Sloat Garden Center

Sloat Garden Center is a premier garden center in Northern California. We offer a wide selection of fresh plants, high-quality garden tools, soils, pottery and garden expertise by our knowledgeable nursery professionals. We’ll help you grow the plants you love!

It all started in the Sunset six decades ago.
It was 1958 when G.E.T. Department store opened up a neighborhood plant nursery at the corner of 45th Avenue and Sloat Boulevard in San Francisco. In 1968 the small store moved to a larger location (G.E.T’s former tire shop and gas station), just down the block, and the name changed to Sloat Garden Center. In 2000 we moved to our current, and much larger, location between 45th & 46th Avenues. Over the following five decades, 12 more stores were added in San Francisco, Marin, Sonoma, and Contra Costa counties. Sloat Garden Center has grown to become the Bay Area’s largest independent, locally owned garden center.

Sloat Garden Center started in 1958 in the Sunset district of San Francisco.
Dave Geller, the original owner, ran the business out of an old building at the corner of 45th Avenue and Sloat Boulevard. Geller wasn’t sure what to do with his building, so he thought he’d try a plant nursery.

He turned the garage into a sales area and the backyard into a garden center (at the time the property was shared with a gas station). Sloat Garden Center soon became a discount nursery under the umbrella of San Francisco’s discount department store, GET, in which Geller was a tenant.

In 1962, current owner Dave Straus (pictured at right) came to work at Sloat as a 14-year old kid, unloading 40-pound bags of manure for a Washington’s Birthday sale. He was soon loading cars, unloading trucks, sweeping, cleaning, watering, working in customer service and eventually he became a manager. By the time Straus was 21, he was traveling to southeast Asia and making pottery connections for a local import company. When he was 23 he returned to Sloat to work full time…. and he never left.

In 1968 Dave Straus became a partner.
Over time he took over from Dave Geller as owner. Additional locations began opening in 1973. In 1985, Ted Warshauer joined the leadership team as Vice President and partial owner.

In 1993, Straus made the decision to focus on the highest quality plant materials and garden products. “What we sell enables us to offer a guarantee of satisfaction that is second to none,” explains Dave Straus. “And we have never waivered from that decision.”

Sloat Garden Center has become the largest independent pottery importer in the U.S., with strong ties to many other independent garden chains that purchase their pottery through Sloat. Looking back on almost five decades in the garden center business, Dave reflects. “Obviously I love plants and gardening, but over the years, the pottery part is what I’ve enjoyed the most,” he explains. “It gave me the opportunity to travel, design product, pick new glaze colors and work with many different factories in many different countries. Bringing this beautiful pottery to our customers is a joy in itself.”