Succulent Shangri-La: Rancho Soledad Nursery (part 1)

When I was in San Diego in March, I finally got the chance to visit a place I had always pictured as the nursery equivalent of Shangri-La: Rancho Soledad Nursery. Founded by legendary plantsman Jerry Hunter in 1954, Rancho Soledad has been a pioneering force in the California nursery industry for decades. Rancho Soledad was one of the first nurseries in the world to establish its own in-house tissue culture lab to produce landscape-worthy plants on a large scale. Popular agave hybrids like 'Blue Glow' and 'Blue Flame' are just two of the many introductions to come out of Rancho Soledad.

Much of Rancho Soledad's groundbreaking work in the last 20 years was done by Kelly Griffin, who is now succulent plant development manager at Altman Plants, the largest grower of succulents in the U.S. Even though Griffin is no longer with Rancho Soledad, their hybridizing program is continuing strong, thanks in no small measure to curator Jeremy Spath. With his far-ranging knowledge and practical experience, Spath is considered a leading expert on agaves. Based on the glimpses I got on my visit, I have no doubt that Rancho Soledad will continue to bring us exciting new agaves in the years to come.

Rancho Soledad Nursery is located in northern San Diego County outside the small town of Rancho Santa Fe, about 10 miles inland from the coast. The sprawling 25-acre nursery is at the end of Aliso Canyon Road in a rural area increasingly dominated by multi-million-dollar houses on large lots. Hey, for a cool $18 million you can buy this 12,400 sq.ft. house with 7 bedrooms and 14 bathrooms five miles away; the estimated mortgage is only $73,000 a month! I bet this part of San Diego County looked very different when Jerry Hunter bought the property in 1960.

I visited Rancho Soledad on a Saturday morning in late March accompanied by fellow succulent fanatics Deana and Sarah from Santa Barbara. I don't think the nursery gets a lot of casual walk-in traffic, considering where it's located; most customers seem to be landscaping professionals who buy plants for their own clients. We parked at the public sales area near the main entrance (here's a map for orientation). In the panorama below, you see the landscape design and consulting office straight ahead:

Several plants caught my eye right away:

Agave attenuata × Agave mitis var. albidior

Variegated Agave 'Blue Flame'

Variegated Agave ovatifolia, one of the Holy Grail plants among agave fanatics. Often referred to as "Orca," I don't know what Rancho Soledad's final cultivar name will be. What I do know is that it's one pricy puppy. The smallest (5-inch, I believe) was over $300. A 24-inch box would be several thousand $.

Any guesses here?

The small display garden next to the parking lot was full of droolworthy plants:

Another Holy Grail agave: Agave victoria-reginae 'Albomarginata' aka 'White Rhino' or 'Snow Princess'

Elephant's foot (Dioscorea elephantipes) isn't rare in small sizes, but one like this is decades old and much sought after

Variegated Agave ovatifolia

Agave impressa

Agave 'Snow Glow' (Rancho Soledad refers to it as "variegated 'Blue Glow'")

Agave 'Snow Glow'

Great colors

White Dyckia hybrid with who-knows-what (Pachysedum? Pachyphytum?)

One of Jeremy Spath's agave hybrids: Agave gypsophila × utahensis var. nevadensis

Agave 'Blue Flame' with streaked variegation

Streaked aloe, no idea what it is

But that was just the beginning. Deana, Sarah and I chatted for a while with Hunter May, Jerry Hunter's grandson who now runs Rancho Soledad with his mother Heather May (Jerry Hunter passed away in 2012), and then we went exploring. What I loved about this nursery is that we were free to roam the grounds. Remember, it's 25 acres, so there's a lot to see! We didn't quite cover everything but that's OK; that way I have something to look forward to on my next visit.

I took 250 photos and even after some judicious editing I still ended up with far too many for a single post. Part 1 (this post) covers the display garden at the parking lot, the hill beyond (an area featuring mature specimens of aloes and agaves), as well as the areas near the hoop and shade houses. Part 2 covers the rest.

View of specimen-sized cycads

Check out this tree aloe (Aloidendron barberae). It's in a 24-inch box, but the box looks so small because the aloe is so tall!

Cycad seedlings

One of the most beautiful agaves in my book: Agave angustifolia 'Woodrowii' (or 'Milky Way')

Agave chazaroi, truly elegant but not completely hardy in my zone 9b climate

Agave gypsophila × utahensis var. nevadensis, a Jeremy Spath hybrid

Agave potatorum hybrid by Jeremy Spath

Did a deer take a nibble?

Be still, my heart

Aloe suzannae from Madagascar, fairly rare in cultivation

Agave ovatifolia

I have no idea what this is, but it looks like an ultra-wavy 'Blue Flame'

Another variegated Agave ovatifolia

Lots and lots of variegated Agave ovatifolia...

...literally worth their weight in gold

Variegated umbrella plant (Schefflera actinophylla), I think

View of the display garden and parking lot from the Hill

Boxed Agave guiengola

No clue which aloe species this is, but it has character

Aloidendron 'Hercules' and a field of Agave 'Blue Glow'

Yucca rostrata and Euphorbia grandicornis (or similar)

Could these be boojum trees (Fouquieria columnaris)?

More variegated Agave ovatifolia

Check out those massive euphorbias in the back!

Crown of thorns (Euphorbia millii), clearly a very popular landscaping plant in Southern California

Hechtia glauca, looking a lot like mine, brown leaf tips and all

Jade plant (Crassula ovata) growing in a crack in the rock

Lantana almost covering this euphorbia clump

The tree on the right is Euphorbia tirucalli, the all-green version of the popular 'Sticks on Fire'

Agave 'Blue Glow' and Agave guiengola 'Creme Brulee'

Variegated Yucca gloriosa and...

...cactus cuttings resting on a bed of aloes

Aloe vaotsanda

Aloe vaotsanda

Dyckia 'Brittlestar'

Agave ovatifolia, not variegated for a change

Reminder that it's a working nursery!

Glimpse of the hills beyond, dotted with expensive homes

More Euphorbia millii

Bougainvilleas may be dirt common in Southern California, but they're special to me

Not sure which aloe this is

Finally, a label! It says "Aloe bainesii Medusa," which would make it the form of Aloidendron barberae sometimes referred to as 'Medusa'. Other nurseries sell it as "Aloe tongaensis."

A sight that stopped Deana and me dead in our tracks: Aloidendron dichotomum seeming to grow straight out of the rock. We later found out that a hole was carved out of the rock when these were planted. Somehow the roots have managed to cling tight to the rock to support the weight of these massive tree aloes.

I have no idea if the cactus was planted there or sprouted from a seed

Oh, to have one of these in my own garden...

Any Senecio experts out there? The leaves are similar to Senecio barbertonicus...

...but the flowers aren't

The covered area is home to the specimen cycads

Click here to go to part 2.


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