One more trip to San Marcos Growers before it's all over

As I first mentioned in this post from February 2024, San Marcos Growers (SMG) in Santa Barbara will close its doors for good on January 1, 2026. The 23-acre property leased by the nursery will be redeveloped by the owners to help meet Santa Barbara County’s urgent need for housing, including affordable housing. For more details, read this announcement on the SMG website.

While I suppose this will ultimately be good for Santa Barbara, it’s bad news for gardeners and the horticulture community in California at large. As a wholesale nursery, SMG is not open to the public, but its plants are carried by independent retail nurseries across California and the Pacific Northwest. Over the past 40 years, SMG has been instrumental in introducing rare and unusual plants. Even now, SMG sells plants that literally no other nursery has. The loss of one of the most innovative – and, yes, beloved – plant growers in the state will hit many of us hard.

Aloes and other plants ready to go to a customer in Southern California

Outside the office

For now, though, it’s business as usual at SMG. As I was able to see for myself when I visited on my recent trip to Santa Barbara, the nursery is well stocked and plants continue to roll out to customers. I’m sure this will change as the year progresses, with inventories shrinking and popular plants selling out completely. I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point in the latter part of the year the remaining plants went on sale. After all, what is left by the end of the year will need to be hauled off to make way for what’s to come.

Outside the office

Office building

General manager Randy Baldwin has been with San Marcos Growers since 1981 – almost his entire professional career. A plantsman to his core and one of the most distinguished horticulturists in California, Randy has been a pioneer in popularizing plants appropriate for our Mediterranean climate, including many from South Africa and Australia. This interview with Randy Baldwin from February 2017 is a great introduction to what Randy does and what his job entails.

Bromeliad display

Hechtia ‘Silver Tongue Devil’, a hybrid between H. argentea and H. lanata created by Jeff Chemnick of Aloes in Wonderland

Eucomis regia

×Mangave ‘Lavender Lady’

Over the years, SMG has introduced many new plants to the nursery trade – take a look at the long list! Not knowing whether I would ever have another chance, I bought several agaves and aloes unique to SMG when I visited a couple of weeks ago, including Agave potatorum ‘Cherry Swizzle’, Aloe ‘Erik, Red & White’, and Aloe ‘Hot Flash’. They’ll be much treasured in my garden, just like all the other SMG plants I already have.

Aloe khamiesensis, a beautiful small tree aloe. Unfortunately, it proved difficult to keep it nice-looking in containers so SMG is no longer selling it. This plant was outside the office.

As busy as Randy was, he took time out of his day to drive me around the nursery grounds on an electric cart. We looked mainly at agaves and aloes – a narrow focus, you might think, but the current availability list has 64 different entries for agaves and 102 for aloes. Here are some that stood out:

Aloe ‘Spiney’...

...a hybrid between Aloe ×spinossisima and Aloe marlothii created by legendary plantsman David Verity pre-1990 and initially distributed through the Huntington’s International Succulent Introductions program in 2014 as ISI 2014-15

Aloe ‘Pandan’, a cross between a large tree aloe, Aloidendron barberae, and the fan aloe, Kumara plicatilis

Aloe ‘Pandan’ close-up

Aloe ‘Jacob’s Ladder’

Aloe ‘Jacob’s Ladder’

Aloe elegans

Aloe ‘David Verity’

Lots of aloes in the propagation area

Aloe lineata var. muirii

Agave salmiana var. ferox ‘Medio Picta’

Agave ‘Thorny Warrior’...

...a wickedly armed hybrid between A. xylonacantha and A. pablocarrilloi...

...by agave whiz Tony Krock (more info here)

And finally a few other cool plants in the propagation area and in the greenhouse:

Puya coerulea var. coerulea, the most intensely silver plant I know

×Sincoregelia ‘Galactic Warrior’...

...an exceptional terrestrial bromeliad (more info here)

Agave victoriae-reginae ‘Albomarginata’ aka ‘White Rhino’

SMG has been one of the largest producers of this exceptional selection of the Queen Victoria agave and now has over 500 stock plants for propagation

Callisia warszewicziana, a tradescantia relative from Mexico and Guatemala

Here is Randy Baldwin with Crassula multicava ‘Mali’s Thai-Dye’, given to San Marcos Growers by Bay Area landscape designer Mat McGrath who named it after his Thailand-born wife Mali. (Click here to see my latest posts about Mat and Mali’s spectacular garden in the East Bay.)

Even though nursery operations will cease by January 1, 2026, one thing will live on: the San Marcos Growers website. It has the most complete and reliable plant database I know of, much of the information painstakingly compiled by Randy. It’s my go-to source for anything plant-related, and I’m not alone in this: Literally every time the best websites for plant information come up in a discussion, the SMG website is mentioned first.

Most of you have never had the opportunity to visit San Marcos Growers, but I know that many of you have SMG plants in your garden. Cherish them and treat them well – soon there won’t be any more of them.

© Gerhard Bock, 2025. All rights reserved. To receive all new posts by email, please subscribe here.