trip to San Diego this summer, and Rancho Soledad Nursery is at the top of my list. Will I be able to walk out of there without going broke?

    I've never heard of Agave 'Blue Ember' either.

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    Replies
    1. Bring large empty truck, plenty of money, plan to spend many hours, and be warned it is just enough inland to be brutally hot in summer. They don't sell small plants--the small ones are 10", most are 3 gallons at least, 10 is more common. Didn't even get to the spectacular palms...

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  9. Oh my! And I thought OC Succulents was overwhelming!

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  10. Gorgeous! So many incredible plants, so few that wouldn't rot or freeze in my climate. Must move to California! Thanks for sharing the eye candy!

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    Replies
    1. Should you move, please bring some rain with you, okay?

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  11. Replies
    1. Even the moving-65-pound-concrete-blocks part?

      Mostly yes it was fun!

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  12. This place is (insert string of superlatives)! Something about seeing so many plants (especially those that are difficult for us) en masse thrills me to my toes.

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  13. It is surprising that in Spain, with our similar climate, we don't have nurseries like this. I'm definitely jealous.

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    Replies
    1. Perhaps there is not the demand for that type of plant? San Diego is far ahead of the rest of California in selecting climate-appropriate landscape plants.

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