Sherrie Althouse and Phil Van Soelen, co-owners of California Flora Nursery, have been nurturing native plants and informing native plant gardeners for 35 years. Photo: Jennifer Jewell
Gardeners, landscape architects, poets, and mystics talk about Genius loci—the prevailing character, atmosphere, or spirit of a place. Not always easy to pinpoint, I think you’ll agree that you know a place that has this spirit when you experience it. Since first being introduced to California Flora Nursery by plantsman John Whittlesey, I sense its spirit each time I visit.
A tall canopy of native oaks frames the entrance to the nursery located near Santa Rosa in Sonoma County. Small display gardens and shrubberies embrace you and paths lead you through plantings of Northern California natives. Tidy displays of promising four-inch and one-gallon pots are laid out in such a way that you can see what you’re in for. While exploring, areas here and there—hidden, not quite fully revealed—provide a tantalizing, anticipatory feeling that you are about to discover new treasures, new gems.
And you are.
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