Don't miss Buena Creek in San Marcos. The owners, Steve and Donna, are terrific, and both the butterfly and the mediterranean demo gardens are carpets of color and texture. Don't miss the original drought tolerant garden on the hill, full of protea and unusual specimans. Here is a link that might be useful: BUENA CREEK GARDENS

I volunteer at the Huntingtonn Botanical Gardens, our cactus nursery is 10-12 acres about. We have a large world class Japanese Garden, we now have 1/3 of a finished World ClassChinese Garden which will be the largest outside of China, we have a tropical greenhouse World Class, we have a Shapespear Garden( I'll explain that if needed) we have an Australian Garden, we have a World Class Rose Garden, we have a childrens garden, and learning center, we have the largest plam garden west of the Rockies. We have several speciality greenhouses for the public, Calif, has many worthy gardens, one in San Francisco, one at U.C.L.A. yes the Quail Gardens, and the Drescendo Gardens, to many to name here. Sorry may hands are not able to type that long. The Huntington is considered a world class garden because they have close to 1000,000 plant documented and recorded. We have a Herberium, have lecture halls, and training centers, we take in students from all over the world to train. It is a must see. It opens at 10:30 and closes 4:30 it has a cafteria, and a tea room, wear very comforatble walking shoes, and if you need a wheelchair be sure to reserve it. We have free lecture days, check what is in flower the month that you plan to visit. Oh, yes they have docent tours. I forgot out famous library, and art galleries. Norma

you must take a walk through Old Northeast neighborhood.It's right behind Sunken Gardens,pretty much. It's just east of 4th streetnorth down by 22n Ave north. If you go a little further east(a few blocks) you will hit the water and there's a nice walkway there. You can park anywhere in the neighborhood but you can also park right by the water (North Shore pool is my favorite spot to park) It's a beautiful shady walk, you can walk for 30 minutes or hours,take comfy shoes and you'll love the feel of the place and it costs NOTHING!! teeka

Pauls Desert in Shertz is in Zone 9a so it would be a good match for where you live. I drive back from New Mexico a lot. Mostly I collect plants seeds and cuttings from the road side. I have gotten some opuntia pads, agave seeds, but mostly I collect wildflower seeds and cuttings from daleas and other shrubs on the outside chance that they root. I cut down Southeast through Clovis from Santa Fe for the quicker return trip. The roads are small , NO TRUCKS but very straight and well graded and uncrowded. I have never seen as many trucks as on 40.!!. I Hate trucks on the interstates and try to minimize that by driving secondary roads if their are good ones to do and in NM and Texas there are. I easily do 75-80 on the roads through the grasslands. I go different routes at different times. Going out I take my time and snake through Riudosa Or Cloudcroft. The grasslands east of there are great seed collecting for me. To get northwest from Austin , the secondary roads are the best and cut the corners of the big interstates. If you do find yourself in Austin, the good cactus place is East Austin Succulents on Tillery street. They get a lot of my money. Great agaves, good large specimens. good small succulents, good echeverias, cactus and even some caudiciforms. If you are doing I 10 then, Houston has good cactus places. I have heard mention of Cactus King, but their reviews are not that good , mostly service issues but some said that specimens were not always well cared for. The people I talk to say they are great. Living where you live, I would be looking for more heat and rain tolerant cactus.A lot of the cold hardy western cactus are very allergic to humidity and need the cool down of winter for mysterious reasons, but ones from further south have more of a tolerance for it due to the gulf and tropical systems going into the desert. I have a hard time growing the opuntias from Utah and northern New Mexico but the ones from Southern new Mexican and Texas grassland are more tolerant of rain events. I love the visiting and oogling of the plants up north but it is the southern plants that thrive better on my land. I was always amazed at the difference in the selections of Bob Smolney's collection in Florida . For you, Opuntia leocotricha would be better match. I look more to northeastern Mexico for plant selections. Their agaves are more resilient to moisture and cold combined then the agaves of the west. Now I am getting off topic... I am re routing you and have you going all over God's creation. When the travel agent comes out in me so easily it means that my car trip is not far in the offing. I am thinking Big Bend area but it needs to cool down a bit.