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| - This is an interesting place, I'd seen it many times before but never had a chance to step inside until today.
Not unlike some other larger nurseries in Phoenix, they have a couple of massive aviaries with large, vocal birds of a few varieties (Blue and Gold Macaws, Green and even Scarlet Macaws, plus a Cocaktiel) and even a chicken coop with hens and roosters. The birds are fun to look at, but like their counterparts in a zoo, they all seem rather disinterested in their human visitors, probably because it's old hat. Can't really blame them!
As far as the selection and layout, I guess it's a toss up. The layout is interesting, and I guess fun for people just exploring the place to see what they have, but honestly it's poorly conceived and executed from a retail standpoint. Case in point, you have pottery and statuary strewn about, sometimes in dangerously high stacks (can you imagine if some careless child was running about?). If I was the owner, I would be petrified by the potential for accidents, property loss and injury, but that's just my $.02. Statues, fountains and pottery seem to be interspersed haphazardly, again with no real pattern or systematic layout.
If you're looking for plants and not pottery, it's still a messy layout. Signage indicates cactus and agave are this way and that, but many times there's just no rhyme or reason to where they place this stuff. You'll find some mislabeled Agave zebra (they called it A. marmorata) strewn about near the chicken/bird aviaries, but also in another area, and still mislabeled. They also have some smaller cactus on tables by the front, which seemingly houses random plants. There are also some specimens tucked away at the back area of the "pottery maze", again with no rhyme or reason. If the layout forces you to scour every inch of the nursery to be sure you've seen all the agave, that's a pretty poor layout, wouldn't you you say? In addition, if you're looking for a larger specimen of agave, you'll have to look all over because it's basically an Easter-egg hunt. That's OK, except they are still mislabeled. Ironically, they have an all-too-obvious Agave marmorata that was mislabeled as A. salmiana, of all things. Consider the price tag on even the moderately sized specimens are in the triple-digit range, you might try a bit harder to label them correctly. These were not some gray-area plants that were too young to properly ID, nor is there anyone with their head screwed on straight who can mistake zebra vs. marmorata, much less marmorata vs. salmiana. Either willful ignorance or just plain laziness on the part of the nursery. I have never seen such egregious mislabeling on agave before, and it makes me question the accuracy on other things.
Last but not least, their website is wholly inaccurate. They list on their site the following bamboo available at this nursery:
Bambusa membranacea (which is actually Dendrocalamus membranacea, but I digress)
Bambusa multiplex
Bambusa pervariabilis
Bambusa ventricosa
So, after walking throughout their complex and looking at every square foot, including their massive and otherwise very impressive green house in back, there was not a bamboo to be seen. I asked a staffer at the front desk if they had any bamboo, and he flatly responded with a no. I point out that their website indicates they have some and he tells me "We used to have a source for multiplex, but not anymore." I guess the translation here is that they really only had one kind of bamboo, and now they don't even have those anymore. Seriously? A follow-up call on the matter yielded the oft-quoted, "our website is being updated," line regarding the misinformation. I guess if that ever happens, I'll update the review accordingly, but I don't think anyone is going to hold their breath on that one.
I really wanted to like this place, and even found myself wishing I'd brought a camera, but at the end of the day it was a let down and a waste of time. In a nutshell, an overabundance of expensive pottery littering an already poorly organized nursery, that doesn't actually sell the things their website claims they do. Not sure why I would want to go back.
Edit: I did end up going back, and even got some pictures this time. I will say that, despite all odds, they have actually made the shopping experience worse than it already was. How, you ask? They installed speakers throughout the facility and now play an endless and overly loud stream of music, non-stop. I've never been to a nursery that played music, much less music this loud and certainly not this bad (think whiny, wailing vocal crap like Imagine Dragons and Adele). I swear, you could fool me into thinking they actually wanted to drive customers away with this stuff, because the volume is absolutely intolerably loud. Even the poor birds cannot stand it and sure enough, they screech and squawk endlessly in protest. The ensuing cacophony is enough to make you want to stab yourself in the ear. Unreal!
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