Encinal Nursery

A very nice young man guided me towards the air plants and answered all of my questions on other plants. I really enjoyed browsing the selection of plants, fruit trees, shrubs and flowers. It’s a sweet little nursery and I will definitely be back.

I’m so happy my coworker introduced me to this place. Now I have a place I can visit at lunch.
The workers here were pretty knowledgeable and I was able to find some pretty cool succulents. This place also has some really neat flowers. I never thought I would go that route but I ended up leaving with some and they’re beautiful (a new hurdle I’m going to have to learn to cross)
In the back they have this large greenhouse full of ferns, flowers and succulents. Even a lot of other house plants. The prices are pretty average. I was hoping to get some herb plants but they informed me «Winter is coming».
I will say this place has pretty well priced ceramics and they also have wooden planters!!! Just what I needed to being growing my tomatoes in the coming months! And it was nice to see that they also make room for selling Christmas trees. I will definitely be coming back from time toting to catch the best for the season.

I have been shopping st Encinal nursery for almost a year and I have to say — everyone there is outstanding
Excellent service
Helpful suggestions
Great prices
Wonderful selection of plants, trees, flowers etc…
Just an all around great local nursery
Lucky to have this here in alameda

The product was great; plants and flowers were beautiful and reasonably priced. However, the staff was extremely unfriendly and rude. We asked a simple question about the product we were buying and the 3 people we interacted with including the owner seemed like we were burdening them.

So far, not very impressed with the customer service. Was ignored upon arrival and basically just dismissed when I asked questions about gardening at the counter– even though I had called prior to coming to ask if I could come in for advice AND there was nobody in line behind me.
By dismissed I mean the guy’s demeanor was uninviting and his answers to the few questions i did get in before he tried to get away were abrupt at best. Then he just started talking to another customer who walked in. He wasn’t rude but he was clearly disinterested in helping me. Fortunately a kid named Connor who worked for them talked to me outside after the fact, and he had a wealth of information to share. He apologized for the character of the guy inside and said it was always a bit like that — not much patience for beginners… Seems to me like HE should be the one running the show. From the look on his bosses face (the guy who «helped» me prior) he did not share the sentiment… Almost kind of looked like he was in trouble for talking to me. Hope not.
Not sure if I’ll go back, despite the lovely selection and sweet Connor.

This season, I bought 16 freesia bulbs from them — all duds. Mentioned this to the person working there when I was buying other things — zero response, no offer to discount my current purchases. I’ve never been «greeted» when I go there and I always feel like I’m inconveniencing them when I need them to ring up my purchases. Very unfriendly and unhelpful. Only three blocks from my house, but I won’t go back.

I can only echo the reviews documenting the off-​putting customer service. If I could give zero stars I would. I was never greeted, and I was standing right in front of the gentleman behind the counter. There was only one other customer in the entire store. Counter guy had just finished helping her. At one moment, she, the other customer acknowledged the fact that I had walked in and was standing there. She stopped talking, giving counter guy the opportunity to greet me, or to say something like, «I’ll be right with you, «but no such luck. Counter guy just turned his head in another direction and remained silent. It felt very uncomfortable, as if I had just walked in on some kind secret transaction.
I have nothing to say about the nursery itself. If the customer service is terrible, I really don’t care how good the product might be. I took my business elsewhere.

We’ve gotten some of our best plants here plus we got some advice on our Japanese maple too.
There are a lot more plants as you go inside to the back so make sure your explore the whole grounds.
One star off for not exactly being a great value but you can’t have it all sometimes.

Such a cute little nursery! Also, maybe I don’t know typical nursery pricing, but I thought everything was pretty lowball in terms of pricing (but I don’t normally deal with outdoorsy-​plantsy stuff, so who knows).
Boyfriend and I brought his sister here to pick out some plants for her bedroom as part of her redecorating scheme. They have a pretty cute little selection of succulents (even some pre-​designed setups too, laid out in the front of the shop), and I was thrown that the little 2 in. plants were only ~$ 3 each! HOW CUTE!
They also sell some planters and plates and other planty knickknacks for a decent price (I got the dish my succulents sit on for about $ 5).
I didn’t really interact with any of the employees here, so I don’t know if their customer service is off or not (which seems to be the main complaint about this place). Overall, I really like this nursery (shop local when you can!) and I plan on coming back soon to buy some air plants for my office! Hopefully I’ll have more success keeping THOSE alive than I seem to be having keeping my succulents alive…

Nice nursery no doubt, but the customer service and friendliness from the staff is LACKING! Big time!!! We visited the nursery the day after Thanksgiving to get our Christmas tree, and there were definitely slim pickings for our tree height preference. Maybe if we wanted a bigger and taller tree, the selection would have been better? Whatever, that still doesn’t take away from the fact that we weren’t greeted, not asked if we needed any help, or even a «we’ll be right with you»…and were just ignored completely. We took our business elsewhere!

