A SLO County family is reopening its native plant nursery after the COVID-19 pandemic forced a temporary closure.
Penny Nyunt manages Las Pilitas Nursery in Santa Margarita.
She said her family has been selling native plants since the mid-1970s. It was one of the first native plant nurseries local to the Central Coast. Her father, Bert Wilson, was in charge.
“My dad was trying to do landscaping as he worked his way through Cal Poly. He was trying to work to pay for college and he wanted to use native plants and he couldn't find them anywhere. So he thought oh, hey, what a great idea. Let's start a native plant nursery,” Nyunt said.
She said her mother was immediately on board. So they bought property in Santa Margarita and began to grow their own native plants.
She said it wasn’t easy to convince community members to buy from them.
“It was a flop. People were like, what are you doing? Why do you want to grow those weeds? There just was so little education about California Flora in the 70s. I mean, there was some people that were really into it, but it wasn't mainstream at all,” Nyunt said.
Nyunt’s father died in 2014… but before he passed, he was able to start a website for the nursery, explaining the many benefits of each native plant.
“It's kind of amazing that all his work is still up there and his videos and a lot of his pictures,” Nyunt said.
The US Forest Service says, taken together, native plants provide shelter and food for local wildlife, and remove carbon from the air.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Las Pilitas had to close their doors and rely on web orders.
Nyunt said it’s been a hard process to reopen.She said she has to give-up a lot of her time to take care of the plants and to help customers find the perfect species for their yard.
“But, I think it's really important,” she said.
Las Pilitas Nursery reopens in October.
You can find more information about the benefits of native planting on their website, laspilitas.com.
