Succulents and More™

Last week, I had business in San Francisco. On the way home, I made a quick stop at Flora Grubb Gardens in the Bayview District. Calling Flora Grubb a nursery would be like calling a Rolls-Royce a car. Yes, it’s a nursery, but it’s far more than that. It’s a plant shop and a home decor store, but above all, it’s an experience. If you haven’t been there yourself, you’ll see why shortly. Flora Grubb—yes, she’s a real person—had already been gardening for years in Austin, Texas when she moved to San Francisco in 1999. She started a landscaping business and really hit it off with a client, Saul Nadler. Flora and Saul joined forces as Grubb & Nadler, first buying a small nursery on Guerrero Street in the Mission District, then moving to their current location on Jerrold Avenue in 2007. The Bayview store features an open-air building clad with reclaimed barnwood and equipped with solar panels. Plants, furniture, and pottery are arranged like they would be in a garden, creating a lush a...