Manthey’s Nursery

My 2^nd home has a garden from heaven thanks to Gene’s venue here. I love azaleas for my lady cause she love me back!

Nice Elderly Gent now is EXCLUSIVELY Azalea’s. I was just there. Unless You want Azalea, these are some healthy ones. Just disappointed, expecting to see lots of other flowers. Should now be categorized under Azalea and not Nursery.

Manthey’s Nursery is an excellent choice for sun/​shade varieties of Azaleas.
A grower and nurseryman for over 50 years, he definitely has much to offer in the form of knowledge, tips, and availability. Don’t forget about this hidden gem in the heart of San Jose.
Thanks Gene!

Gene is my «go to» guy for all things plant related. I have bought many quality plants here and rely on Gene for the best advice in the area for plants. I am so thankful he is here and generous with his knowledge base. A close friend of mine is a horticulturist (bachelors degree in horticulture from Cal Poly) and he lives in Los Angeles. My friend was simply floored by Gene’s immense knowledge.
Gene is also a kind gentleman who renders the finest customer service. Manthey’s is the type of business we long for when we think of «the old days» when customer service was king.
HIGHLY recommended.

Just stopped by and talked to an elderly man who says that his son — who must be the helpful, energetic guy in earlier reviews — died 3 weeks ago after a long fight with cancer. The older guy is slowly closing retail operations and offers only the azaleas that he grows. He says his heart is broken and can’t continue the business.
Very sad to see this nursery go. Three stars in the review, even though we couldn’t buy anything, because how could you possibly give less?

I called Manthey’s today to check to see if they were open. Whoever answered sounded very very busy. He told me he was going to close in half an hour but took the time to answer some questions I had about growing strawberries and told me to come back in March when they had some plantlings. The call was brisk and professional but not cold. I’m definitely coming back mid-​March.

I went there with my daughter yesterday afternoon, Wednesday, June 9, 2010 because of their great review about this nursery from
. It was around 3.30pm.
There was no one greet us at the entrance but I saw about 2 people loading some plants in a truck. So, we decided to look around finding some plants to fit our garden. After walking about 10 mins, an old man who worked there asked if I need something to help with. Then, I explain that I have a small garden full of weeds right now and I need some plants which easy to take care of since I never grow any plants before. He answered impatiently that every plants are easy as long as we paid attention to them, there is NO such hard plants. Ok, I thought that there must be some hardy plants for beginner. Then, I want to show him a zen garden picture from my iPhone for letting him know which kind of plants I’m looking for, at least the garden style that I have in mind. He said he can’t see it even before I show it to him. Ok, he might be too old to see pictures from a cell phone.
The picture is a small zen garden with white stone as ground cover and about 4 small plants in the corner. Then I tried to described that I would need stones to cover the ground. He said don’t buy stone here, find a construction materials shop across the street but you have to buy at least one load of truck. I said no. no… it’s just a small simple garden, a truck load would be too much. Ok, he doesn’t sell stone, fine.
Then I asked if he has bonsai trees, I know that the plants in the pictures were not bonsai trees but I don’t know what kind of plant are they. He said he doesn’t have any bonsai.
Ok, then I want to explain how does the plants in the picture look like, but he wandered his eyes in the parking space and asked me, WHERE IS YOUR CAR? I DON’T SEE IT IN THE PARKING LOT! And I said I parked it at the side (I parked it at car reparation shop extension space beside this nursery). Then he said, excuse me, I have something to do, and he left me!
OMG, why would he threat me like this!
As I drove passed this nursery, I saw him watering the plants.
What is wrong with this old guy? I dressed normally, wearing clean jeans with pink collar shirt. Is that some thing wrong with that? I carry a tote bag that I have some money in it to buy plants!
This old man! I felt that this guy OWE me an apology for that attitude. NO MATTER how old you are, everyone should have some manner, polite, and showing good attitude.
I would NEVER ever EVER ever EVER come back or recommend this garden center to anyone!!! EVER!
YOU STILL OWE ME AN APOLOGY FOR THAT ATTITUDE YOU GAVE ME!

After pretty much killing off all the greenery in the front of our house during a year-​long remodel, we are just getting around to repairing some of the damage. Unfortunately, we know nothing about landscaping/​gardening and are pretty much starting with a blank slate for the front yard. All I knew is I want some low things (bushes? plants? grasses? weeds? what?) along the front of the house to hide the ugly foundation from the street.
We read about Mantheys here on Unilocal and decided to give it a go. Over the past few weeks we’ve been to 2 – 3 other nurseries and, although they were nice places, we didn’t click with the staff and didn’t come away feeling like we had a plan for what to plant.
We arrived at Manthey’s and Gene came jogging (seriously, jogging — the man is a ball of energy) over and introduced himself. We showed him some pictures of the front of the house and explained what we we hoped to accomplish and… off we went! The next 20 minutes was a whirlwind tour of all the plants, low and high, that he thought would work well for our partial-​sun, foundation screening conditions. I lost track of the names after 3 – 4 introductions. Agapanthus? Pinosporum? Dwarf what?.
But it didn’t matter. He helped us grab plants left and right and we mocked up the front yard right there in an open area of his yard. He gave us tips on arrangement, symmetry, distances between plantings, etc. It was extremely helpful.
An hour later we were driving away with a truck full of latin names and a few bags of potting soil. I can’t recommend Gene highly enough. Mantheys is definitely worth a visit if you’re looking for plants, and you get personal service in a way seldom seen these days.

You’d never think to look for a nursery in the area! Amazing place and helpful owner. We’re just starting out with gardening so he helped us out suggesting what we’d need and when we asked if we needed any fertilizer etc for our plants. Not for another 6 months he said. You’ve got what you need in the soil. Really appreciated that we weren’t made to buy things just to make a sale. Will definitely go there again!

Gene has been there since 1947 (!) and has been the owner since 1963. He provides a lot of good suggestions about plants and how to help them thrive. I bought 3 plants today based on his recommendations.

Thanks again Unilocal!We wound up in this off-​the-​beaten path but quiet nursery on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. After wandering through rows and rows of about ready-​to-​bud, completely covered in buds, and absolutely exploding azaleas, we were warmly greeted by the owner Gene.
He shared a bit about the various types of azaleas (which are my favorite), reminded me to use acidic soil and then scurried off to help the few other customers.
When we settled on a dwarf lime tree for our deck, he recommended a potting soil and then insisted on carrying it to our car! As we paid, he shared that he had worked for the previous owner prior to buying the place 47 years ago!
I loved the entire experience and hope his business thrives like his plants. If you’re looking to spruce up your yard, please go visit Gene!

What a nice place. Truly helpful customer service. The owner, Gene, is such a nice gentleman — he’s got more energy than most people half his age. When we arrived, we weren’t exactly sure what we wanted or needed, so he showed us around the lot, pointing out various plants that could work in different areas of our yard… but never a hard sell, just sharing information. The man has a serious passion for horticulture and was generous with his knowledge; he even showed us where he cultivates new plants from cuttings. I learned more about plants and soil in the 40 minutes we were there, than all of the trips I’ve made to other garden stores put together. They are known for their azaleas and have them in every color you can imagine. We ended up purchasing beautiful hydrangeas, geraniums and some pretty green bushes, plus the appropriate acidic soil. Prices were reasonable. This is a family-​run business, and has been for over 50 years. I love supporting places like this. I’d go back to this place just to chat more with Gene!

My husband and I quickly found friendly help. They had organic potting soil, just what we needed.