October is when the Valley finally lets go of summer, and it is the month the University of California's own gardening checklist for this region gets busy. The UC IPM Seasonal Landscape Checklist for the northern San Joaquin Valley covers the parts of San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Calaveras and Tuolumne counties below 2,000 feet, and its October list reads like a shopping list: plant California natives, get mulch onto bare soil, and get ready for the rain. Here is what it says, and the 25 independent nurseries in the 209 to buy it from.
Plant California natives. Select species and cultivars well-adapted to the local site.
— UC IPM October checklist, northern San Joaquin Valley
What UC says to do this month
These are taken from UC's October list for this region, in its own words where it matters. It is the University of California's integrated pest management program, so it is written for gardeners and landscape professionals alike.
The October list, the parts that send you to a nursery
UC IPM, northern San Joaquin Valley, October
Plant California natives. UC's wording is to select species and cultivars well-adapted to the local site, and to water regularly to keep the root zone moist but not soggy.
Mulch. Apply organic mulch where it is thin or the soil is bare beneath trees and shrubs.
Frost. Protect sensitive plants from cold injury when freezing or frost are predicted.
Prepare for rainfall. Prevent water ponding around trunks and foundations, improve drainage, and direct downspouts into landscape soil without waterlogging it.
Irrigation and compost. Adjust watering schedules to the weather, check for leaks and broken emitters, and add the leaves that drop in fall to the compost pile.
The full checklist, including the pest and pruning items, is on the
UC IPM site. Tell any of the nurseries below what you are planting and where, and they will steer you to what suits it.
Buy it from the people who grew it
This is farm country, and eight of the nurseries on the plant nursery page are growers that sell straight to the public. That is the ordinary way to buy a plant here, not a novelty.
The growers
Norman's Nursery at Linden grows roses, and the scale is the point: rows of potted roses running to the fence line with the hills behind. Hollandale Nursery in Lodi is a glasshouse grower best known for poinsettias, so it is worth remembering as the season turns. Gribaudo Farms Nursery, also in Lodi, holds 4.8 across 66 and sells out of its glasshouses, from gerberas to hydrangeas to bedding flats. In Stockton, Port Stockton Nursery (4.8 across 89) sells from long lath houses on East Main, and N & A's Nursery, also in Stockton, pairs its geraniums and hanging baskets with shelves of hand-painted Talavera pottery. Big Tree Fruit Nursery on Highway 88 in Lockeford grows fruit trees and runs a produce stand alongside them. Superior Nursery in Galt is the stop for citrus in cans, and Sunset Nursery in Lodi grows succulents by the tray.
The specialists
One thing, done deeply
Poot's Cactus Nursery in Ripon is a cactus and succulent specialist with 4.8 across 183 reviews, hoop houses packed bench to bench. Star Succulent Nursery on Tokay Colony Road in Lodi grows succulents and sells them to the public, with a Collectors Corner for the rarer ones; it holds 4.9 across 62. Al's Bonsai in Jamestown is a bonsai garden behind an ivy-covered gate, and the only perfect 5.0 on the page. The Garden Company in Sonora is the stop for vegetable starts and heirloom seed in the foothills.
The garden centres
Thirteen are full garden centres, the sort of place you lose an afternoon in.
Worth the drive
Morris Nursery in Riverbank has the most reviews of any nursery on the page, 4.7 across 270, and is known well beyond Riverbank for the Christmas display it mounts every winter. Westurf Nursery in Modesto (4.4 across 214) is a full-service garden centre with fountains, a gift room and a hardware aisle. The Greenery Nursery and Garden Shop in Turlock (4.7 across 155) sits under timber pergolas. RainForest Nursery in Manteca has a turtle pond and a vintage flatbed truck planted with succulents. Hollandutch Nursery in Lodi is an open-air yard of bedding colour by the flat, and Delta Tree Farms, also in Lodi, runs long shade houses of roses and Japanese maples.
And the rest of the list
Park Greenhouse Garden Center in Ripon, Frantz Garden Center in Hickman, Tracy's Nursery and Gardens and Golden Valley Nurseries in Tracy, Grover Ornamental Nursery in Modesto, and Solomon's Gardens Nursery & Landscaping in Sonora, a foothill nursery that also designs and builds landscapes.
One to mark on the calendar
In Season on East Alpine Avenue in Stockton sells organic produce and live plants under one roof. It reopens under new ownership on Saturday, October 10, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The honest version
Several of these are small growers rather than shops, so check the hours before you drive out, especially to the ones off the highway. Then go in October, while UC's list still says plant, and before the rain decides for you.
25 nurseries, 14 towns
Growers who sell direct, cactus and bonsai specialists, and full garden centres across the 209.
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