The key word here is nice-sized, as Yucca rostrata is slow growing, and nice-sized ones will be expensive. Worth calling around first, but I've seen them at all the usual Berkeley/Oakland nurseries such as The Dry Garden Nursery, East Bay Nursery, Berkeley Hort Nursery, Golden Gate Palms Nursery in Richmond. Wholesale suppliers would include San Marcos Growers and Suncrest and Monterey Bay Nursery, but these last two would primarily have smaller/cheaper 1 and 5 gallon sized plants.

Thanks Bahia,
Yes, they all carry small ones...
I will keep checking.

I think you should ask your local retailer to order the 15 gallon Yucca rostrata for you: San Marcos Growers prime list March 2010

Brad

wow-I thought for sure I posted here two days ago-I guess once again, I mistook the preview for the real post.
As my advice has already been posted by David,all I can add is that I have seen large bare root plants-rarely- offered at UC Berkeley sales for much less than you would find at a commercial nursery. Just another possibility.

Thank you all for your responses.

Brad, I've had some bad experiences pre-ordering plants... It would be very hard to purchase an expensive large plant without looking at it close-up. I had inquired about the 15gallon ones at San Marcos - they hardly had any trunk and the head size was very small (not mentioning the fact that it was ridiculously overpriced for its size). One of the retailers wanted a deposit for ordering the Yucca.
Have you guys ever ordered a rather pricey plant from one of the retailers and then declined to purchase the item without incurring any charge?

Stanofth,
I will check with ucb again; last time I didn't see any large ones. Thanks anyways for the headsup.

It is definitely not cool to special order a plant through a retail nursery then not follow through on the purchase, you will not be thought of fondly if you show your face there again. As you have found out, Yucca rostrata is a slow growing plant, and even as a 15 gallon sized plant from San Marcos Growers, it is not likely to have much of a trunk. Occasionally the Dry Garden Nursery will get in larger sized plants from San Diego, but they won't be cheap. You can always ask that a retail nursery get size specifications of the plant you have in mind prior to finalizing a special order, in fact, if size is important, this is always the prudent thing to do. If you really want a large Yucca rostrata at a decent price, you will probably have to make a trip down to San Diego County and check out the wholesale growers down there.

If ordering from San Marcos Growers, their 5 gallon sized plants are the better deal. I think Monterey Bay Nursery may also have Yucca rostrata in 5 gallon sizes, but they would also be somewhat small.

If you really need a specimen sized plant, check out Flora Grubb Nursery over in San Francisco, I've seen some really nice 15 gallon and specimen sized 24 inch box Yucca rostratas there in the past, but they aren't cheap.

Bahia,

Well unlike people such as yourself, if I feel that my order has not been fulfilled based on my specs, I will refuse to buy the item - period!!
And frankly I do not care how the retail nursery feels about that. Maybe, you feel obligated to buy, but I don't. That's just how I approach life.
By the way, thanks for your response.
Cheers

I didn't say that you should feel compelled to purchase a special order item if it doesn't meet the specs you were given. Did you in fact confirm the specs again before they placed the order? If the retail nursery went ahead with a special order that did not meet clearly specified criteria from you, I agree with your position. However, if you didn't give minimum specs to be confirmed before the order was to be delivered, you are putting the nursery on the hook for the costs involved. I have several friends who own retail nurseries, and lack of follow through from customers is a major reason that they may ask for a deposit upfront. The retail nurseries as well as the wholesale brokers that I deal with, do their best to meet expectations. With particular wholesale nurseries that are known to ship plants that may be too small/young, the receiving retail nursery will often refuse to accept delivery, and send them back.

You may just have unrealistic expectations that plant sizes and prices are fixed entities; availability and sizes vary during the year, and certain species such as Yucca rostrata are slow growing, so they will either be smaller than average at a particular container size, or cost more.

If you want to be a customer who is appreciated by the nursery, you won't put them in such a position. You can just as easily get size specs from the wholesale nursery yourself, and then request the retail nursery to add this to their next scheduled delivery from that wholesaler.

Your not caring how the retail nursery feels about it will be reflected in their not wanting to special order anything for you in the future. That is just how businesses tend to respond to problem customers. I try to see an issue from both sides, not just my own...

Hi Bahia,

You sound like a disgruntled nursery owner Bahia. You would make a good lobbyist on behalf of 'cranky nursery owners.' Just take it easy and take deep breaths...

If I feel that a particular store (nursery, restaurant, etc...) has not met my expectations, I will never never again give them my business. It's no skin off my back...It's simple as that. I will take my business elsewhere.

I am sorry.... you sound like you may have been burned by the so-called problem customers in the past. Bottom line is, if these retailers wish to stay in business, they need to value and take care of their customers (especially during these hard economic times) or they're better off shutting down their operations. If you badly treat a customer, you have automatically lost a lot of future business (business 101).

Cheers

And it works both ways, I have walked away from a nursery that I had been doing busines with for the past 50 years, I was a good customer I thought, they were extremely rude to me, so I just go elsewhere. Thats the other side of the shoe, total sales they lost for the year, approx $2,500. I hope they don't lose that many more customers. Norma

Norma,

Thanks for that great input. It's amazing that they did not value your business after all those years. I am sure that you would never recommend that nursery to any of your friends or colleagues; they not only lost $2,500 revenue from you; multiply that by x number of clients that would never shop there based on your reviews. You did the absolute right thing. I, too, have shunned away businesses where I felt they had not adhered to good ethics. Thx

Hi, you can buy specimen size rostrata from my store at http://stores.ebay.com/Joes-Cactus-Mart

Please feel free to contact me with any questions.

Here is a link that might be useful: Joe's Cactus Mart