Are you there now (tonight?) Want to know if you guys will do shipping tomorrow (Tuesday).

nope, every Sunday we box, ship Monday

Do you sell California Native seeds as well or only plants?

only plants, sorry

Could you give me an idea of what size plant you sell of the yucca brevifolia?

6-8 inches, two years old

I am interested in buying 4 white sage plants (Salvia apiana) from you.

I would need them shipped to Minneapolis Minnesota. The gallon size

would work good. How do I do this?

click on plant online, got to “get this plant online�

click on it, you should figure it out from there

I am trying to get a on line order through, but it won't accept my OK E-MAIL ADDRESS.

if it doesn't work you'll have to call in the visa number tomorrow, you can email over everything but visa to cfwilson@laspilitas.com

(two pages not shown)
I am making time, this is important to me. I am also French, whence the flowery style, I dont even think about it. my apologies. THANKS for your answers so far. some is still unclear, sorry.

so here we go again:

the first important thing is what do you have available and how can I get it?

obviously you have time on your hands...

but there's none here
give me short questions and I can respond...

I am trying to sending the above order, but your .... order system does not think my e- mail address is acceptable!!!!!

HELP I know I have outwitted the same problem before, but I can't remember how. It is a real pain!

it doesn't work for some, sometimes, randomly.
We need to upgrade, but no money, nor people power, if only the dog could program, I'd even settle for the cat....
One of us will try to call you for the details.

My partner has requested that I get him a couple of
Ceanothus thyrsiflorus Snow Flurry
which it appears you may have available. Problem is, he wants these to plant at one of his homes, which are in Normandy France, Frieburg Germany, or Lisbon Portugal. Anyway, his son is coming over for a couple of week orientation at our Morel Mushroom plant here in Huntsville, and he would like me to get a couple of plants, starts, or whatever for his son to hand carry back to France. Would very much like to accommodate him in any manner possible. Can you help me out?
Look forward to hearing from you.

they're not ready to ship
and Alabama requires a brown snail certificate
If they were ready it would be about $70 for two, and I doubt he could smuggle them into either county with the airport security
sorry

thanks for the quick reply.
I think that I could grow A. glauca and A. parryana, in addition to the
Great Basin and Colorado Plateau forms I am already growing, including A.
nevadensis.
I was all set to order glauca and parryana on line, but hit a snag. As
I understand it, shipping on two plants would be $10.00, yet shipping was
indicated as $18.00 on just one of those two (glauca, I think) when I
started to order. What is the reason for this difference? Let me know what
I would owe you for the two plants, including shipping, and I will make the
order on line.
Thanks for your patience.

handling is $18 per order, on top of the plant and the UPS charges
That's for us to package them and take to UPS

• I just placed my third order with you a little while ago, and I wanted to take the time (something I procrastinated on the other times I ordered) to tell you how grateful I am for your informative and entertaining website. You knowledge of natives is second to none and your sense of humor is a hoot. I began "native-izing" my front and back yards 3 years ago. Half the plants came from your business and the other half came from the California Native Plant Society sale we have here every October. The hummingbirds and butterflies think they fell through the looking glass when they get to my place and I have spent hours just watching them with sheer pleasure. The aroma of the sages greets me every time I step outside or open my windows----it is heavenly. The Celestial Blue I got from you on my first order has thrived, and is absolutely gorgeous! It seems that the hummingbirds stay at it long enough to visit every single blossom and there are a gazillion blossoms on it. Of the 20 or so plants I've ordered from you, only 4 didn't make it. I think gophers, pet urine, or a combination of both may have done them in. They gave their lives so the others could survive, I suppose. While they were dying, the others had time to get well established.
  Again, thank you, thank you, thank you! You have given my senses a wonderful gift.

blush

I am in Santa Barbara. I see that you ship plants all over, but I
am wondering if since we are relatively close, you might deliver locally or
have a regular customer in Santa Barbara who would bring additional plants?

sorry, no delivery

I received only four of the five plants I ordered and at the same time was charged for the missing plant (Comarostaphylos diversifolia- summer holly). Please let me know what can be done to fix this discrepancy.

