The hills are alive with the sound of realtors. One of the world's great nurseries is up for sale and it's happening right in our own back yard. The Western Hills Nursery in Occidental is on the market. The question is will it be bought by some millionaire for a private estate or will it be bought to continue as a nursery? The current incarnation had the gardens open to the public as demonstrations of the plants available at the nursery. The nursery gate is now closed although it is possible to make an appointment to buy plants. Mostly this is for the nursery trade looking for the unusual and rare plants that are Western Hills speciality. I got lucky - the owner, Maggie Wych, let me in. Maybe it's because I'm a fellow Brit and lived in the same city as her for a long time. Maybe it's because she realized I'm a plant fanatic who would appreciate the incredible place she has sustained for the last 15 years. Founded in 1960 by Lester Hawkins and Marshall Olbrich, pioneers of the back to the land movement, Western Hills spent its first fifteen years as a private house and garden. Hawkins was the designer while Olbrich was the explorer bringing back plants from around the world. Later they bowed to horticultural demand and opened the place as a nursery. Hawkins died in 1985, Olbrich in 1991. He left the nursery to his best friend and part time assistant Maggie Wych and she has continued to hone the gardens and the collection since then. But now she is tired of maintaining such a large estate with only three part time helpers - no vacations and constant labor has meant it's time to sell up. But she's hoping to sell to someone who will love the place as she has - ideally keeping it open to the public even if only occasionally. I only had an hour to look around and choose some plants to buy. With three acres of winding paths, lakes, hillsides, garden structures, and shade houses full of pots for sale it was hard to choose what to see first. Just the huge pergola draped in rare vines was jaw dropping to see. I'd heard about a legendary giant dogwood tree somewhere up slope from my starting point so I headed that way. Even the path underfoot had plants growing - I stared at a purple leaved version of a common plantain - designer weeds? Looking up I saw trees illuminated by the sun to produce a brilliant lime green glow. Growing beside a stream were banks of Papyrus cyperus papyrus relatives to the pesky Nutsedge weed infesting my garden. But these giants specimens were lovely with their ornamental umbrellas splayed out beside huge spikey New Zealand Phormiums. An old bridge led across a stream filled with ferns, and spiny acanthus spinosissimus towards one of the small residences on the property. Looking up at its elevated balcony I wished I could live there with such a view over the gardens. Beside the path was a huge clump of the knotweed persicaria capitata I've recently bought for my garden that reaches three inches high. This one was between one and two feet tall with luxuriant leaves and tiny rounded pinkish blossoms. Far stranger was the bulbous fruit of what might have been a flax plant. The four inch long capsules were swollen green with red streaks suspended from red stems. A more familiar sight was a smoke tree, glowing in burgundy splendor surrounded by roses, ferns, and plants I just didn't recognize. No time to spend on identification, just take a photo and press on. Around the next corner was a display of Angels Fishing Rods Dierama pendulumii in deep purple set against a background of large grasses and irises. Then came a setting of Australian Kangaroo Paws Anigozanthos with tall red flower spikes. More exotica came blended subtly for color, a pair of pinkish silvery green plants, but with very different textures: rounded versus spikey. The largest Hellebore I've ever seen grew beside the path. It must have been ten feet long and three feet high and was covered in greenish flowers. If mine ever grow to that size I'll have to redesign my garden. Ferns clearly enjoy the climate in these wooded hills laced with streams and grow to huge proportions. I captured one backlit by the afternoon sun - beautiful. Sometimes I'd see a plant I couldn't identify but just knew would work in my garden. Frustrating trying to describe them to Maggie later and failing. I've put photos of a couple in the gallery so you can help me out and identify them. Then there were trees so huge only craning my neck to try and see the tops would do and the leaves were too far off to aid in identification. One I photographed is some sort of Eucalyptus but hundreds of feet high. Vistas are a speciality of Western Hills. The huge trees surrounded by masses of shrubs and smaller trees are arranged in artful combinations of colors and foliage around focal points such as a pond or swampy area, a path or structure. I've photographed a few of them but the views were constantly tugging me away from the details of specific plants. And there were plenty of odd things to get down and peer at such as the small furry grey groundcover I spotted in one place, the delicate pink and chartreuse of ornamental oregano hopflowers, or the dry curls fallen off a stout aged palm and carpeting the ground all around it. Some needled conifer etched spikey patterns against the blue of the sky while confounding identification by sporting red flowers. Another plant was a tangle of pointy triangles like a mad designer in love with geometry had made it on a whim. In places everything was obscured by hanging veils of vegetation as if I was in a rain forest. Distantly through the trees I could see huge groves of bamboo but I never got close enough to touch one. Then I came to a place filled with color as abutilons towered into the sky, leaning on trees to support their growth at least thirty feet high. Their orange lanterns dangled above me as far as I could see. But I had to watch my footing - in one place a snake slithered off the path ahead of me. In others ferns grew over the path -- their young fiddleheads protruding into the sun from patches of dense shade. Finally I found the dogwood, surrounded by giant bamboo, it rose in horizontal tiers into the sky. It was pretty much the last thing I saw as Maggie came to find me to say my time was up and if I wanted to buy any plants I had to come now. So I went and shopped, hastily but well, following her recommendations for natives, drought tolerant plants, and white flowers or silvery foliage - all items on my wish list. I managed to fill the car with plants and hope fervently I get a chance to return before this lovely wonderful place is closed to me. If you want to see the nursery you can write for an appointment. If you have a spare two million or know how to put together a rescue package for the nursery contact the realtor.