Digging East Bay Treasure, Annie's Annuals

Today I'm taking you Bay Area travelers over to the East Bay to dig for treasure. You may not find any precious metals on this excursion, but you can find some botanical gold.

Any serious gardener knows that planting season is not in the spring, when everything is all crazy and inspirational in full bloom. Oh no. To get that kind of spring splendor, you have to think ahead. In the Bay Area, fall is the time to plant. Just before the rains. Mother nature does all your watering, and the result is splendiferous.

In the six years that we've been dug into our hillside home, surrounded with redwoods but blessed with a nice little clearing that gets a fair bit of sun, we have planted a butterfly garden dominated by - but not exclusive to - native plants, as well as a vegetable garden, a privacy hedge, and various other little shady and sunny spots. Making my tours of all the local nurseries, I noticed that some of the most wild, funky, surprising, alluring plants (I know, a lot of adjectives, but trust me, these plants deserve them!) all seem to come from the same place. The name "Annie's Annuals" popped up over and over again.

Calceolaria integrifolia ‘Kentish Hero’

Then, while visiting the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show this spring, I discovered the Annie's Annuals booth. I swooned. Needless to say, I was soon planning my own pilgrimage to this Bay Area botanical institution.

One of the nice things about this nursery is that most of the plants come in 4" pots, which means they are young and and very reasonably priced. One of my favorite finds there is Calceolaria integrifolia ‘Kentish Hero’, also known as pocket book flowers. It  immediately became a centerpiece of my flower garden, with its prolific orange blossoms. 

I also found the long-sought silver bush lupine, a persnickety but gorgeous native wildflower, at Annie's after searching high and low everywhere else for a couple of years. Unfortunately, it didn't survive, but I will try it again. I knew before buying it that it was very tough to transplant, which may be why not many nurseries carry it.

Even if you don't have your own garden, a visit to Annie's can be a pleasure. There are so many incredible plants to ogle, you could consider it a varied and fascinating botanical garden, as well as a place with its own particular character. The actual nursery hides in a questionable Richmond neighborhood behind a barbed wire fence. But once inside, it's like you've entered another world. This may not be a firm rule, but I swear I didn't see a man working there. The place exudes this kind of girl power pride, and the flowers there seem flirtatious, inviting you to look at them, eager to show off their own personalities.


Some of the things that make Annie's plants stand out? Most are grown from seed, without greenhouses, so they are naturally hardened off. The particular micro climate there allows them to grow a wide variety of plants, from cool climate fans to sun lovers. They are also grown without growth regulating hormones, so they are more green (in the environmentally friendly sense). 


Why go now?  Annie's is currently having its fall sale, and everything is 20% off.

Annie's Annuals is a little difficult to find, but if you follow the directions on their website, you shouldn't have any problems. (You can also buy plants online, but then you don't get to see their wonderful nursery.) 

Happy planting!