Waterwise Botanicals

This place was absolutely wonderful! Fantastic selection of healthy vibrant succulents. With wonderful staff to assist and educate you if you’re a first time gardener. Thanks again Tari! You were wonderful and I’m so happy with my Senecio Haworthii!

Great place to purchase plants and attend a great seminar occasionally. Plants are robust and healthy and prices are reasonable. I have watched waterwise grow into a great community nursery with a very caring staff.

Bought $ 400 worth of plants here — one agave failed to thrive. Took it back — the woman at desk refused to consider offering a credit — saying they did not guarantee their plants once they had left the yard. First time for me in sixty plus years of buying plants in several countries I’ve encountered such an unhelpful and customer unfriendly attitude. Poor business too: customers may not always be right, but they often are and value their opinion being respected. I had gone to Waterwise again intending to buy several hundred dollars worth more plants. Instead I just walked away empty handed. Their loss is greater than mine. Find your drought tolerant plants elsewhere — there’s plenty of choice.

Last month we attended San Diego Horticultural Society class here, given by the General Manager of Waterwise Botanicals (Tom). Given that we just had all of our grass removed and have only native & succulent plants now, it was perfect timing. Tom was a treasure trove of helpful information. Of course part of the deal is that they hope you will buy some of their plants, but there was no pressure to do so.
Tom mentioned that they offer plant lists based on geographic location. I filled out the contact form on their web site and received the list promptly with a friendly note from Tom. It’s a bit inconvenient but a really cool place to look around and get ideas.

Hidden gem in the fallbrook area. If you want to do a desert garden in your home, this is the place to buy your succulents and cacti from.

I love this place! I have a DYI budget and the staff has helped me put together my dream drought tolerant landscape! They are ALL very knowledgable and very helpful! You can tell they love what they do! The plants are very healthy and happy and the assortment is amazing!

If I could give it a ZERO I would, however, I cannot. GO TO RICARDO’S NURSERY in Long Beach. It’s HUGE and they have lots of plants and don’t use chemicals for care. They also give 15% off your order if you are doing L2G program
The operator of this facility taught a LAWN-​2-​GARDEN class that my husband and I attended in Long Beach. We were able to talk to him after the class and get some good ideas, info on plants, and were told to email or give a call if we need to but that we should drive down to see the place b/​c it’s great. I had no doubt that it was a nice nursery but it is extremely far for us so we wanted to send in our list of plants or call and ask if they had them and to give us a quote.
I called 7 times and sent 2 emails. NO REPLY. They never pick up the phone or answer emails. So now they don’t get a sale from me. I was ready to drop $ 2500K-​$ 3500 so it’s their loss. I also left a message on my last phone call that I will Unilocal! my experience for the consistency in poor customer communication. Guess they didn’t care.
PROS:
–Operator is very knowledgable about plants, watering, placement, dirt, etc.
–Large nursery with huge selection of succulents (from what I was told)
CONS:
–Way to far to travel from Long Beach just to check it out
–No call backs
–No returned emails
–No contact no matter what day of the week or time within their operating hours. Apparently getting a hold of someone will not be possible on any level, not even smoke signals so goooooooood luck with that.

You’ll find inspiration in the gardens and paths, and get excited about all the drought-​tolerant options available. It’s a nice easy place to walk through with the sprawling loop that just keeps offering more discoveries.
I’ve found so many plants to buy here, and find it to be nearly complete from the ground up from compact plants to shrubs and cactus. The colors, the flowers, it’s all beautiful stuff that takes little to no care, and loves our weather.
I’ve been back many times and still really appreciate the variety and selection of succulents, the open grounds, the feel of the gardens, and the jovial staff. Their prices are almost always lower than others for all their plants, including shrubs and succulents.
Occasionally I’ve found a better deal at the wholesale nursery across the road and some smaller succulent options at the boutique nursery in North Escondido, but only a precious few. Their tree selection is not the best, but again, that’s the time to head across the road.
This is THE place to start for any major project or even just an afternoon walk. Good info, good help, good prices, and bigger and better plants than the box stores or any other competitors, and a whole lot more inspiration too.

My family and I were nursery hopping today. We are visiting from the San Francisco Bay Area, and it seems like every nursery we saw before this one just warmed us up for this one. We love succulents, and found this place so incredible! I loved seeing the succulents planted in the ground so we can see what it would look like when they are established. I loved all the landscape ideas. It reminded me of the demo rooms in IKEA. We were just sad that we didn’t have enough room in the car to buy the larger gallon size plants.
I totally envy the locals who have this place available to them all the time. :)

We’ve been visiting Waterwise Botanicals for several years and always enjoy seeing their wide variety of succulents. It’s fun just to walk around and enjoy the place. We decided that we’d convert our traditional yard, with front lawn, hedges, ivy, and green leafy plants to one with boulders, smaller rocks and succulent and ornamental plants. We were especially inspired by a visit last June to a home in nearby Fallbrook (as part of a two-​day Waterwise event) where we could see the beauty of this type of landscaping.
We contacted Steve McDearman, a landscape designer at Waterwise (who had designed the gardens at the Fallbrook home), and he helped us convert our vague thoughts into beautiful gardens throughout our front and back yards. Steve is a very likable and knowledgeable guy who also has great ideas about what plants would look good and flourish in various parts of our yard. He’s got an informal style where he listened to our preferences and encouraged us to hang out with him while he placed plants in various spots to see how they’d look. We always ended up very pleased with the way Steve designed areas around the yard.
The prices were competitive, and Steve was very generous with his time on our project. Overall, our experience exceeded our high expectations.

I’ve written three books about succulents and recommend this nursery highly. The display gardens are gorgeous, and illustrate how you can combine succulents and other ornamental plants to create a lovely low-​water garden, large or small. You might be able to find some of the same plants at the big box stores, but those grown here have received the TLC of a specialty nursery and are likely more robust. Waterwise Botanicals also offers design services and sells mail-​order. The best part is they’re continually testing and introducing new varieties, so nearly every time I go there, I see something new.

This nursery focuses on succulents and low-​water use plants, but also has some species with higher water needs, like roses. If you are considering installing a low-​water landscape, I highly recommend visiting this place. They have several display gardens to spark ideas, in addition to acres of species to peruse and get an idea of what you like. I think the prices are comparable or a little lower than other local nurseries. Overall, I think if you are interested in waterwise landscapes, it’s a worthwhile visit.

This is a wholesale nursery open to the public that has a large selection of succulents and is really nice to visit; I bought lots of my garden plants at this place. This nursery sells to the public at comparative or more expensive prices than in other nurseries. Basically we, the public, have the privilege to enter the site and buy at the nursery but don’t expect to save some bucks. I found the same plants cheaper at Home Depot but HD not always carry them.
Pros: Large quantities and selection of succulents (great for large projects)
Cons: Price is same or higher than other nurseries (I would expect to pay less in a wholesale nursery)
Note: Credit Cards are not acceptable, though this might have changed since I visited the nursery in early 2011.

The best place to get succulents around town! The prices are excellent because they offer wholesale to the public. What that means is that its cheaper than everywhere else. Huge place with lots of variety!