Western Hills Nursery is just outside the quaint town of Occidental in Western Sonoma County, about 60 miles north of San Francisco. For over 40 years, Western Hills Nursery has been developing three gently rolling acres into a complete, mature landscape, using unusual or hard-to-procure varieties of herbaceous plants, vines, shrubs, and trees, many of which are seen nowhere else in cultivation. This array of plants has been arranged in such a way to satisfy the most critical and artistic eye and to delight the senses through color, form, texture, fragrance, and seasonal play of light and shadow. Water and man-made features complement the cultivated environment: a natural pond with water lilies can be viewed from one of the several footbridges that cross the waterways lined in dry-mortared rock, and an ornamental brick pool designed by one of the original owners is truly a work of art.

Many visitors to Western Hills enjoy the pleasure of its planted landscape, and those with some knowledge of horticulture and landscape design especially appreciate the scope of seasonal interest, integration to the natural site, incorporation of rare plant material, and—not least—that this is a mature garden, where trees in particular have had decades to reach their potential. A garden that enjoys local and international acclaim, Western Hills is a rare botanical gem.

Read Press Democrat Article about new proprietors.

photo of Puya alpestris at Western Hills courtesy of Briggs Nisbet

           

Macleaya cordata at Western Hills garden, Pergola at the nursery