Hello Friends –

We're closed July 4th.

Enjoy the holiday! We sure hope you'll get to take a day or two off over the holiday to spruce up your garden. Starting this weekend, we'll offer a discount to help.

Sale! Saturday, June 30 – Tuesday, July 3

20% off all plants – yes, every single one.

Yes, our 20% off sale includes tillandsia air plants!

And, yes, it includes all the succulents, too!

Bromeliads like this will be on sale, too.

Solanum wendlandii

The Solanum wendlandii that blooms on the front fence here at the store is a real showstopper, but this summer-blooming vine is very rare and we don't often have it in stock. We finally have some! Come and grab one of these rare and amazing beauties, if you have a warm spot where it can grow.

Hello, Fog

So, Fourth of July means shorts and flip flops and ice-cold lemonade? Not quite, right my San Franciscan friends? If our city remains true to form, it means FOG – fog often so thick you can't see the fireworks.

The glorious work of Michelle Quan is filled with images of fog. (Clouds? I say fog.)

It wouldn't be right to complain about the fog that clings to the hillsides. After all, fog makes us who we are as San Franciscans. Just when others are settling in to the warmth of summer, our chilly ceiling of fog arrives. It may dampen our moods, or force a kind of unseasonably wintry introspection, but it enlivens our city as well – a constantly changing element essential to the magic of San Francisco.

Natural Vertical Gardening

Inspiration from our Jim Kumiega

Long-time Flora Grubb Gardens staffer Jim Kumiega takes advantage of every bit of space in his tiny SoMa garden. Jim loves growing cloud forest plants, epiphytes, palms, and ferns, and astounds the rest of us with photos of his blooming orchids. Jim grows things on every surface of his garden, mounting orchids on his walls and on the trunks of other plants.

This month at the nursery we'll be featuring Jim's favorite plants. We'll have some very special orchids, begonias and ferns in stock. And, Jim will teach a class on how to make the most of small spaces by mounting epiphytes and orchids on vertical elements in your garden.

Natural Vertical Gardens: Mounting Epiphytic Plants

July 7 and 8, 11am – 12pm

Join us to learn how to make your own natural vertical garden. Lots of plants (epiphytes) love to grow on steep, vertical surfaces like cliffs and trees. Using vertical-loving plants like ferns, orchids, bromeliads, tillandsias, and other epiphytes makes wall gardening super-easy and fun. We will show you how easy it is to securely mount epiphytes directly onto vertical surfaces.

This event is free. If you can, please RSVP and let us know you are coming.

This mounted garden was created by staff designer Daniel Nolan.
Create your own mounted garden to grow indoors or out.

Create a vertical garden like this one on an old stump or a tree trunk in your garden. This garden was created here at the nursery by Zenaida Sengo.

UC Berkeley Botanical Garden's Natural Discourse

The UC Berkeley Botanical Garden is one of the most amazing public gardens in the world. On July 14, the Garden opens its six-month collaboration with a group of artists, writers, and researchers called Natural Discourse: Artists, Architects, Scientists & Poets in the Garden. They are creating site-specific works in the Botanical Garden that will set your mind reeling with their brilliance and beauty. For the next few months, visit the Garden as it becomes an outdoor art museum!

Curators Shirley Watts and Mary Anne Friel install a Fog Catcher by Nami Yamamoto.

Join Us on Facebook and Twitter

It's just like neighbors chatting about their gardens over the fence, but digitally. Please join us on Facebook and Twitter.

Come and see us.

– Flora and everyone at Flora Grubb Gardens