Flora Grubb Gardens – San Francisco

Flora Grubb is a self-taught gardener. After 20 years of Texas gardening, she moved to San Francisco in 1999, eager to delve into a horticultural wonderland. Soon she found herself starting a small landscaping company, which is how she met her business partner, Saul Nadler.

Flora helped Saul and his wife, Susie Nadler, to create a beautiful garden at their San Francisco home. The collaboration was so fruitful and fun that Saul and Flora decided to open a neighborhood nursery together. A classically trained chef who studied Russian history as an undergraduate at Brown, Saul had many varied interests; he knew he wanted to open a business, but hadn’t landed on the right idea. Flora’s lifelong dream of a design-focused garden center fit the bill.

They formed Grubb & Nadler, Inc., and bought the Palm Broker, a small nursery on Guerrero Street in the Mission District. After a winter’s worth of hard labor cleaning up the site and creating displays of plants and pottery, they opened their nursery on a lucky rainy day in April 2003. It didn’t take long for the nursery to become a destination for San Francisco gardeners and plant-lovers. Neighbors grew to cherish the nursery as a semi-public garden in their dense neighborhood of Victorians set amidst rushing traffic.

Flora Grubb Gardens we believe that gardening makes people happy, brings peace into their lives, and offers a powerful antidote to the stresses of modern life. We believe in creating lavishly beautiful gardens with climate-appropriate plants that require minimal water and chemicals to maintain.

Our goal is to help our customers become successful gardeners. For novices, we offer expert guidance in navigating a well-curated selection of plants that excludes water-hogging options. For more experienced gardeners, we carry an unrivaled collection of rare and unusual drought-tolerant plants, along with all the necessary building blocks to create their dream gardens.

We strive to use an exquisitely designed environment to inspire our customers and draw visitors from all over the world. Our staff of knowledgeable plant fanatics and experienced landscape designers provides excellent service in a fun, welcoming atmosphere.