Village Nurseries donates plant collection

ORANGE, Calif.-- Village Nurseries Wholesale, a specialty grower for landscape professionals, has donated a substantial collection of drought tolerant plants to the horticulture departments of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and San Joaquin Delta College. The twin donations included the water wise Sunset Western Garden Collection along with drought-tolerant shrubs, succulents and trees.

 “The donations are in keeping with our ongoing commitment to promote tree and shrub material installations for sustainable landscapes, especially during the current California drought,” said Village Nurseries’ CEO David House.

The Cal Poly SLO donation was initially displayed in the CA GROWN pavilion at the Fifth Annual Savor the Central Coast celebration at the historic Santa Margarita Ranch. Sunset Magazine’s associate editor Johanna Silver demonstrated how attendees could build beautiful sustainable landscapes using their low water requiring Sunset Western Garden Collection.

Spenser Halsey, associate director of the California Association of Nurseries and Garden Centers (CANGC), invited Village Nurseries to participate because the company’s plants are California grown and they are the largest licensed grower of the Sunset Western Garden Collection in California.

“CANGC and CA GROWN are very appreciative for Village Nurseries’ generous plant donation to our pavilion,” Halsey said. “The quality and diversity of plants enhanced the pavilion and furthered our mission to inform and educate Californians about the rich bounties our state provides while illustrating the attractiveness drought-tolerant plants can offer.”
 
When the event ended, Village Nurseries donated the Sunset Western Garden Collection and other container plants to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s Horticulture and Crop Science department for use with their landscape management and design specialty.

San Joaquin Delta College’s Ornamental Horticulture department, which trains students for jobs in landscaping and nurseries, provides training for employment in nurseries, greenhouses, residential and commercial landscape maintenance, landscape design, contracting, and golf course maintenance, among other applications.

“SJDC had recently moved the department into new building, built a new greenhouse and is in the process of improving the whole department so the donated plant material for the department garden was of great benefit to administrators, faculty and students alike,” said Mike Toscano, the college’s horticulture instructor. “Naturally, we are very grateful for Village Nurseries’ generosity and their recognition of our college’s highly rated department.”