There was nothing on the invoice to show that I was not charged and I'll see on my next bank statement.

your invoice should show it deleted and the invoice reworked to reflect the lower price and shipping
you were not charged for it
and we're out, sorry for the confusion

oopss! I changed our copy and forgot to change your copy!! So sorry about that.
Subtotal was changed to $30.96 (subtracted Comarostaphhylis @ $11.99)

Shipping was changed to $30.00
Total I charged you was $60.96

we all can make a mistake

Your nursery kindly replaced a plant that I ordered that died on me (a buckwheat). My question is this. The 3 mama bear manzanitas that I have have very light green leaves since I got them from you. The plant I got today has darker green leaves. Am I missing something in my soil or is this just left over stress from the winter rains?
Please advise.

they vary in color by climate and soil, the ones I saw in Escondido today were lighter leaves than ours, still beautiful

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly - reading between the lines I get that I should place the whole order with you and that there will be a split shipment between what is ready now and later?

Also came across Salvia apiana compacta which seemed like it would be a nice filler - OK?

Please confirm and I will place the order - you can let me know how you want to handle the additional shipping - would love to be able to avoid an $18 minimum to ship one $6 plant...

No worries - as I said I appreciate all you do -

I am happy to pay what it takes -

Do you want to ship the bulk now and one later or are there others that will benefit from waiting or will they all benefit?

there are TWO of us here, we all totally overwhelmed, thus you're emails are difficult (his 10^th)

yes

we do not make enough to do that, sorry
picture you and your wife managing several blocks of apartments and all the landscape, by yourselves.
Employees are impossible to find in this county...

buy what you can reasonably plant in a week or so as inventory gets ready

• (first note)I ordered three plants by internet from you and you sent them out monday and said I would get them wednesday which I did. They were dry which surprised me but the ceanothus and the wooly blue curls were just fine. I didn't like the look of the arctostaphyllus glauca because it was wilted but I immediately planted them all and watered them in well. The ceanothus and the blue curls were in bags but you could see the form of the pot with thier roots however the bag of the arcostaphyllus was just like loose potting soil with the plant in thier almost like bare root. I don't know what to make of it. It is acting like something I transplanted and cut a lot of roots off not like something planted from a pot. If the summer or my treatment kill a plant that is my business but I don't know if this plant is going to make it and I haven't done anything wrong -yet! I am shading the plant and will keep it watered but I had it in the ground and well watered within two hours of receipt so I just don't feel at fault if it doesn't make it. I sent you the pic of it.

• P.S. I couldn't be happier with the other two plants, thanks!

• (second note)

Yes there is horse manure and gravel mixed with our native heavy clay, no fertilizer. I did check out yourwebsite and read about the pathogens, summer water, soil amendments etc. The drainage of our soil is so poor though that I do add the gravel and horse manure to improve it. I don't think that there is any way since I just planted it that this plants demise can be blamed on pathogens so I take it that you think it is burned from the manure. I have been planting with horse manure here in Vegas for the last fourteen years. I havn't met a plant that didn't love it. The brutal summer may kill some later in the year but in spring I have had nothing but success with this. I am eclosing a pic of some of our yard including a couple of california native salvias, agastaches, penstemons all of which are supposed to like unamended spoil but all of which love the mix we make for them. I grow vegetables in a half soil half horse manure strait out of the horse and they do not burn but thrive in it. I am not sure of what is wrong with this plant but it arrived wilted in dry soil to which its roots were unconnected to. I don't know it if is like a bouganvilla and doesn't like its roots disturbed or it the trip damaged itbut neither I nor the trying growing conditions here had time to kill it. I have been buying drought tolerant and southwest native plants by mail from High Country Gardens in New Mexico for ten years all of which I plant in horse manure andgravel or sandand some of them havesuccumbed in July but not theweek I got themor in May.

(first reply)let us know if it doesn't unwilt in the next few days, and let us know. We'll need to know by about friday to ship the next week.
Give an extra drink or two, but don't make it stand in mud.

