Monday, February 24, 2025

Walking through the collapse at Jungle Music

During our trip to San Diego last month a friend recommended Jungle Music as a possible nursery visit. A quick look online wasn't confidence building (what a horrid website) and I learned they were in the middle of moving locations. However we had time, and so we stopped by...

Burly men were loading plants in trucks (above), while large pots were grouped nearby waiting their turn. 

I wondered if we hadn't made a mistake and should just get back in the car and head on to the next stop.

But I do love wandering through a decrepit greenhouse, wondering what I might find.

Especially when (as I soon discovered) there were still a lot of plants!
Blushing bromeliads.


Elegant Asplenium nidus...

And platycerium... (to call out a few)





The further in I went, the more things started to fall apart.



Wowsa!

I think these are Tillandsia secunda.






At some point Andrew and I crossed paths, after roaming on own for awhile. The former factory manager in him was horrified. How do they even know what they have here? 





Check out that spore-laden pyrrosia...

Everything was covered in spore.

In a couple places the ceiling trusses were collapsing.



I actually did find someone to ask the price on a couple of things (a bromeliad and tillandsia), thinking maybe they'd cut a deal so they wouldn't have to move the plants. Ha, no. The prices were higher than I expected, even at a nursery that wasn't falling down around me. It was terribly fun to wander though, for that I am grateful.

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All material © 2009-2025 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

9 comments:

  1. I can't imagine the challenges of moving that much inventory! Deep Roots in Manhattan Beach is currently in the process of moving to nearby Torrance. They closed down at the end of December, offering steadily declining prices from 40% off when I was last there in October, to 70% off in November, and ending with "make an offer" pricing in December, which made a lot of sense to me.

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    1. It does make sense, I was shocked they weren't doing something similar.

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  2. Wow, what an apocalyptic sight! I'm so glad you visited. I've known about Jungle Music for many years but I've never been there--or bought anything through their website. Agreed, their old website was bad, but it had a certain frenetic charm. They've recently overhauled their website and now it looks much more contemporary.

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    1. Thanks, after reading your comment I went looking and found their new website (a .com rather than .net, which I now see is also on the side of the truck), but only the old one would come up in my search results.

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  3. How depressing.

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    1. I saw it as beautiful decay, I think the blue sky helped. If the sky had been cloudy it wouldn't have had the same charm.

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  4. As elegant as the moving truck looked, the nursery space that was being abandoned looked desolate. And yet, strangely fascinating... It's fortunate they are relocating rather than shutting down all together: maybe on your next visit to the region you can see how it turned out.
    Chavli

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    1. If I keep to my current schedule that means I'll return in 2034...

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  5. The rotted out wheelbarrow made me laugh out loud. And agree, why wouldn't they be selling inventory? Maybe they want the burly men around for as long as possible! Still, I get why you enjoyed walking around what looks like an abandoned greenhouse.

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