Altman Plants

Major congrats to breeder Ping Lim, the Director of Ornamental Plant Research for Altman Plants, and our rose breeding program. The American Garden Rose Selections recently named the program’s Firefly rose as the winner of two 2025 AGRS awards: the Regional Choice Award in four regions and the Fragrance Award. The four regions are North Central, Northwest, South Central, and Southwest. This 4' x 4' fragrant floribunda sparkles in abundance with 2.5" orange double blooms and is expected to make its retail market debut in 2026. #floriculture #plantbreeding #horticulture #goteam

🏫✏️🎓 Each year Altman Plants employees and their immediate family members are eligible to apply for a company scholarship to help fund their scholarly pursuits in higher education. We're beyond thrilled to announce that 143 people recently received Altman Plants Scholarship Program awards for the 2024-25 academic year. Major kudos to all the students! Altman Plants is proud to support and encourage the educational advancements of its employees and their immediate family members. #scholarship #highereducation #continuingeducation

The ponytail palm (Beaucarnea recurvata) is an important, beloved member of our cactus & succulent mix. Pictured prominently here is a specimen planted around 10 years ago at one of our nurseries in Southern California. This ornamental, indestructible new-world succulent, with its grassy, strappy foliage atop a long stem, is thought to resemble a palm tree. The cascading tuft or tufts of thin, long, spreading to recurving leaves drape over the stem or branches, reminding of a certain hairdo or animal's tail. At the foot of the plant is its bulbous, water-storing base (aka caudex). This is what enables Beaucarnea recurvata to weather drought and is what gives the plant two other common names: elephant's foot palm and elephant foot tree. Fissures develop in older plants, contributing to the elephant foot comparison. Put it all together and the personality-packed ponytail palm puts off loads of enchanting Seussian flair. That's true whether it's a landscape focal point, a patio plant, or a houseplant. It's as easy to care for, durable, and adaptable as it is beautiful and fascinating. Beaucarnea belongs to the asparagus family, joined by Agave, Dracaena, Nolina, Yucca, and a bunch of others. #horticulture #succulents #ornamentalplant

The heat is all in the visuals with the Chilly Chili pepper. This ornamental variety is said to be 2,000 to 8,000 times milder than a jalapeño. As such it is meant to elevate the look of patio gardens and borders infinitely more than it is culinary experiences. The 🔅 will soon set, so to speak, on these beauties, as they will be departing our Fallbrook, California, production nursery for their next destination in the coming days. Kudos to Site Manager Carlos Andrés Camacho for snapping the perfectly timed photo. He knows well the phrase "and other duties as assigned." Of course, in this case he assigned himself "EOD farm photography." 😀🌶️📷 . #agriculture #horticulture #cagrown #ornamentalplants

Minimizing exposure to pests and diseases. Making shipping plants across state lines easier. Becoming better, more disciplined growers. These are three outcomes of a yearslong process our Lake Mathews, Calif., nursery underwent to recently become the first SANC-certified nursery in the state, followed quickly by our Fallbrook nursery. What is SANC? It stands for Systems Approach to Nursery Certification. It’s a voluntary audit-based program overseen by the National Plant Board, a nonprofit organization of state plant pest regulatory agencies as well as those from Puerto Rico and Guam. Technical Services Supervisor Cristian Loyola (pictured) led the team at Lake Mathews that steered the process of becoming certified. Other key team members were Juan J. Herrera, Jesse Perez, Elias Estrada, Javier Lopez, and Jim Hessler. “Lake Mathews is one of the pioneers in the nation with this program. Getting certified was an extensive process that involved doing a comprehensive risk analysis of all our operations, and from that a nursery manual was developed that documents all our processes. All of the teams have been involved in the process,” said Hessler, the company’s Director of West Coast Operations. This manual includes best management practices for reducing pest risk and harm to plants. Audits, conducted both internally and by regulators, are an important aspect to seeing that procedures are followed and goals are met. “Adopting SANC practices at our Lake Mathews site has enhanced our overall crop quality. It continues to improve our pest management program, leading to early detection and treatment, which facilitates maintaining compliance agreements and complying with state regulations,” Loyola said. “It has increased our employee engagement because there is more employee training involved with the protocols that are being followed. Overall, this has led to streamlined processes and to a more effective use of resources.” Getting everyone at the nursery in sync with SANC was part of successfully adopting the program. Training extends from the certification process team members to managers to each and every nursery employee. For Altman Plants, participating in the SANC program reflects a commitment and desire to improve operations, reduce regulatory burdens, and employ a lighter touch in producing healthy, high-quality plants. “It became really clear (the SANC process) would make us better growers and make us a more disciplined operation," Hessler said. The company was already doing a lot of the things required in SANC, as they’re simply good growing practices. "What SANC does is it forces you to really document that and make sure that those good practices happen every time,” Hessler said. “It also has reduced our pesticide use because the program really focuses more on prevention, scouting, catching things early. When you catch something early, it’s way easier and way cheaper to deal with it than if you catch it late.”

Our Fallbrook, Calif., nursery's summer interns — Fatima Corona Cervantes and Bailey Huesing — have wrapped up their summer 2024 internships with Altman Plants. Fallbrook operations team members got together to thank Fatima and Bailey for their contributions and wish them well in their return to school. From left: SoCal Availability Manager Andrew Kosciuk; Director of West Coast Operations Jim Hessler; Bailey; Fatima; in front: Head Grower Javier Lopez; Availability Coordinator Jesus Ramirez; Production Manager Carlos Elias; Availability Coordinator Norma Esquivel; Availability Manager Christian Buelna; and Site Manager Carlos Camacho. Altman Plants is proud to support horticulture and agriculture higher education and the industry's future leaders through the company's internship program. We're thrilled to offer students the opportunity to grow and develop their passions and interests, indulge their curiosities, and gain hands-on insights as part of a team in a working production nursery setting. And to learn from them too. #horticulture #careers #goteam #agriculture #highereducation

The time we encountered a handful of Aloe ‘Swordfish’ PP32,010 in bloom in one of our greenhouses. This Altman-bred stunner is part of our Star Aloe®️ brand. While many of our Star Aloe succulents live their best lives on a windowsill, kitchen counter or patio table, this elegantly serrated & colorful champ can get along quite swimmingly in landscapes where frost is not a concern. #plantbreeding #succulents #horticulture

A drone's eye view of the trial garden at our Fallbrook, California, nursery. It's a catalyst for making horticultural innovation central to what we grow for Altman Plants retail partners. Here the team trials potentially high-impact selections of annuals and perennials, including some cacti & succulents and roses. #horticulture #ornamentalplants #floriculture #plantbreeding

Sunset tropical hibiscus expresses a bold mix of golden yellow, orange, red, and pink...you know, like a gorgeous sunset. Sunset is one of the varieties from our hibiscus breeding program, bred by Ping Lim, the Director of Ornamental Plant Research for Altman Plants, for impeccable beauty and resilience. #plantbreeding #floriculture #ornamentalplants #horticulture

B-A-N-A-N-A-S, bananas! Altman Plants Service Rep Jade Gallardo & Merchandiser Bryan Doll hold up the handiwork of our Granville, Illinois, nursery — impressively plump, long locks of succulent, banana-like leaves. High fives to the Granville team for producing these gorgeous hanging baskets of string of bananas (Senecio radicans) for Altman retail partner locations. #horticulture #ornamentalplants #gardencenters #goteam