After 90 years of breeding and selling rare camellias and azaleas to customers all over the world, Nuccio’s Nurseries in Altadena is expected to close by the end of 2025. But the ongoing Eaton fire and its ashy aftermath don’t appear to be offering the ending the nursery’s owners had in mind.
The Eaton fire swept into the Chaney Trail Road neighborhood sometime early on Jan. 8, leap-frogging some homes and gutting others. The nursery’s old family home burned to the ground, as did several wooden outbuildings. The small house was where Tom Nuccio, 77, who co-owns the nursery with his brother Jim, 75, lived.
Tom Nuccio was in the hospital for non-life-threatening issues when the fire erupted. Their 92-year-old cousin Vicky, who also lived in the house, was safely evacuated.
Miraculously, the fire barely touched the area of the nursery where thousands of potted camellias and azaleas were ready for sale under a breezy wood-lathe framework covered by shade cloth.
A few of the plants near the burned structures were singed, and many in the nursery’s shade area were pushed over by wind gusts reportedly approaching 100 mph. But the nursery’s massive oak tree and many of its tall camellia trees appeared unscathed.
The problem now is water. The camellias and azaleas were last watered Jan. 7, and the hot dry Santa Ana winds suck moisture from even well-hydrated potted plants. Jim Nuccio figures that their plants, which are easily worth at least tens of thousands of dollars, can survive perhaps another week without water.
He’s been able to visit the nursery only twice since the fire began, once by sneaking along back roads Jan. 8 before officials curtailed access to the burned areas, and again for a short visit over the weekend.
During the latter visit, he was able to grab about 125 of the rarest varieties for two botanical gardens, Descanso Gardens in La Cañada Flintridge, which has one of the world’s most famous camellia collections, and the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino.
“We wanted to do this anyway [donate their rarest camellias] because those gardens have been customers for years, and we thought, ‘There’s no better time then now while the plants are still alive.’ People won’t be able to buy them, but at least they’ll be able to see them.”
Donating the plants isn’t a big deal, he said, laughing: “We haven’t made money in 90 years, so why start now?”
The nursery went up for sale in 2023, and it had a prospective buyer, Pasadena’s Polytechnic School. However, the school pulled out after months of community opposition to its plan to create an athletic complex on part of the property. The Nuccio family began talks in December with the Trust for Public Land, but the Eaton fire has put negotiations on hold.
Jim Nuccio said he’s been inundated with calls from people wanting to help. A longtime customer in San Diego, Kathy Liu of Joey’s Wings Foundation, started a GoFundMe page for the nursery with a goal of $18,000 to help cover expenses.
The Nuccio brothers “are the kindest people I know of,” Liu wrote on the GoFundMe page, adding that her foundation has been working with the nursery for six years to sell camellias as a fundraiser in the Bay Area and in San Deigo.
“The last fundraiser with the nursery was just last month in December, 2024,” Liu wrote. “We sold over 1,000 pots of camellias in [the] Bay Area and San Diego. The brothers drove two trucks of camellias all the way from Altadena to the San Francisco Bay Area and they refused to let us pay for any cost, including the camellias.”
Jim Nuccio brushed that praise aside. He and his brother are grateful for the fundraising, he said, but there are others in Altadena with far greater needs. (Jim Nuccio’s home in Altadena was spared; he and his wife, Judith, have been evacuated since the fire began.)
For now, the Nuccio brothers are hoping that they’ll get a chance to wind down the nursery on their own terms, but that will require getting water to their thirsty plants very soon.
“A few of our azaleas are already starting to wilt, but most of the camellias are fine under the shade cloth, at least for now,” Jim Nuccio said. “I’m cautiously optimistic we’ll get a chance to reopen. Hopefully, they’ll get our reservoirs replenished.” And, he said, he’d heard reports of possible rain later in the month.
Then he trailed off suddenly and sighed. “But I’m not banking on any of that.”
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