In this, its 16th year as a business entity, the history of Plants Plus Growers Nursery remains very closely linked to the personal history of its owner, Jose Luis Aceves Sr. Jose came to the US in 1982 from the state of Guanajuato in Mexico. He began immediately to work in the nursery business and undertook to master the industry from the ground up in nurseries around San Bernardino, Riverside and Los Angeles counties.
Early on Jose became skilled in the art of propagation by use of plant cuttings and to this day is committed to this method for nearly all the planting in his own business. For six years he listened very carefully—in Spanish and in fledgling English-- to become more broadly knowledgeable about other facets of the industry. Eventually, the opportunity afforded itself to try his hand for several years more at nursery sales, specializing in the sale of groundcovers to wholesale & retail nurseries and landscapers from San Diego to Santa Barbara to the San Francisco Bay area. Weekends Jose tackled learning the retail side of the industry by working part time in a large & thriving, urban nursery in West Los Angeles. It was there that Jose began to dream of owning his own business —and building the nest egg that would eventually make it happen.
In 1992 he achieved two other important life goals—perfecting his English in study at Glendale College and becoming a naturalized American citizen. Finally, in 1995, the opportunity came to purchase a small, wholesale, groundcover nursery on 2 acres in RiversideCounty. Plants Plus was born! In 1998, the nursery moved to a 6 acre site near Corona, making it possible--with a little help from El Nino-- to greatly expand production. The client base expanded accordingly, with the first Northern California nurseries served in 1999.
Business continued apace through another year until Riverside County developers temporarily interrupted the dream by purchasing the nursery property to build homes. Not to be deterred, Jose decided that this was the time to not only own his business, but to own the land on which he would grow the finest groundcovers in California. Recalling the wonderfully benign and nurturing climate he experienced in Ventura County during his years in sales, Jose began a search there for the ideal location to fulfill his dreams. In April, 2000, Plants Plus Growers Nursery graduated from being a sole proprietorship to being a California S Corporation, situated on 12.7 gently sloping acres near Somis, CA, at the foot of South Mountain in the Santa Susana range. It took the better part of a year to clear the land of an 8-acre orange orchard and erect adequate greenhouse and shade structures, but eventually the larger acreage again permitted an expansion of production and corresponding expansion of the client base.
During 2004-2006 Plants Plus received substantial grant funds from the California Cut Flower Association, through the University of California Extension Services, to completely automate its irrigation/sprinkling system and create a state of the art water recycling and run-off prevention system. Today 48% of Plants Plus' annual water use is recycled water. It serves as a model for Southern California small growers of what can be done with relatively modest funds to more than meet the water conservation standards of the future.
Today Plants Plus proudly provides more than 120 wholesale & retail nurseries in 10 California counties with more than 250 varieties of groundcovers and more than 100 varieties of a wide range of succulents. We are pleased to see that a recent user of the Yahoo Local User Guide called Plants Plus “…the best ground cover wholesaler in California". It reads "This guy, Jose Aceves, is a purist about quality in plants in general and ground covers in particular”.
Please help us, friends who visit this website, to continue and expand our proud traditions.
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