Public Gardens & Nurseries

Conejo Valley Botanic Garden

Save on gas and check out a great botanic garden right in the heart of Ventura County! The Conejo Valley Botanic Garden features a great Sage garden, plant sales throughout the year and a peaceful (and free) place to take a first date. A very special local garden that showcases many native and drought-tolerant plants.

Take your gardening skills a step further and volunteer to help the garden out with propagation, maintenance, etc. Or support them monetarily and become a member!

All members and volunteers receive a 10% discount at Nopalito Native Plant Nursery. Keep it local!

Santa Barbara Botanic Garden

Southern California has it all... great pro football teams, clean air and amazing botanic gardens. Well, 1 out 3 isn't bad. One of our favorite garden spots, especially for California native plants, is the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden.

Covering 65 beautiful acres in Santa Barbara, with over a thousand different native plants, this is the place to go to look at shady oak gardens, redwood stands next to creeks, and hot, sunny gardens full of California native plants. Stop by the small but powerful nursery, run by volunteers and our friend Bruce Reed, who works like he's a volunteer (just kidding, he actually works pretty hard).

Santa Barbara Botanic Garden members receive a 10% discount at our nursery.

Theodore Payne Foundation for Wildflowers & Native Plants

The Theodore Payne Foundation is, in a word, Amazing. If you have never visited this phenomenal native plant resource you are missing out! Amazing plant sales twice a year, great gardening lectures year-round, plus a native plant selection that Nopalito will probably never even touch (but we're gonna try!).

Nopalito Native Plant Nursery would be nowhere without the work that this foundation and others like it have done in the past. 6 out of 5 stars!

Education, Research & Advocacy

California Native Plant Society & CNPS Channel Islands Chapter

The California Native Plant Society is a great place to start for people who want to take their love of native plants to the next level. Started in 1965 by a crazy group of hippies with a crazy idea (crazy in a good way), their goal remains the same to this day... to increase understanding of California's native flora and to preserve this rich resource for future generations.

We love this organization and encourage you to support it in as many ways as you can. We proudly offer a 10% discount to all CNPS members with proof of membership.

The state-wide website has great info on native plant conservation, gardening, school-yard gardens, etc., while our local Channel Islands Chapter frequently organizes hikes, restoration activities, and more.

California Invasive Plant Council

Yes, we sell a lot of California native plants, but when we want to bring in a new, non-native plant, these are our go-to guys (and gals). The California Invasive Plant Council is a non-profit organization (kind of like our first year in business) that works to protect California wildlands from invasive plants through restoration, research and education.

What is an invasive plant you ask? BAM! IN YOUR FACE!

And don't worry, you don't have to be a plant nerd (oh no we didn't) to benefit from and support CAL-IPC. We use their Invasive Plant Database to help us find out which non-native plants may be a problem, and you should encourage other nurseries to do the same.

We proudly offer CAL-IPC members a 10% discount.

Conejo Valley Audubon Society

If you are a native plant lover, why not fall in love with our local wildlife as well? Our local chapter of the Audubon Society meets regularly and talk about... birds!

Native plants are crucial to the survival of our local bird population, so get out there, plant some natives, join the Conejo Valley Audubon Society and receive your 10% discount at the nursery with membership! It's like killing two birds with one... wait a minute, can't use that one here!

Surfrider Foundation, Ventura Chapter

Who says nothing gets done in this county!?!? Check out our local county chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, and support this great program they have that advocates ‘Ocean Friendly Gardens’.

We proudly offer a 10% discount to Surfrider Foundation members (must provide proof of membership, because, honestly, most of our customers look like they just finished surfing).

People You Should Hire

Carol Bornstein, Author, Horticulturist and Landscape Designer

We get asked all the time at the nursery for references for landscape designers, and while there are many good ones here locally, our most trusted designer is a woman we are proud to consider a mentor and friend. Carol Bornstein is a widely respected author, horticulturist and movie nut whom we cannot recommend more.

She is co-author of the award-winning book California Native Plants for the Garden, and worked for over 20 years at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, where she served as the Director of Living Collections and Nursery. Very few people in California have the knowledge, experience and eye for native plant and low-water design that Carol has.

Carol recently began working as a landscape designer full time, and offers garden design and consultation services. She works out of Santa Barbara.

Digital Craftworks, Web development & IT services

Looking for someone to manage and help improve your existing website? We looked for a long time, and ended up settling on this guy... and the results speak for themselves! (plus, the dude loves native plants!)