Flora Grubb Gardens, SF's premier plant shop

Last week, I had business in San Francisco. On the way home, I made a quick stop at Flora Grubb Gardens in the Bayview District. Calling Flora Grubb a nursery would be like calling a Rolls-Royce a car. Yes, it’s a nursery, but it’s far more than that. It’s a plant shop and a home decor store, but above all, it’s an experience. If you haven’t been there yourself, you’ll see why shortly.

Flora Grubb—yes, she’s a real person—had already been gardening for years in Austin, Texas when she moved to San Francisco in 1999. She started a landscaping business and really hit it off with a client, Saul Nadler. Flora and Saul joined forces as Grubb & Nadler, first buying a small nursery on Guerrero Street in the Mission District, then moving to their current location on Jerrold Avenue in 2007.

The Bayview store features an open-air building clad with reclaimed barnwood and equipped with solar panels. Plants, furniture, and pottery are arranged like they would be in a garden, creating a lush and inviting environment that’s unlike anything else in Northern California.

Flora Grubb sells a wide variety of plants suitable for California’s Mediterranean climate, ranging from succulents and bromeliads to palm trees and tropicals. Much of the plant material comes from Grubb & Nadler’s very own growing grounds in northern San Diego County. Having control over the supply chain and the plant quality is obviously a huge plus. In addition to supplying the Flora Grubb retail store in San Francisco, Grubb & Nadler also sells wholesale to landscapers, brokers, and retail nurseries all over the western U.S.

Costa Rican nightshade (Solanum wendlandii) is like a beacon, letting visitors know they've arrived

Time to wander through the Bayview store:

Everything from tropicals to palm trees

This vignette, like so many others, could be in a private garden

I love the soaring height of the shade roof

Open-air building with houseplants and home decor items

Living wall...

...one of the nicest I’ve seen

Aloidendron ‘Hercules’

Lots of bromeliads

Neoregelia ‘Puppy Love’

Vriesea fosteriana ‘Red Chestnut’

Vriesea gigantea

Staghorn ferns, too

I’ve never seen so many spiral aloes (Aloe polyphylla) in one place before

These are 4-inch pots, from tissue culture. I was tempted, but the price was steep ($35), and I’ve killed too many to make an expensive gamble

Kangaroo paws displayed in a wooden box, a classy touch

I was very pleased to see an Acacia aphylla for sale. One of my favorites, but definitely not a mainstream item.

Furcraea macdougalii

More Furcraea macdougalii

Opuntia cacanapa ‘Ellisiana’

I was mesmerized by these pots, and tempted

More of them

Kalanchoe beharensis

‘Korean Gold’ plum yew (Cephalotaxus harringtonia ‘Korean Gold’)

Pachypodiums and cacti

Mangave ‘Racing Stripe’ (front)

Agave lophantha ‘Quadricolor’ and Echeveria hybrid

Agave albopilosa ‘Tufts’

Mammillaria elongata ‘Golden Stars’

These potted cacti would make great gifts

Agave angustifolia ‘Marginata’

Agave americana and Agave franzosinii

Combo planter with Agave victoriae-reginae...

...aloes, crassula, etc.

Agave mitis var. albidior × attenuata

Aloidendron ‘Hercules’

Soaring metal sculptures, too

For some reason, this display of lavenders in weathered wooden crates was my favorite vignette

Display on the side of the open-air building

Flora Grubb carries an extensive selection of garden furniture by French manufacturer Fermob. A few tables were set up...

...other tables and chairs were stored on the wall of the building:

This display is deceptively simple, seductively colorful, and a work of art in itself.

I didn’t buy anything, but I walked away with a big smile on my face. It’s impossible not to feel cheerful in a place like this.

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I visited Flora Grubb in the middle of the day, so my photos are fairly harsh. If you want to see Flora Grubb Gardens in soft, magical light, check out their Instagram account. The photos are as carefully curated as the inventory in their retail store.

© Gerhard Bock, 2022. All rights reserved. To receive all new posts by email, please subscribe here.