Lucky us! Chris and I booked it out of MA just before the deep freeze earlier this month and caught some rays in San Diego, where our oldest son Phil now lives. And, since our business is our pleasure (PLANTS!), we always make it a point to visit a few regional growers of rare succulents and begonias.
A must stop for us was Kartuz Greenhouses in Vista. Mike Kartuz, who is 88, left Massachusetts 4 decades ago to grow tropicals, especially Begonias, in a much kinder climate. Mike, along with “begonia volunteer” Brad Thompson (check out Brad’s Begonia webpage) have hybridized some of the most fascinating Begonias we have come across. Plants are sold in 2” pots, and they ship when the weather permits, but we always find selections on our visit that never make it to the Kartuz website.
Our next excursion was into the hills of Fallbrook to meet up with Dick and Kraig Wright, who breed Echeveria and Aloe almost exclusively. Dick who is also 88, has been hybridizing Echeveria since the 1950’s, and if you have collected a few Echeveria you no doubt have at least one of his hybrids. Some of Dick’s most coveted selections are named after family members; we came home with Arlie Wright, named for Dick’s mother, plus many, many more.
While Dick and Kraig are still seeking out unique “Ech” forms with impressive size, they are experimenting more and more with miniature Aloe, which command premium prices in Japan and Korea. I was astonished that the Wrights do not hold patents on their selections but make them available to collectors who can try their own luck at propagating. Here is a link to their website .
After visiting these gents, we figured we almost had a full suitcase but that didn’t mean we couldn’t look a little more. The San Diego area nurseries are well stocked and we wanted to see if we could possibly identify some forms that were mislabeled or nameless when we acquired them. We asked and took label images but still left with questions!!!

At another nursery, 2 different Echeveria tagged Arlie Wright ..the one on the right is someone else!
Plants being sold with incorrect names are a big problem, and we do understand how easily it can happen. Many look very different in their youth than they will at maturity, and changes to foliage color occur with different temperatures and humidity. Oh, well…Phil and his girlfriend Annique seem to really like San Diego living, so we have good excuses to return and fit in more plant i.d. excursions,