Happy Face Nursery is a nursery in Santa Clara County, California. It’s off Highway 101 in San Martin between Morgan Hill and Gilroy. It is a family-owned nursery that I believe was established a few years ago.
It’s the closest succulent nursery to me. This is about my second and most recent visit to this nursery. I didn’t take too many photos because I didn’t plan to blog about it, and we arrived 30 minutes before they were going to close. However, I enjoyed my trip (again), and I highly recommend this nursery, so I’d like to share why I love it!
Out front is a large selection of bushes and other plants, including larger succulents (agave) in this front area. But I’m interested in small-sized succulents. The first reason is that smaller plants are a smaller commitment; thus, they’re less of a gamble (aka if I kill it, it was an unsuccessful gamble). If I can grow a small one well, there’s a higher chance of long-term success. If I kill a small one, then I probably wouldn’t be able to keep a bigger one alive (looking at you 2” Echeveria ‘Dionysus’). The second reason is due to space. I would like a large variety, but I have a limited amount of space. I can have a larger variety with smaller plants (rather than a small variety with larger plants).
Succulent Greenhouses
At Happy Face Nursery, I head to the greenhouses where there are the smaller succulents. The greenhouses are away from the main area, just keep following the dirt road and then head to the left.
They have four greenhouses that you can enter.
The small two greenhouses next to each other are their main succulent greenhouses, containing a large variety of 2” and 4” succulents. Their succulents are beautifully stressed. For example, the Sedum Morganium ‘burrito’s have pink tones. The Echeveria ‘Lolita’ are a bright coral, sunset color. At first, I wasn’t sure they were even lolita or an Echeveria that I didn’t have; I recognized the leaf shape, but it wasn’t until I saw one with an offset that had the regular lolita color that I knew!
Next to those two small greenhouses is a big greenhouse with bigger plants plus hanging succulents. (I didn’t pay attention to it this time as I’m looking for smaller ones).
However, passed this big greenhouse is the fourth greenhouse (it faces the road). This greenhouse has rare or specialty succulents. You won’t find most of these at big box stores. Some rare succulents that they had were:
- Variegated string of pearls
- String of watermelons
- Haworthia truncata
- Conophytum bilobum
- Lithops
- Echeveria rainbow
- Crassula buddha’s temple
- Greenovia dodrantalis
- Variegated aloe
- Variegated haworthia
- So much more
Pricing
They have very reasonable pricing. At the time of my visit, these were their prices:
- 2” for $2 or 6 for $10
- 4” for $5 or 3 for $12
- Rare succulents vary.
The pricing isn’t posted anywhere, but you can always ask one of the staff.
I was interested in two rare succulents: a 4” Echeveria Rainbow and a 4” Crassula Moonglow Variegata. They were priced at $25. I don’t have either of these. At the time of this post, Echeveria Rainbow goes for about $15+ for 2” on etsy.com. It’s a little harder to tell for the Crassula Moonglow Variegata, but it also seems to be $15+ for 2” on etsy.com. I couldn’t commit to purchasing these because I may kill it, so my $25 investment would be a bust.
Other notes
On my first visit, I believe we met the owner while I was looking at the succulents out front, and he told me that they had more in the greenhouses. We saw him on this second visit too, and we went straight to the greenhouses.
You may notice that none of the succulents are labeled with their species. If you’d like to know the name of the species, you can ask one of the staff.
Arrangements in special pots (aka not plastic) in the greenhouses are typically not for sale. These are labeled not for sale. I think they may sell some arrangements for holidays like Valentine’s, Easter, and Mother’s Day.
Some in the plastic plant pots are also not for sale (I think they have pink flags in them). I think these are used to propagate. The staff will also let you know if the ones you picked are not for sale.
I don’t believe there is a dedicated checkout area. You’ll have to ask staff and let them know you are ready to purchase.
Conclusion
Here are some of the succulents I got this time. I don’t have any of these.
All in all, I love this nursery. It has a great selection and great prices. Plus, it’s the closest nursery to me. I’m definitely coming back.
If you are in the San Francisco Bay Area and can’t travel to San Martin, the nursery also attends farmers’ markets in Salinas (south) and San Jose (north). I recommend checking their Instagram that they’ll be there before going.
