Our Plants

Where To
Find Them

Other Sites
Of Interest

In late 1991, Suncrest purchased Wintergreen Nursery. Wintergreen was a small, diverse operation devoted to new and unusual plants, particularly among the categories of flowering shrubs, perennials and bulbs of Mediterranean climate regions.From this combined base, we have grown rapidly over the past thirteen years, both in sales and in the breadth of our plant palette. Our 3000-plus current selections reflect several different tangents, all aimed at enriching the variety of ornamental plants available to California gardeners. California natives have already been mentioned; these include not just the usual top-20 ceanothus and manzanitas, but a wide variety of other trees, shrubs, herbaceous perennials and bulbs. The same is true for plants of several other Mediterranean-climate regions, including the Mediterranean itself, South Africa, Australia and temperate South America. In more general terms, we offer a wide variety of showy vines, with particular emphasis on the clematis and passion flowers. Bamboos are another avid pursuit, with our collection currently numbering about 90 species and cultivars. Herbaceous perennials remain a prominent focus. Ferns–particularly native ferns–have become a strong line.Many plant selections, including some deliberate hybrids, are made here at the nursery. Other selections are made by our staff in the wild. For still others, we depend on a variety of commercial sources, botanic gardens and other institutions, and gardening friends literally around the world (to whom we owe a great debt).We have carved our own path in techniques of plant culture and presentation. Planting mixes are tailored to the needs of the plants at hand. Some incorporate materials like perlite for better drainage, making touchy plants easier to handle at their final destination. For the most sensitive plants, cultures of beneficial fungi are added to reduce the need for fungicidal applications. The use of long-term osmotic fertilizers rather than line-injected nutrients improves overall growth, color and shelf life in a retail setting. Several plant groups which were traditionally grafted for ease of propagation (wisterias, for example) are offered here on their own roots, avoiding the future headache of unwanted suckers. Our practice of double-staking vines for a fuller, sturdier scaffold has become a model for the industry.We are branching out on other fronts as well. All irrigation runoff is captured and reused at the main nursery yard. Nursery tractors are run on bio-diesel, and this fuel is mixed with regular diesel for our delivery fleet. We have always felt that a nursery which offers new and unusual plants should take responsibility for describing them properly. Accordingly, we have led the way with an informative prose plant guide, descriptive block and individual plant labels and descriptive availability lists. This Web site is maintained as a source of information for both horticultural professionals and the gardening public. Backing up these all measures is a knowledgeable staff, happy to answer customers’ questions and to help with problems (they cannot, however, deal directly with the general public). Independent commercial nurseries are our primary route of distribution, because of their direct contact with the gardening public of California and the interest they have demonstrated in trying the new and unusual. We are also pleased to deal with licensed landscaping professionals. Private gardeners and other interested individuals are encouraged to visit the retail nurseries listed under “Where to Find Them” on our home page. We do not, under any circumstances, make sales to retail customers.