About Las Pilitas Nursery

Writers and Contributors

Bert Wilson

Owner and Creator of Las Pilitas

Two years college classes, Bakersfield Junior College 1970-1972, worked his way through Cal Poly as a gardener 1974-1976, Bachelors of Science degree in Chemistry from Cal Poly, SLO 1976

Two years of graduate work, Cadmium Accumulation in Agricultural Soils, 1976-1978 (Cal Poly was closing the masters program, finish the thesis or go bankrupt? The last 2 units would have cost $200,000, oh well.)

California Licensed Landscape Contractor, specializing in native plants of California, 1977-1994. Moved the license to inactive, C-27 license number 345678. Yes, really.

Volunteer Fire Fighter, EMT, San Luis Obispo County Fire Dept, 1980-1994

Oversaw numerous restoration and mitigation projects. 1985-1995. Stopped to keep remaining hair.

Opened Las Pilitas Nursery at Escondido, California, with Valerie Phillips as manager. 2000

at present he...

Manages day to day operations at Las Pilitas

Plant Production

Web Site development. After a terrible series of disasters with MS products moved to linux and other opensource software. (We have not had a windows machine for more then a decade.)
Supports Opensuse, Gentoo, Python, Postgresql, Mysql, and Tryton

Photography

(Our resident mad scientist that practices altruism)

We can ship to most states as we have an interstate, sod and apple certificate. - grid24_6

We can ship to most areas of the US. We do not ship to the Southeastern States as the plants commonly die before they get there.

We grow California native plants.

We get insected every year for all sorts of stuff, but our climate is so bad about all that lives here are crazy folks and native plants and animals. - grid24_6

I do not know why we have two certificates that say the same thing.

Celeste Wilson

2 years classes Bakersfield Junior College- 1970-1972, Bachelor of Science Biology, Cal Poly,- 1978

Masters in Biological Sciences from Cal Poly, SLO-1999

Biologist, conducted numerous biological surveys

Plant Taxonomy (tries to figure out what the wilted dead stick we bring her is) we try to check every species we grow. Sometimes we miss something.

Quality control (has trouble keeping up with all of our "great ideas") The unly one hair who can spel.

Penny Nyunt

Cuesta Community College 1996-1998
Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Sciences, Cal Poly, SLO, 2003 (was driving from King City and working two jobs)

At the nursery ...
#1 gopher
Customer service
Inventory (Tryton)
Pulls most of your mail orders
Wrote lots of funky web pages (many of the bird and butterfly pages)
Photography
Weeding, culling, weeding, organizing, weeding
Writes off and on for several magazines. Has had articles in Fine Gardening, and other publications.
Has worked in the nursery since she was 2.

Ian Wilson

Mathematics degree from Cal Poly, SLO

The techie son that lives in San Francisco and is in charge of our three data base monsters and a Garden of his own.

Technical support ( " please tell me you didn't break it again") Fluent in Java, Java script, Gentoo, Python, Css, Postgresql, Mysql, Tryton, and, of course, basic html.

Actually works another full time job for a computer company. (All of us work about 80 hours a week, so whats new?)

*Is delighted by his position next to the family pets*

(our geek, in charge of database and code since he was 14, really bad code, but still better than Bert's)

Harry Potter running through the field of Lupines - grid24_12

Harry Potter our top dog for the moment. Found abandoned under bridge, Gonzales,California resident greeter likes everything humans find disgusting (horse poop, road kill etc.)

Anabell smelling the poozzies - grid24_6

Annabelle, Dogus domesticus Found abandoned in ditch near artichoke field, Castroville, California Obsessed with rabbits Penny's poodle, only here when Penny is here.

NiNi the House Cat Found abandoned in King City, California A highly superior being known as BAD Cat!

Carry a big stick and bark softly. Can't bark loud because of stick... - grid24_6

Carry a big stick and bark softly.
Found abandoned under bridge, Gonzales,California resident greeter likes everything humans find disgusting (horse poop, road kill etc.)

Foxxy was a pound save that is very friendly to humans or dogs she likes. She hates rodents, skunks or salesmen. - grid24_6

Foxxy was a pound dog that got saved. Sometimes she remembers this, sometimes she runs off looking for the dog catcher.

This area was not quite level enough for pots so it was grade in about 1985. - grid24_6

This area of the nursery was graded in about 1985.

Here is what the 1984 grading looked like 27 years later. The nursery has gradually filled with tress, shrubs and wildlife. - grid24_6

This is about the same spot in the nursery in 2011.

Las Pilitas Nursery after the 1979 fire before we got the first water tank up. - grid24_6

In 1979 we had got the water tank delivered. A wind picked it up and blew it across the field, fortunately away from the house, Then the place burned. Where the photo was taken was 15 foot manzanitas before the fire.

The nursery in 1984. We had to abandon most of these lower areas as the cold was too low. You can't grow live plants in containers at -4F, (-20C),. You sure can grow some dead ones though.

The nursery looking down towards the front gate on a cold winter morning in 2011. The white row cover can keep the gallon plants a few degrees warmer. They still freeze, but stay above about 20F. This is why our plants grow when others fail. - grid24_12

The lower areas of the nursery were planted in motherstock.The 1984 picture in 2011.

Here are the principals of the nursery in 1988 or so. - grid24_6

Here is the Wilson family in about 1988.

Celeste and Penny weeding while Ian was supervising in about 1992. The photos were not dated, so just a guess. - grid24_6

Picture taken by Bert, rest of family out in the nursery on a winter day about 1992.

The front of the main nursery house in 1985. - grid24_6

The front yard of Las Pilitas Nursery in 1985.

The front of Las pilitas Nursery house 2011. - grid24_6

The front yard of Las Pilitas Nursery 2011.

A photo of the green bridge in 2011. - grid24_6

This is the green bridge that we drove across for the first 25 years we lived out here.

This was the back on one of our price lists in about 1985 - grid24_24

The back of one of our price lists in 1984 or 1985. Hand drawn by Ann Cochran of the Carrizo. We think she had a gift and we should share it.