First 2024 fall plant sale at UC Davis Arboretum

In spite of the unseasonable heat, fall is here. For many of us, that means planting season. In the Sacramento area, one of the best places to indulge your plant buying habit is the UC Davis Arboretum Teaching Nursery. Every year, it hosts a series of plant sales, usually three in the spring and three in the fall. This year, the fall sales are on October 5 (members only), October 26, and November 16 (clearance sale).

As a volunteer, I’m at the UC Davis Arboretum Teaching Nursery every week, and I can tell you that the sales floor is overflowing with cool plants. According to the online inventory for the October 5 sale, there are more than 23,000 plants from almost 800 different taxa, ranging from to Abutilon to Zephyranthes. California natives? Check. Water-wise plants? Check. Succulents? Check. Grasses, vines, bulbs? Check, check, and check. No matter which plants or gardening style you’re into, there’s plenty to choose from. In fact, the selection is larger than at most commercial nurseries.

Here are some photos I took the other day as I walking the sales floor:

So many salvias (56 different varieties)

Lots of other perennials

Opuntia cacanapa ‘Ellisiana’ and Leucadendron ‘Hawaii Magic’

Leucadendron ‘Safari Sunset’ and Leucadendron ‘Ebony’

More succulents than you can imagine...

...including some the Arboretum has never sold before, like Euphorbia lomelii (formerly known as Pedilanthus macrocarpus)...

...and Cotyledon ‘Silver Crown’

11 different varieties of echeverias, including Echeveria elegans...

...and Echeveria ‘Caribbean Blue’

17 different ×Mangave varieties...

...including the sought-after ×Mangave ‘Praying Hands’ –at a great price, too!

Mangaves in the rain, or rather with the sprinklers running

A few oddities, too, like this Peperomia polybotrya sold as a houseplant

This is just a tiny sampling of what’s available. Check out the online inventory here for a complete list. 

To make my shopping list, I download the Excel version of the inventory because I can sort it by any number of criteria, including location in the nursery and even quantity. If one of the plants I’m interested is only available in a limited quantity (under 10, say), I typically grab it first during the sale. In the upcoming fall sale, quantities range from 1 (for example for ×Hansara ‘Jumping Jacks’) to 122 for Phedimus spurius (aka ‘Dragon’s Blood’ sedum).

As I mentioned earlier, the October 5 sale is for Arboretum members only. The hours are 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The UC Davis Arboretum Teaching Nursery is at 1046 Garrod Dr, Davis, CA 95616. There’s plenty of parking across the street from the nursery.

© Gerhard Bock, 2024. All rights reserved. To receive all new posts by email, please subscribe here.