Indoor Nursery

I MUST write about this sliver of a nursery which seemed to have everything you can’t get elsewhere: cherry, persimmon, passionfruit, mandarins of all varieties, blood orange, almond, apricot, kumquat, lime, avocado of various kinds, pomegranate, japanese maple, bamboo.
I can’t even remember them all and these are just the ones I was interested in. Few were common ones that you’d find in most nurseries. All perched improbably on the hill draining into the canal, right next to the «Welcome to San Gabriel» sign on Valley Blvd.
It’s kind of magical – there’s a tiny gated doorway crowded (when I went) with cherry, blossoming citrus and dwarf kumquats. But don’t let the name «Indoor Nursery» fool you… the entry has outdoor trees, the covered part has indoor plants and pottery but way at the back a small stone stair leads to a patio of outdoor trees– lovely, quite mature (not saplings) fruiting trees of all kinds. It goes all the way out to some perilous-​seeming ledge with another rickety wooden stair that hangs over the edge of the wash with more trees and plants.
The trees had healthy, sturdy trunks and were quite nicely shaped. I was just in love with a gorgeous red-​trunked apricot tree. The fellow seems to know what he’s doing and they just let you poke around the place at your leisure. It seems like a very mom-​and-​pop kind of thing and the fact that the proprietor was on crutches and that there was just a flat piece of board covering a hole that you felt could send you down into the netherworld below made me really wonder if he’s the reason why it was there.
I went home and looked it up and they’ve been in biz for about 15 years with 1 employee (probably the guy on crutches). I grew up with all of these trees at my parents’ place and it was heaven to see them all on such a tiny plot, all healthy and lovely.
Here’s the kicker… as we walked out, an intoxicating cloud of roasted meat aroma wafted from what could’ve been the strip mall just up the street, the phở shop across the street, the ramen shop on the south side of the street, or 888 dimsum farther up.
There is just NO REASON not to have an excellent meal and trot across the street to check out this place! You won’t be sorry.

The place is almost word of mouth. I was here before, my new neighbor needed some fruit trees, he has a business near by, his wife asked him to check this place out. Very large variety of exotic fruits and they looked very healthy. One of the purchases he bought was a «blood orange tree». It tastes so good, I decided to by one my self.
The person I dealt with, Newman, was very knowledgeable and helpful.

Em and I were randomly driving about the area while her mom was in Traffic School and we came across this small nursery and decided to check it out. It was a bit cramped, with lots of Chinese pottery available. The proprietor was quite friendly and seemed enthusiastic about having us there. =)