On the way home I saw this on the highway and thought of all my new friends at GW! We should all do a meet and greet one day..near a favorite garden center of course!

I have seen pictures of that Succulent Cafe before and was bummed that it existed. I had a similar idea if I were to ever open a cafe!

Awesome that you saw Houzz!! You should have stopped in.

I would love to do an East Coast meet and greet one day! I feel like all the great shows and events are on the West Coast and provide good opportunities to meet up with people from here. When the Flower Show came to Philadelphia I asked on here if anyone was attending and didn't get much response.

-Erica

Erica- for financial reasons I think we should only have a meet and greet annually at different locations to be fair. Laurent is in France so one year we could go there and Marguerite is in Ireland so, the following year would be there and Harry is in The Netherlands and that would be another trip. And of course we have to have one in the Toronto area so we can meet with David.ca and Rina. For the east coast it should be Philadelphia so Bernard could meet up with us.

I can't wait!!

We have to make tee shirts!!! Everyone should bring a cutting or two!

It's obvious I need therapy...badly!

Jeez, if only I could afford that kind of travel...!

-Erica

Erica- I know, me too!! LOL

Harry, I would just love to see all your semps in person!

-Erica

I want his ghosty plants, lol

We stopped in Solvang on our way to Paso Robles (for wine and olive tasting) last October. I've been to Solvang many times but never spent the night. The restaurants are quaint and cute but overrun with tourists, and the food is a bit disappointing, especially compare to Paso.

I'll look for the Succuent Cafe the next time I'm there - was the food good? I do like the bakeries/pastry shops there. We had better food in Pismo Beach, however.

A good place for a SoCal meeting might be Vista in northern SD County. I go Rainbow Gardens Nursery there for succulents and epiphyllum from time to time, but generally in April or early May. I have a friend in La Jolla that I visit occasionally also, and I haven't seen her for about a year now.

Lars- There were many wine-tasting places of course with the many vineyards in the area but, wine puts me out like a light.

We went to "The Solvang Restaurant" which is quite popular and has been shown on a number of tv shows especially for their Æbleskiver but honestly, it was nothing to "write home about."

Other restaurants I tried "Bit of Denmark," and the "Viking Brewing Company," were outstanding. They make a killer hot pastrami on rye with red cabbage. A decent pastrami is practically impossible to find in the southern part of California, so I was more than pleased.

The succulent café made a decent cup of coffee : ) I admit I only stopped in because of the name <g> Have you been to "The Succulent Café" in Oceanside? I've heard that's a hundred times better!

Pismo Beach? I don't get what the big attraction is over there. Every time I pass by coming from the north or the south I run into a traffic jam.

I agree with you on Vista/north SD and Rainbow Gardens would be an awesome place.

La Jolla! I miss the old La Jolla. It's still a beautiful town but, I did notice quite a number of homeless people on some of the main avenues such as La Jolla Shores Drive. I wish there was an easy solution to help them and at the same time maintain the integrity of our neighborhoods.

I was in solvang many years ago.We used to go camping alot and camped at i believe the name was "lake Cachuma" or something like that.So ventured up to Solvang to go sight seeing.

My sons live in Vista and i live in Oceanside,havn't been to Rainbow nursery in quite awhile either.I've been wanting to go to those succulent places on the 101 in Leucadia,but i can't deal with the heat,so will probably wait til it cools off.

I think i've been to the Succulent cafe in O'side if that's the one on the corner of Civic center drive and pacifici coast.I never paid any attention to the name,but my godaughter had her salon in a place there,and in the back and along the side were tons of succulents,both for display and for sale.I took a lot of pictures with my trac phone but never figured out how to get them from the phone to the computer.

On another note,went to Ralphs grocery one day last week and my goodness they have a very nice collection of succulent and other plants for sale.Better than Lowes.I came home with a Kalanchoe,Chocolate soldier.Just got the one in the 2" pot for 2.49.Plan to make another trip back there when i have more time to browse.

Kathi

Kathi- that's great. do you know of any other nurseries...hole in the wall types in the Vista/Oceanside area? I know of the one in Leucadia off the 805. If you buy a plant you get another one free. That's what they used to do a while back.

I passed by a Ralphs the other day in my area (mission hills) and they had some really nice ceramic pots for sale. These were the large pots, at least 20" in size for only $14.95. If you know of any places in the Santee/Rancho area that would be great if you would post it. - Thanks, Neil

I'm not a pastrami fan, but this article claims that you can get good pastrami in L.A. I used to get excellent corned beef at the Fairfax farmers' market, but I haven't been there in a while.

We did not do any wine tasting in Solvang either, probably because we still had to drive, but if we had been spending the night, we would have.

Pismo Beach has a great beach and is famous for clams, although clamming is restricted now, and the restaurants that serve clams get them from Washington state or Maine. Still, there are lots of good seafood restaurants there, and the surf is decent. Coming from L.A., I was impressed with how empty the beach was.

My brother and I took our inflatable boat to Lake Cachuma a few years ago and spent the afternoon paddling around the lake until we were thrown off. Evidently inflatable boats are not allowed on that lake, but by the time we were thrown off, we were ready to leave anyway.

Is this the Succulents Nursery in North County? It's fairly close to the ocean, and so I would not expect it to be too hot. I went to another succulent nursery in Reseda that was incredibly hot, and I won't go back there until winter, although I did find some nice stapelia there.

Lars, yes, I believe it is

I've been to the Reseda Cactus Ranch - They, definitely, need a bit more help to run it. But, they have 1000's of plants and I do find one or two cutie I can take home. Just watch out for the mealies and quarantine. The succulent place in Leucadia is inviting!