Since I was on the island...

It's been a long standing private "test" I run in my head when I visit the nursery with a friend, will they follow the sign and go to the front (the one on top, which I swear used to be the only one), or will they cut through and enter the nursery in the middle. I love that the signs now support both options!This darling small planter is new too.
Oh! Ditto for this moss and lichen filled strawberry pot.
I went ahead and started at the front of the nursery, all the better to appreciate the moss and mahonia there.
Somehow I neglected to take a single photo once I started plant shopping. It wasn't until I was back at the private "desert island" at Rancho Cistus (Sean Hogan and Preston Pew's home) that the camera came out again. If you're wondering if I bought any plants I did (of course), and there will be a haul post on Wednesday. For now, let's check out the garden!
I think this might be Mangave 'Whale Tale' (Agave ovatifolia and Manfreda maculosa).
And this one may be Mangave 'Falling Waters' (Agave ovatifolia, Agave gypsophila ssp. pablocarrilloi, and Manfreda maculosa). Then again I'm probably wrong on both, I'm just guessing.
I love this combo so much—although I'm not sure which barrel cactus this is, or which dry-land fern. I need to go through and have Sean ID all the plants and I'll write them down, rather than just thinking that I'll remember.
Agave ovatifolia there at the top of the mound.
Wide view...
Close-up, kinda. They look great.
I know I've asked Sean which agave this is, but I of course can't remember. It's beauty and I want it, that I know.
A pair of Agave 'Sharkskin', and a pair of maybe Yucca linearifolia.
One of the 'Sharkskin' has a bit of ugly.
Long view, with hoop houses in the background.
Another agave I feel I should know, but I don't.
Front courtyard garden.
And looking to the left.
A bit of agave ugly on the front A. ovatifolia, but the one at the back looks unscathed—not that I climbed in there to look closely.
Naturally I did a quick walk-about the crevice garden.
The passthrough with flat rocks is a great feature.

A shot looking the opposite way, with the house in the background for scale/placement.
I've walked around to the back of the house now and I usually go up those steps, however this time I decided to keep going around on the outside pathway.
It's a very different feel from this corner...
Walk a little but further and the feeling changes again. Daphniphyllum, mahonia, palm.
Deeply incised leaves on a choice Schefflera delavayi (I think).
Another nice mahonia and the ever present (it seems these days) hellebore blooms. I'm not knocking them! I just wish spring would warm up so some other blooms appear.
Speaking of, camellia! A stunning variegated version.
Agave, nolina, phormium...
The bottom leaves have a little damage...
But the top looks pretty excellent. 
Sean and Preston weren't around during my visit—they were off seeing the sights down under, perhaps you've been following their Australian Landscape Conference travels?—so I wasn't able to ask them what kind of protection they may have given the plants in their garden.
This mossy beauty came with the home, meaning it's not something Sean or Preston went out and acquired. I kinda love it.
Variegated daphniphyllum
Mahonia oiwakenses ssp lomariifolia v tenuifoliola. My plant is not looking nearly this good, winter damaged the leaves pretty badly.
Sinopanax formosanus with cordyline foliage.
What's better than a trunking cordyline? One with multiple growing points. Sadly all of my plants were knocked back to the ground this winter.
Pseudopanax crassifolius
Schefflera taiwaniana (?) and a surviving variegated phormium (winter wiped out many).
One last photo, wow! Nolina hibernica 'La Siberica' shown off to great advantage in front of a colorful leafing out shrub. Thank you Sean and Preston for letting me wander around your private paradise and share photos with my readers!