Sept. 18th, 2004

On September 18, the club had a field trip to Bob Hill’s nursery. The humorous Bob Hill treated nineteen members and friends to a personal tour of the nursery. Mr. Hill has owned the 8 acres that comprise Hidden Hill Nursery for almost 30 years. During that time, he has planted a number of different trees and shrubs that are not the “usual” variety found in either the landscape or in our bonsai pots. He has developed a number of different “rooms” on the land that display similar types of plants. In one room section, he has a variety of different trees that have interesting bark. In another, he has a variety of shrubs and trees that have colorful flowers or fruit. Along the way, he has “planted” various sculptures made from discarded iron, wood or stone. Each is unique and somewhat complements the various plants in the area.

Some of the unusual trees available at Hidden Hill are paper bark maples, Persian ironwoods, lace bark pines, Japanese Cornel dogwood, golden rain trees, weeping Alaska cedars, and hardy oranges to name a few. He also has a number of landscape plants at the nursery along with a variety of perennials.

Mr. Hill offers a number of these unusual plants for sale at very reasonable prices. When we were there, he had a 20% off sale on most all the plants. A visit to Hidden Hill is well worth the drive and I would highly recommend it – especially if you are interested in purchasing different bonsai plant stock. Call before going since they are not open on some weekdays.