Northern California's Premier Shade Plant Nursery, est. 1964

In 1964, Stewart and Audrey Barber created what was known as the Azalea Farm, growing and hybridizing Exbury Azaleas on what was previously cow pasture off the Gravenstein highway. When Polo de Lorenzo and Warren Smith purchased the nursery in 1976, it consisted of the gardens by the house and the nursery area, the rest of the property was overgrown with blackberry and weeds. Over the Sonoma Horticultural Nursery years, the weeds were cleared away and the acreage was planted to become the forest garden that exists today. Polo, a rhododendron aficionado, created numerous and unique rhodie hybrids which we continue to propagate and sell. In 2017 Polo retired and passed the business to Mike Boss who managed the property as Hidden Forest Nursery until we purchased the nursery in September 2024.

We are a family of gardeners, beekeepers and a scientist (me!) with a passion for raising, processing and utilizing medicinal herbs grown in our home garden. After over 30 years working  at a biotech company, and by a series of seemingly random events, I landed in the Hidden Forest one August afternoon while it was for sale. There's no way to describe what happened to me other than the land called me (yelled, really). I heard the message that the forest needed me as much as I needed it. Not being able to shake this feeling of 'destiny', I, with the partnership of my mom and encouragement of my two daughters, made an offer to purchase and two months later here we are! Everyday in the nursery I feel immense gratiture for having been shown my life's mission, and also who can beat an office literally in the trees! The future of Botanica is not only women run but also generational with my mom, myself and my girls all dedicated to the restoration of this one-of-a-kind botanical reserve.