Tree Farm & nurseries in S. Orange County?

13 years ago

Greetings all. I'm new to OC (my company relo'd me) and I'm looking for a few suggestions for a local tree farm and/or nursery. (I'm in Mission Viejo.) Plant Depot has been my go-to nursery to date, but I need to purchase ~10 podocarpus makis to make a screen and about 150 plants for my back. Yes, Plant Depot is awesome, but there's got to be a cheaper way to buy my plant list.

Anyone care to recommend a couple of places where I can save money? Especially for the podocarpus purchase.

Thank in advance...

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Comments (6)

renataka
13 years ago
It's been a long time since I lived down that direction. The cheapest you can go is probably Home Depot, although I'm not sure if you are okay with supporting big-box stores.
My question to you is are you sure about those podocarpus trees? They can get as big and their leaves don't decay.
In my house we like trees to have multiple functions, and we give extra points to plants that produce edible fruit.

What about a screen of apple trees (google for images of belgian apple fences) or low-water elderberry bushes. Some pomegranates get about the size of podocarpus trees and are just as densely branched - they'll attract hummingbirds and give lovely fruit (some are ornamental and do not fruit if that's what you're into). Pomegranates are also extremely low-water. Buy them bare-root in January and they're only about $15-$20 per tree.
Heck, since you are down in Orange County, why not do a screen of orange trees? The perfume of blossoms alone is worth the effort.

Just my $0.02. Happy planting!
kelpmermaid
13 years ago
No idea on the podocarpus, but you might want to think about using natives to keep the water usage (and bill) down. A place to start in that direction is Tree of Life nursery on Ortega Highway in San Juan Capistrano. Their website is a great source of information as well.
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caplants
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Living Green Nursery and Garden Center
25290 Jeronimo Road, Lake Forest, CA, 92630-4900
(949) 768-GREEN (4733)

Here is a link that might be useful: Living Green Nursery
naughtykitty
13 years ago
I was just going to suggest Living Green, home of the former Laguna Hills Nursery. I bought 2 Podocarpus there in December (while it was still LH Nursery). I went to Living Green last week and their outdoor selection looks very similar in price and quality to LHN but the inside area is very different.
ltecato
13 years ago
Try Green Thumb, which is right off El Toro where it crosses I-5.
nullzero
13 years ago
I would second what Itecato said, try Green Thumb International its on the right hand side when going down El Toro from Mission Viejo. Turn into the street right before the freeway where the Chevron is. Green Thumb has a good selection of edible and non edible plants. If your into citrus they have over 20 varieties of citrus trees.

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Tree Farm & nurseries in S. Orange County?

Comments (6)

renataka

kelpmermaid

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caplants

naughtykitty

ltecato

nullzero

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