Phone: (619) 258-0469
32.821340, -116.943072
Dog-Friendly: No Kid-Friendly: Yes
Note: Parking is very difficult and you may have to walk a little to get here. It is a residential backyard with no street parking
**Note: The owner Cindy told me she is getting close to reting her bonsai business as she has been battling health issues. She has so many rare, old and beloved plants that she has created and tended to over the years.
If you are looking for a special bonsai plant, now is the time to pick one up. All she hopes is that they can go to loving homes.
Kuma Bonsai Nursery is the only full service bonsai nursery in San Diego County. They specialize in California native plants and water-wise plants from Australia and South Africa. These trees make excellent bonsai and do really well in our southwestern climate.
You will also find your favorite bonsai plant types like pine, Juniper, Elm, fruiting and flowering trees. They appreciate each and every one of their customers and strive to give each of you their undivided attention to your specific needs.
-Bonsai trees- from very tiny to very large, from very young to very old, from very styled and finished to very raw and ready to be styled.
-Bonsai pots- large and interesting selection to choose from Chinese, Japanese and American potters.
I had such a great time visiting Kuma Bonsai Nursery. Don’t be confused when your gps takes you to a residential home like I was. This is a home-run business. Just park and head to the backyard. There are endless bonsai options here, each one tied in with its own unique story.
They have some great connections here, providing bonsai’s for the Japanese Friendship Garden as well as the Wild Animal Park, amongst many other places. Cindy, the owner, is a real gem. I would love to come back and just chat and laugh with her one day. Such a neat lady.
A shot of the owner, Cindy Read:
You will walk through this. Their nursery is in their backyard:
It was funny. We were taking a photo of the broken piece of glass shown above when the owner, Cindy, said “Why not take a shot of a bigger piece?” She then moves this piece of tarp to reveal a completely broken window that someone ran into! 😛
I learned something ground-breaking this day (well, ground-breaking by my standards at least).Shown below are grape-sized fruits from a perssimon tree that also produces regular-sized fruits. These small fruits too are persimmons but from what she called the understock. Usually you are supposed to remove the understock but she kept it leaving these absolutely DELICIOUS, tiny persimmon fruits! She said you can do this to any fruit tree and create different-sized fruits on the same tree! WOW!
Penelope Hebrew
I have little worms coming out the bottom of my bonsai planter which is planted in pumice. I cought this in September 2016 i La Jolla California. Should I make an attemppt to get rid of the worms?
January 13, 2017
Anonymous
I think the ‘tasty fruits’ are Chinese gooseberries.
June 22, 2017
Anonymous
Oh Cindy is amazing! I bought a very cute little 40 years old Jade Bonsai tree from her. It was so much fun to walk through her garden and learn something about each plant Cindy showed me. Such a unique place.
December 14, 2019