Botanica: A local gem reborn
New owners revitalize Sebastopol’s best-kept secret
It’s a busy time at Botanica Nursery and Gardens. The seven-and-a-half-acre spread, located in south Sebastopol off Hwy 116 and formerly known as Hidden Forest Nursery, has new owners and is undergoing a rejuvenation. Bay Area transplant Wendy Sandoval bought the property a year and a half ago with her mother and two daughters, and now they all work and live there. So far, the family endeavor is paying off in spades — if not yet in gold.
“In 2024, in September, our escrow closed on a Monday. The place was already closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and we opened on Thursday, so there was no downtime! Which is funny because a lot of people think this place is closed,” Sandoval said during a recent Friday morning tour of the grounds.
Indeed, not only has Botanica always been open, it’s now more accessible to the community than it has been in years.
The first thing Sandoval did as the new owner? Nix the $10 entry fee to the forest and garden, which she said limited public access to what she feels is a local gem, and install a garden picnic table made from redwood that fell on the property.
“Now it’s more of a community park,” she said. “People, they bring their picnics, and they go wherever. And then they tell friends.”
The whole endeavor, begun as the Azalea Farm in 1964 on bare cow pasture, blossomed under the ownership of Polo de Lorenzo and Warren Smith who purchased the nursery in 1976 and renamed it the Sonoma Horticultural Nursery. In the ensuing decades, they planted gardens and a dawn redwood forest, attracting large crowds and renown.
In 2017, Polo sold the business to Mike Boss, a longtime professional landscaper, who renamed it Hidden Forest Nursery. Boss made some improvements and created the nonprofit Friends of the Hidden Forest. He told the Sebastopol Times in April 2024 that six years of working to improve the grounds and keep the nursery financially solvent had taken their toll on his health and his pocketbook. The fires, the pandemic, the drought and the floods didn’t help either. Boss sold it to Wendy Sandoval and family in September 2024.
By then the property — which included the nursery, the mature redwood forest, a rain-fed pond, a boggy marsh, a gazebo, bridges and walkways, stoneworks and statues, gardens filled with countless unusual plants, a creek and a meadow, all joined by a maze of paths — had begun to decline.
Thus, the new owners’ efforts to revitalize the land. Several trees have been felled in order to bring more sunlight and life to parts of the garden, debris has been cleared and fences built, paths have been restored, and some stonework has been dug up and refitted. In addition, Sandoval and crew endeavor to convert the huge old greenhouse, known as the Hoop House, into an event space. And a brand-new shed will soon become a small store.
The first of many Community Gardeners Exchanges was recently held on site.
“We’re trying to do them on equinoxes and solstices. So, like, four times a year,” Sandoval said.
In addition, her youngest daughter, Liv Sandoval, 21, a popular Bay Area singer/banjo player who performs as Big Tractor (@bigtractormusic), recently held a music festival in the meadow—Fairy Tale Fest—with more planned.
Wendy Sandoval brings with her a background in science and a longtime interest in medicinal herbs. Under her reign, the nursery specializes in rhododendrons, azaleas, Japanese maples, perennials, dogwoods, magnolias, edibles and more. No plants are bought; all are propagated from the established mother plants on site. A digital catalog is available online, with a full catalog on site in the nursery and botanic gardens.
While the venture was never envisioned as being a cash cow, “We definitely need to cover expenses,” Sandoval said. “And what was really clear is: the nursery doesn’t do that.”
So she is eager to branch out into medicinal herbs. The need is there, as is local interest. With years of prior experience, she intends to grow the herbs, harvest them, then dry or process them as needed, turning the shed shop into an apothecary of sorts.
She also now brings in revenue doing contract grows for river restoration projects, including a three-year project in Alameda County she provides with 13,000 plants a year. And, she’s begun wholesaling to local nurseries.
Meanwhile, the forest and gardens still seem to call to everyone who sets foot in them — and keep them coming back for more, guests and employees alike. Every day, repeat visitors arrive, mentioning that they used to visit frequently in prior decades, back when busloads of visitors were a regular sight.
“It’s this very strange oasis,” Sandoval mused at the end of our tour. “I mean, it was a cattle field before this. A couple of oak trees, and that was it. And this guy, Polo, with [workers] Armando and Salvador, planted it. He had the vision. Like, I go back there, and I look and say, ‘What the heck was he doing? Like, how did he even think about this?’”
Armando Garcia, an employee on site for the past 38 years, planted many of the now-mature plants, including the dawn redwoods. “When I started, there was almost nothing here,” he said. He radiates the very calm that emanates from the peaceful environment he works in, which captured him almost four decades ago.
Ayla Rodriguez, a part-time, on-site employee for the past five years and also very much a part of the Botanica work crew/family, said, “I just love the environment here. I think this place is so magical.”
Recently, she uncovered some old stones and earthworks up by the pond and Armando told her, “We did this 30 years ago. It hasn’t been touched since then.” Now, she is refitting the stonework and giving it a new lease on life.
“Every morning is like, ‘Thank you,’” Wendy Sandoval said, gesturing at the forest. She herself heard the call of the plants the first time she ever set foot on the land and decided to buy it three days later. “Thank you to the trees, the universe for directing us [here], for bringing my family together, too. My kids would have been all over the place, and now everybody’s here in one place.”
With a little luck and continued hard work, Sebastopol’s best-kept secret will surely become its best-known secret — again.
Botanica Nursery and Gardens, 3970 Azalea Ave., Sebastopol. Open Thu-Mon, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; closed Tue-Wed. 707-823-6832. www.botanicanurseryandgardens.com
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