New owners revive Occidental's Western Hills nursery

<p>Western Hills, the world-famous rare-plant nursery and gardens in Occidental that seemed doomed by foreclosure, has been saved by buyers from the East Bay.</p><p>Chris and Tim Szybalski of Moraga, who own Westbrae nursery in Berkeley, have bought the property with the goal not only of preserving the garden but of eventually making it available to the public for visits and education.</p><p>It's one of the more significant botanical collections in the West, a scant three acres hidden away in the hills above Occidental.</p><p>For decades, Western Hills Rare Plants was a destination for serious collectors from all over the U.S. and beyond. They came seeking out the unusual, the exotic, the near impossible to find. It was far more than a nursery, however. Many came to admire and study the vast display gardens laid out and tended a half-century ago by the late horticulturists Marshall Olbrich and Lester Hawkins.</p><p>But ever since the storied site went into foreclosure last year, the Bay Area horticultural community has anxiously watched and waited, hoping that whoever bought the land would understand its significance and not plow it under. Volunteers have come by daily to water and clear pathways and keep it alive.</p><p>“This was never going to be our private garden. There are way too many people who own that garden in spirit,” said Chris Szybalski.</p><p>The couple bought the property, which includes several dilapidated dwellings, for only $430,545. That was $1 million less than what the previous owners, Robert Stansel and Joseph Gatta paid in 2007.</p><p>Szybalski, who had looked in to buying Western Hills when it was last for sale three years ago, said it's not economically viable to maintain as a nursery.</p><p>“I just had a crazy want to garden in that garden,” she said. But she added she is committed to restoring the overgrown vistas and bridges and sometime in the future to working with The Garden Conservancy, a national nonprofit organization based in New York and San Francisco that helps private owners and communities preserve historically significant gardens. Their projects include the restoration of the gardens on Alcatraz and they have closely followed the effort to save Western Hills.</p><p>“For a whole generation of gardeners, it was a mecca, a place you looked to for ideas and inspiration and new plants, particularly on the west coast,” said Conservancy President Antonia Adezio. “It had a tremendous influence on how people garden. And to keep that going is very valuable historically. It's preserving an important and influential place.”</p><p>Western Hills is the lifetime vision of Olbrich and Hawkins, self-taught horticulturists and pioneers in the back-to-the-land movement, who bought the property on Coleman Valley Road in 1959. They set about creating an “organic homestead,” which they opened to the public in the early 1970s.</p><p>They developed an increasing taste for unusual plants and varieties from far-flung places, such as New Zealand and the Mediterranean, then unheard of in the U.S. nursery trade. The New York Times once likened Western Hills to the Tiffany's of plants.</p><p>Bob Hornback, a horticultural historian who has worked with the Luther Burbank Gold Ridge Farm in Sebastopol and has helped with watering, pruning and identifying plants at Western Hills, said what makes the garden so extraordinary is not just the variety of rare plants it contains, but their size and their context within the landscape.</p><p>“It's a magical collection of plants,” he said. “A botanical garden fantasy.”</p><p>You can reach Staff Writer Meg McConahey at 521-5204 or meg.mcconahey@pressdemocrat.com.</p>