California Cactus Center

Blink and you'll miss it as you drive down Rosemead Boulevard. It's inauspiciously tucked into a nondescript pocket of East Pasadena (some might say the word "nondescript," and even the word "pocket," is redundant), near a handful of fast food joints and furniture shops, across the street from a fortune teller, and next to an air conditioning supply and repair shop. Nonetheless, however unpromising its neighborhood may look, California Cactus Center is worth the trip.
I first popped in because I needed a small bag of cactus mix to repot a plant that had been knocked over (the cat is a prime suspect). I parked on a side street and had to pass CCC's aforementioned neighbor, Air-Tech. It appears that CCC has furnished Air-Tech with some plants. As a result, Air-Tech has a beautiful little cactus garden in its small entryway. I was especially taken with a lovely succulent with a rosette of pink-tinted leaves, the echeveria.
Inside, the relatively small space teems with drought-tolerant life. Quite a few aloes and agaves live in the entryway space, which is uncovered. Marlene especially admired the "Black Beauty" (also called "Schwartzkopf") plants we found in this space. A few steps further inside the property and you enter a covered nursery space that has row after row of plants and a greenhouse.
Highlights of the space include the strangely beautiful lithops or "living stones" in the nursery and greenhouse the Giant Saguaro in the front. The shop also has a selection of handsome pottery and a small space with books (more than a bookshelf, not quite a bookstore). I found my cactus mix--the shop has bags of 3 different sizes (the workers will help you load the largest bag). My bag, the middle size, was a reasonable $3.
I'll be back, I expect, to buy some more cactuses or succulents--an echeveria or two for me and a Black Beauty for Marlene.

Find the California Cactus Center at 216 S. Rosemead Boulevard (near Del Mar), and on the web at http://www.cactuscenter.com. Open 7 days a week, 10 am - 4:30 pm. 626-795-2788.

Transit options include Metro Bus 266 (Rosemead and Del Mar), and Foothill Transit 187 and Metro Bus 181 (both have stops at Rosemead and Colorado).