Peacock Horticultural Nursery: private garden

My previous post about Peacock Horticultural Nursery in Sebastopol ended here:

The gate at the end of the path in photo above leads to Robert and Marty’s private garden. When I last visited, in September 2021, the garden was only a few years old. Check out my post from then to get a baseline. Then compare to the photos below. As you can see, the garden has settled in very nicely. Lots of TLC and a mild climate have helped as well.

The garden is full of the plants Robert and Marty love, ranging from cacti and succulents to flowering perennials and carnivorous plants. I even spotted a cycad or two. Robert, Marty, and I like pretty much the same plants. If this, by magic, ended being my garden, there’s very little I would change.

Red, orange, purple, yellow: I love all these vibrant colors

Alstroemeria ‘Indian Summer’ (back), Aster × frikartii ‘Monch’ (front)

Pineapple lily (Eucomis)

×Mangave ‘Tooth Fairy’ (left)

See how some of the terminal spines on this ×Mangave ‘Tooth Fairy’ are folded down? I’ve seen these on others as well. I wonder if it’s a tissue-culture artifact?

Succulents and cacti, what’s not to like?

Yucca ‘Tiny Star’ and Agave parrasana ‘Fireball’

Xanthorrhoea (glauca?) and Agave ‘Moon Glow’

Agave salmiana var. ferox ‘Medio Picta’, another wonderful San Marcos Growers introduction

As nursery owners, Robert and Marty have access to a wide range of plant material. Many of the plants in their nursery, and in their garden, are from San Marcos Growers in Santa Barbara. As I mentioned before, San Marcos will close their doors at the end of the year. The loss to the horticultural community in California and beyond is incalculable. San Marcos grows plants that literally nobody else has. After they sail into the sunset, these plants will simply stop being available unless somebody else steps up to the plate and “adopts” them. At this stage, nobody knows how this will all shake out, but at least the San Marcos Growers website, the best plant resource on the web, will remain active, as manager Randy Baldwin assured me.

Great place to sit

I’ve long dreamed of having a shade structure like that

Imagine sitting here listening to the sound of the first autumn rain (which this year may never come)

Sincoregelia ‘Galactic Warrior’, another San Marcos Growers plant

Brunsvigia josephinae, a South African bulb

Boophone disticha, another South African bulb grown primarily for its fan of wavy leaves

Stock tank with carnivorous plants

The open area beyond this cactus berm floods seasonally so it can’t be planted

Opuntia ‘Dark Knight’ and Agave ovatifolia

Cacti, aloes, palms, and...

...Aloe cooperi, a grass aloe, originally from Annie’s Annuals

Robert is a fellow agave collector, and he has several rarities from Plant Delights Nursery that I’ve been coveting. I was very excited to see them in person for the first time.

Agave ‘Bareback Rider’, a variegated sport of ‘Crazy Horse’ (A. cupreata × asperrima)

Agave × ocahuata ‘Luminescence’, a yellow-centered sport of A. ‘Blue Glow’ (A. attenuata × ocahui)

Agave titanota ‘Dusty Roads’

A few more behind-the-scenes pictures:

Agave titanota ‘Snaggle Tooth’. This variegated selection used to be very hard to find (and expensive), but now that it’s in tissue culture, it’s become much more available and affordable.

Robert and Kyle in a hoop house full of collector plants

Another great photo of Marty (left) and Robert

Peacock Horticultural Nursery’s 20th anniversary sale continues until September 28. Everything in the nursery is 25% off, with an additional 10% off succulents and cacti. That’s a massive savings. With plant prices expected to increase in the coming year, now’s the perfect time to shop!

Peacock Horticultural Nursery is open by appointment only. Making an appointment is super easy — simply go to this page. Each appointment is for a 30-minute time slot, but you can stay as long as you want. Their website has all the information you need, including their current availability list.

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