(second reply, after actually looking at picture of 'dead' plant)

the picture looks like you put horse manure in the hole, the wilt could be manure, or any other fertilizer put on the plant
did you?

guez Louise, DO NOT FERTILIZE our plants , especially in Las Vegas in early summer! Why not stick a fire cracker up it's rear, results are the same.

Thank you for your prompt response to my order. I received my plants last week in excellent condition and they are in the ground

I am writing to you from Canada and was wondering if soap lilies grow in greehouses.
I was wondering if you will have any more in the spring.

maybe, but we do not ship to Canada and they are a pain in greenhouses.

from one customer

I just received my palo verde trees and the instructions said to disturb the root ball as llittle as possible. I was confused because my plants came packed in very loose dirt which completely fell apart when I tried to loosen the plastic bag surrounding the dirt. Were the plants shipped to me in the dirt they were grown in? Because I would think that the dirt would be more coformed to the pot with roots of the trees holding the dirt "together". These trees came in more of a "bare root" style, like roses or like berry bushes come. Is this normal?

from another same week

The other day, I was on the a along my native California (and some Mediterranean Zone cousins) plant project. I found my beautiful Gray Honey Myrtle (Melaleuca Incana) bush, 3-years old, in a heap behind some boulders. Looked like a tumble weed... with the crown of the plant severed right at ground level. On close examination, I found that the plant went root-bound in the 1-gallon, before it was transferred to a 5-gallon, which is what I bought. A main root wrapped itself about the trunk and over time, it formed an hour-glass shape that held water at the crown. The main trunk showed signs of root-rot; but all was set-up by the constraining root-wrap! I was heart-broken to find this terrific shrub as I did! I have to wait another 2 to 3 years to retain what we have lost!

Now I did dig-out the root-ball, and using a butcher's saw, I cut it into three sections... two for planting and one to throw away the really 'bad' stuff. The two sections are now in 5-gallon pots and we'll see what happens this Spring!

I am going some where with this!

First, another short one. I buy some natives ( like Arctostaphylos densiflora 'Howard McMinn' and
Arctostaphylos bakeri 'Louis Edmunds', some ceanothus) at a retail/wholesale nursery near me. I don't know where they get their CNPs, but one has to be real careful in selecting a healthy plant. Often, the one-gallon plants are not stable (wobble in the pot because they were root bound as 4-inch potted pups before transplant) and if you pull the plant from the container, one doesn't find many roots anywhere on the outer surfaces! If I find a good, stiff arctosyaphylos with healthy roots, I will buy it. Before I learned this lesson, I planted some of their plants and found them to take 2 to 3-years to 'break-out' as a healthy plant, if I didn't outright lose it! They stay healthy at the nursery because when they water, the top of the can is above the crown of the plant, and the water is retained sufficiently to 'wet' the soil. However, upon transplant, the water runs 'away' from the crown and down the sides of the potted-transplant into the surrounding soil. The plant roots don't get water and the plant dies, especially if a late-Spring transplant! Of course, this nursery says that I must have done something wrong 'cause the plant was healthy when I bought it! Ha!

We grow them in gallon containers, pop them out into a plastic bag, and on desert plants, but back into container for stability. They commonly get beat up in shipping. Plant them as soon as possible and water them in. They should come out of dormancy fairly rapidly. They HATE being in pots. A full root ball is not possible with that genus, but customers lose very few of them.

(BTW plants were fine)

god you guys and your long emails, short and to the point.
The pot bound I'm not sure where those came from, the undersized, ..... nursery brags about.
no it's not in there in a direct format, I was told I was too negative.
Too many pages to do and too little time.

