Gifts for Gardeners, San Francisco Edition
San Franciscans are blessed with a beautiful city and incredible plant life. We also have some of the best garden stores and horticultural organizations anywhere. Instead of yet another gadget (not that there’s anything wrong with gadgets), why not give the plant-lover in your life an excuse to get out of their garden?
Today’s holiday gift guide is a special edition just for San Franciscans. Oro en paz, fierro en guerra!*
Conservatory of Flowers Membership
The San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers (previously written about here) is probably my favorite place in the city. As a member, you’ll be able to walk in anytime. And you can bring a friend for free, so if you’re giving the membership as a gift, you get a gift, too. Members also get two tickets to the annual members-only party in the Conservatory. Plus you get to help ensure this jewel of the city keeps shining.
Botanical Garden Membership
The San Francisco Botanical Garden is another local wonder worth supporting. As a member, admission is always free for you and a friend, you get discounts on all SFBG purchases (classes, plants, tours, books), and you get an invite to the annual members-only plant sale. I’ve been going to the plant sales this year, and they’re a wonderful, inexpensive way to find plants that will be happy in our climate. Highly recommended.
Flora Grubb Gift Certificate
Flora Grubb is the most amazing garden store you’ll ever visit – stocked with carefully chosen, immaculately maintained plants, and staffed by friendly experts. I go to Flora Grub almost weekly and only leave with plants half the time – it’s just that enjoyable to visit. If you’re looking for a gift for a San Franciscan plant-lover and don’t know what to get, they’ll love a Flora Grubb gift certificate.
Paxton Gate Gift Certificate
Paxton Gate is not strictly a garden store, though they do sell plants. It’s better described as “a curiosity shop for the botanically inclined.” Name one other plant store where you can also get a viper skeleton and a framed bat. If you’re looking for a gift for a San Franciscan gardener who already has everything, I guarantee there’s something at Paxton Gate they don’t have yet.
* What, you don’t know our city’s motto? It means: “Gold in peace, iron in war.”
Hey local gardeners: What places do you recommend?
See Also
A Visit to Quarryhill Botanical Garden
You drive by miles of grape groves, tidy lines on the hillsides, before getting to this oasis of wild nature. Yet, the place is also unnatural, as all of the plants come from half a world away.
Up Close in the Conservatory of Flowers
The lens allowed me to see the tiniest of flowers ultra close up.
Possible Philodendron Parent Plant
I think I found the mystery Philodendron parent plant.
