Steve Super's super plants, March 2026

I was on the Central Coast last weekend (see map at the bottom of this post), and my first stop was to see Steve Super. I’d visited him in February 2024 when his retail area was in downtown Los Osos; he’s since moved to a greenhouse complex outside of town. More on that later.

First a bit about Steve and his business. Steve cultivates and breeds a wide variety of rare and unusual plants that are well adapted to California’s Mediterranean climate. This includes aloes, agaves, and other succulents as well as bromeliads and even some perennials. He’s a one-man operation, and he focuses on plant quality and botanical rarity over mass production.

In recent years, Steve has gained recognition for his aloe and dyckia hybrids, which have become sought after for their distinct patterns and colors. He’s also been developing his own mangaves, which are more compact than the ones already on the market and hence better suited for container culture.

Steve doesn’t have a conventional retail storefront with public hours. Instead, he sells online through his own website (stevesupergardens.com) and on Etsy as well as on the Palmstreet platform, both in a Marketplace storefront with permanent listings and in live auctions (in the Palmstreet mobile app, search for SteveSuperGardens). In addition, he is a frequent vendor at plant sales on the Central Coast.

Steve Super in one of his greenhouses

View of the nearby hills, so lush at this time of year

Outdoor tables, mostly agaves and aloes

Steve shares growing space with Nick Wilkinson of Grow Nursery and landscape design company Botanica Nova. Their greenhouses are outside of town on the grounds of a small annual and perennial plant nursery. There are no fancy trappings here. It’s all about the plants, and the plants sure looked happy.

Greenhouse 1

Greenhouse 2

There were so many cool plants to look at, I felt pulled in all directions. The photos below show just the plants that called out to me. There were many others I didn’t get around to. Take a look at Steve’s website to get a better idea of the range of plants he grows. Steve says visitors are welcome to stop by and pick out their own plants. Contact him via email to make an appointment.

Needless to say I first looked at the agaves.

Agave utahensis var. eborispina, one of the most alluring agaves, yet so slow and challenging in cultivation

This specimen had incredible spines

Agave oteroi, just one of many in the greenhouse, each one unique

Variegated Agave horrida

Steve has been making his own agave hybrids as well as mangaves (agaves crossed with manfredas). Below are some examples.

Agave lophantha ‘Quadricolor’ × Manfreda ‘Chocolate Chip’ (bottom center) and Agave lophantha ‘Quadricolor’ × Agave ovatifolia ‘Vanzie’ (the other six). In the ‘Quadricolor’ × ‘Vanzie’ cross, there was quite a bit of variability.

These...

...look a lot like the seed parent, Agave lophantha ‘Quadricolor’

The brownish-purple tinge is superb

Mangave ‘Bloodspot’ × Agave oteroi

Mangave ‘Bloodspot’ × Agave oteroi

A couple of variegated sports of Walters Gardens mangaves:

Variegated Mangave ‘Crazy Cowlick’

Mangave ‘Tooth Fairy’ with medial variegation. So cool, but not for sale

Steve has also created a number of spectacular dyckia hybrids:

I’m a sucker for silver leaves, especially when they have big teeth

I was tempted by so many of them

Just take a look!

I really should start a dyckia collection

These dyckia seedlings vary in color from green to dark red

Again, so much variation within the same seed batch

I picked this one up for my friend Kyle

The teeth!

On to aloes. The first one I want to show you is a variegated clone of the popular hybrid Aloe ‘Moonglow’:

The first variegated ‘Moonglow’ I’ve ever seen

‘Moonglow’ is a perfect landscape aloe (take a look at mine in flower a few weeks ago). Steve had some other aloe hybrids best suited for landscaping; I picked up an Aloe striata × camperi ‘Cornuta’. But the real stars in Steve’s aloe lineup are his dwarf hybrids. They’re similar to the “fantasy” aloes created by Kelly Griffin and Karen Zimmerman, but I would argue they’re even more mesmerizing.

Here are just a few of them:

This one is a hybrid with Aloe castilloniae

Some of these hybrids are named (like ‘Plasma Flame’ and ‘Pagoda Star’), with multiples available. Others are one-of-a-kind. If you’re a serious collector of these fancy aloes and live in California, I’d say plan a trip to Los Osos so you can pick out your own unique specimens!

On to cacti. Steve has been growing and hybridizing epiphyllums for years...

So many epiphyllums

...and he has also been crossing trichocereus with lobivias:

These should produce show-stopping flowers similar to ‘Flying Saucer’ (see here in my garden)

A few other cool plants:

Steve’s black greenovia hybrid (Aeonium ‘Zwartkop’ crossed with Greenovia dodrantalis)

A super chunky and compact Dudleya brittonii

A particularly colorful Aechmea recurvata ‘Aztec Gold, with the main rosette just starting to flower

The main reason for my trip was to hang out with aloe whiz Nick Deinhart. Nick uses a few tables in one of Steve’s greenhouses for seedlings and met me there. Nick and I are working on a project; more on that at a later date.

Nick Deinhart, me, and Steve Super

Where I live (top) and where I went (bottom). It’s about 300 miles and takes about 4½ hours.

Steve is one of those modest guys who is completely dedicated to his plants. He does amazing work away from the limelight — toiling in obscurity, you might say. And yet his creations, original and unique, are far more exciting than what you typically see online, in nurseries, or at plant shows.

If this post seems like a thinly veiled advertisement for his business, it’s because it is. Steve is the kind of passionate plantsman who deserves our support and business far more than the corporate growers that dominate the market. More so now than ever.

You can find Steve online:

• On his website
• On Etsy
• On Palmstreet (in the app as SteveSuperGardens)
• On Facebook
• On Instagram

Here is my haul from Steve. As is often the case, I really should have gotten more, but I do love what I have.

Aloe dorotheae × rupestris. It looks a lot like dorotheae, but Steve said it should grow to 1-2 ft. wide.

(Aloe somaliensis × rupestris) × ‘Thai hybrid’. I’m super excited about this one. It looks like a window-sill fantasy aloe, but it’ll grow to a much larger size and hence be perfectly suited for landscape use.

Aloe striata × camperi ‘Cornuta’. This one should get to 2-3 ft. wide.

Agave lophantha ‘Quadricolor’ × ovatifolia ‘Vanzie’. I have no idea what to expect, both in terms of size (‘Quadricolor’ gets to about 1.5 ft in width, ‘Vanzie’ about 4 ft.) and offsetting (‘Quadricolor’ pups like crazy, ‘Vanzie’ is solitary).

Mangave ‘Inca Treasure’, one of Steve’s hybrids. This is Steve’s photo. My specimen doesn’t look like this yet, but hopefully it will soon, given enough UV exposure.

© Gerhard Bock, 2026. All rights reserved. To receive all new posts by email, please subscribe here.