No complaints...received the order Tues. Ceanothus oliganthus, Rhamus
calif, mahonia nevinii, ribes quercetorum. Here is my problem &
question. Their intended home is at the back of my lot where a row of
70' eucalyptus are being removed. Well, the removal has run into big
trouble & probably won't be completed maybe for as long as a week from
now. I have the plants still in their plastic bags standing upright in 1
gal containers, in the shade on the patio. If they won't be planted for
a week how should I take care of them in the interum?

take a pencil or pen and poke a few holes in the bottom of the bags, water them in, probably one watering a week will be ok

I just received a bunch of 1 gallon trees that ordered from you online (Sycamores, Maples, and Oaks). They are 1 gallons in plastic bags. How long can I wait to plant these and do you have any suggestions on how to store and care for them before I put them in the ground?

poke a small hole in the bottom of the bag, water lightly(maybe 1-2 tablespoons)and place in cool spot that gets light to moderate shade. Check every few days, but probably once per week.

I would like to call you on the phone to place an order
Can I do this? I dont see a phone # on your web site

it's on the front page
805-438-5992

I have been able to purchase some plants from the Native Plant Society in ... but they don't always have what I want. Do you have a site anywhere near Murphys?

nope, but that's what mailorder does

shall I make a new list of what I want, now that I have some answers fm you re: var. choices?

so, should I? can you tell me yes or nope, or do you want me to go on your website and check for every plant if it's in stock? pls let me know. and again, do you ship or should I come up? it won't all fit in my landcruiser anyway.

yes

land cruiser will hold about 150 1 gallons

I love the white sage plant and would love to have it in as an

addition to my wild flower garden. I know I can order it on line but I

am not sure it would thrive in my climate. I live in Central Alabama.

I have a range of sandy to red clay soil and good drainage. I just do

not want to order plants and try to raise them if they will not do

well...no need in distroying a plant by my stupiditiy...thank you for

any assistance you may can lend me.

they do not tolerate summer rain and they only tolerate about 20 F.

Doubtful they'd live a year.

I lost all hope that my order was received or that you were still in

business. Since placing the order I found another source for my wants.

Perhaps next year, I'll place another order. Please cancel

this order.

she ordered the day before...

we ship every Monday and apparently she expected the plants the day she ordered?

we fast, but not that fast.

Could you please advise if you send Salvia Celestial blue and mountain sage

plants to Australia?

no, continental U.S. only, sorry they would do well there

I am looking to purchase a Joshua Tree and live in UK.

I was wondering if you would be able to give a price (including postage and

packing) if you have any.

no, continental U.S. only

Well I love this vine and was happy to find it. Tickled actually. I

own a nursery here in SC and thought.....well I'll just purchase a few

extras to sale resale. As I was getting ready to print your order form

the shipping charges caught my eye. $9 for one plant to SC...ouch. I'm

rethinking at this point...but decided to continue on..being a

plantaholic price isn't always the deciding factor. Wait...I see yet

another charge of $3? So you want $12 to ship ONE plant to SC? Ok I'm

still biting...just not as hard. Then I noticed a $15 handling fee? Ok

you really must be kidding? It's a joke right? What idiot is going to

pay 3x's the price of the beloved plant in SHIPPING? $27 in SHIPPING

for an $8.99 plant?!?!? What do you ship it around the world three

times before it lands here from the moon? Well....I've come to the

conclusion you don't really want any mail order business. I do mail

order and man if my customers were stupid enough to pay even half of

your outrageous prices for shipping I'd be rich!

$27........ too funny. Oh well...my loss right? Whatever.

on the contrary I can afford the plants. I just think it is beyond

ridiculous to pay $27 shipping.

And again...as I said before...I own a mail order nursery also. Therefore I

know it does not cost $27 to mail one gallon plant to California.

It's our costs, they are gallon plants and Calif is not SC, costs are

about what it costs us. And yes we do sell a number of plants

mailorder. Our choices were to discountinue mailorder or put the real

prices on the plants. Alas, California is very expensive!

Sorry you can't afford the plants.

{Funny we had to rise the prices a little for back east as we were only braking even, Breaking even doesn't allow you to EAT.}

Is it possible to order plugs of Rhamnus californica from your

nursery? It's for a research project in which I'll be comparing different

species of the Rhamnaceae family (Rhamnus caroliniana, Rhamnus cathartica,

Ceanothus americanus, Ziziphus obtusifolia, and Ziziphus mauritiana).

nope, gallons only