This is the first time I have ever written on Unilocal.I am not a complainer and prefer to give people the benefit of doubt but I feel I need to say something because I had a very negative experience at this nursery yesterday.
I visited Encinal Nursery in Alameda first time ever yesterday and I have lived in Alameda for over 40 years! Heard they have good variety of plants and I like to support local businesses. So I went. After yesterday, I will NEVER EVER give this nursery my business again! I have never ever felt more unwelcome at any retail business. You would think in today’s environment small local business would want to differentiate their business from the large retail corporation with great customer service. BUT not what I personally experienced yesterday.
The nursery was rather quiet, the staff (or may be the two gentlemen there were the owners, that would be even sadder), not one but both were less than friendly and my take away from my visit was I was bothering them when I attempted to ask them questions. They both definitely demonstrated they could give a blip blip blip about my business.
When I approached these two gentlemen, one kept watering the plants and really did not have the time of the day to give me any kind of response when I said ‘excuse me, can I ask you a question?’. Another customer was walking by at the time gave me a sympathetic look. The other male staff could not wait to walk away from me when I tried to ask if the type of leek plants on the shelf are the big round ones.
I have no idea what was on these two gentlemen’s mind or why they display such repulsive cold behavior towards me. For the sake of the owner of this nursery, I hope their unacceptable behavior was due to a momentarily bad mood and not because of the race of this customer. These two male staffer need to understand retail business = customer service!!!
One heck of a disappointed experience!!!

The ivy that I bought from them 3 years ago died (my screw up, they really need drainage. Lame. Loved that stupid ivy) I just picked up some ferns and was reminded again how nice they are. Every single time I go there they are nice and more than helpful. They had crazy beautiful begonias there today. I controlled myself, and just replaced the ivy. Have liked them for years, and think you should try them out. My poor ivy… big tears. :(

First time shopping at Encinal Nursery and found they offer a beautiful selection of Japanese maples that are reasonably priced and super healthy quality.

I’ve been shopping at Encinal for 7 – 8 years now. never got a bad plant there. The staff is knowledgeable and very patient. There’s always someone available to help. Never had to wait in line more than 5 minutes. you don’t have to ask them to carry stuff to your car, they offer. It’s not would you like me to? It’s let me… That level of service more than offsets any price differential.
Great location and always parking.

I love to shop here, even when there is nothing I need and I am just wandering in. I always drop a few bucks here and leave happy.
Nice, small neighborhood nursery with all the practical items you might need for your yard or veggie garden. The have a small seed rack featuring Renee’s Garden seeds including organic selections. They carry a good selection of the mega sized plastic pots that I keep my citrus trees in.
Don’t miss the great indoor plants in the glass house. The fine condition of the beautiful indoor plants remind me I need to feed mine ASAP.
Prices are not low. You have to go to Home Depot for that but I stopped buying their crap long ago. Shop here. Support the locals.

It’s a nice nursery and larger than you think looking from the outside. The staff at the nursery try to be helpful. I’ve only talked to 3 people nice enough but for a local place you’d expect friendlier.
First experiences with the place…
I bought some 2 Japanese maples from them. They have a nice variety. a few days later i went to the Home Depot in Fruit-​vale (10 minutes away, with a large garden section) they had the maples! The more expensive one i bought was prettier but cost 4 times more which probably is not worth it b/​c i could of bought 5 different maples for the price of 2. Depends if you want to support your local nursery but he price difference can get pretty steep.
Second experience…
I ask for a delivery of some sod. they called me a day earlier and said they would want to deliver it early as they had the sod already and hey will leave the sod where i needed it. Delivery guy shows tells me he doesn’t deliver it to the back yard so leaves it in the front yard. My house is 3 – 5 minutes away, 1 mile away and charged me $ 40 for delivery. I moved the 230sq ft of sod myself with a wheelbarrow to the backyard.
If i’m in a pinch for time or convenience I will keep going for now for small items for now. I suggest you browse around if you have the time. Waiting for something to bump up my rating.

I am a customer for over 20 years and they always are courteous staff with excellent knowledge and most everything I need.
Recently I decided to do a complete makeover of my backyard. I gave them the rather extensive plant list and within 3 days they had everything and delivered right to my backyard.
Fair prices and great service. Plus it’s not a chain.

Love, love, love, love, love this place. I would frequently drive down Encinal and think, «Well, that’s an odd place for a nursey.» I was intrigued.
After installing some raised beds in my backyard, I popped over to Encinal Nursery to do some credit card damage. I mean, a nursery this cute must have outrageous prices, right? Incorrect. I bought spinach, lettuce, two kinds of mint, one-​eyed Susan, cabbage, basil, and a tomato plant for around $ 30. And they threw in a pepper plant and a tomato cage for free. FOR FREE!
The staff have always been very helpful. There’s an endless selection of plants and trees. My mom even bought a bird bath from here. I love it!

Encinal Nursery has always been my go-​to place for plants, plant food, and our annual Christmas tree since we moved to Alameda. While their tree prices can be rather steep, the trees are quality and hold up without turning into an unintentional Charlie Brown Christmas Tree within a week of your purchase as so many do from places like Home Despot.
Several weeks back, I made the annual Christmas tree pilgrimage alone and knew that our house «tree space» usually best fits thinner but potentially very tall trees. If we get anything too wide, everyone ends up climbing or stepping over branches when trying to get from the living room to the kitchen. It also makes ornament hanging an inevitable lesson in futility.
So, while examining their large variety of shapes and sizes of pine trees, I asked some man working there (who I initially didn’t notice was tall and skinny) in the Xmas Tree section about my preferences…
Me: I REALLY need to find something, well, um, you know, tall and skinny…*hand gesturing tall height and thin width*“
Helpful Nursery Worker (HNW): *pausing reflectively* Oh… REALLY???
Me: (doing a double-​take as I finally realized I *was* talking to someone tall and fairly thin)
.
Me: Oh…*laughing* Sorry! I MEANT in terms of a Christmas tree. Our living room has kind of an odd dimension to fill in terms of a tree.
HNW: Ah, I see. Oh Well… Darn! Uh, let me take you over here to look at the silver-​tipped pines…
The cost of the pines were way over my budget this year, but we did find a perfect tall, thin one at the edge of the lot, windblown with leaves from the outside and probably the least expensive one there.
As I was going inside to pay, I recognized another gentleman working there who helped me save my heirloom tomatoes from ground squirrels in the past. Instead of some kind of poisonous concoction, he sold me containers of gray crystals that were crystallized «predator pee.» The crystals warded off the obnoxious ground squirrels due to the fact that they thought one of their predators was peeing around my plant containers lying in wait to have the pesky squirrels as their lunch.
For the first time this year, we have had, what he identified as, a «roof rat» problem. Those critters have been scampering around driving me crazy for the past month almost always in the middle of the night. I asked if he had any more of those «magic crystals» to ward them off.
«Oh, ya’ mean the hyena piss? No, we don’t carry it anymore. I don’t believe they make it anymore. But, if it’s roof rats, you’re going to need something more like this. Wait right there»
He then went and got me a package of bars of hard-​core rat poison, which I later tossed around the overhead crawl space like emergency flares.
When I finally got inside the cashier area to pay for the tree and emergency roof rat flares, the tall, thin worker was in the midst of getting the details of a tree delivery order for some very affluent looking couple. I said to carry on and I could wait to pay but just couldn’t resist quipping:
Me: «So, I heard you are all out of hyena piss!?»
This caught him off guard and giggling in his sleeve while the couple looked absolutely shocked and dumbfounded at both us and then one another.
This is a place where true memories can be created and it will grow on you, literally!

I must admit, I am totally oblivious when it comes to anything green. Up to now I haven’t even had an place with a garden, so I never HAD to do anything with plants. But now I moved into this place that has two decks and not much sun. What should a girl do when the patio looks so damn uninviting? Yes, plant stuff.
So this is where Encinal Nursery comes into play. Those people are great! Very patient, very knowledgeable and I never thought one second that they considered me to be an idiot for asking all these questions.
And the best thing. one of the decks is almost done and looks terrific!
Thanks!