It has been 7 years since Sarah and I have sold our nursery in California and moved to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. A lot has happened in that time.

One thing that has happened is that I have adapted to city life and have given up the good life in the country. We now live in a very urban area in a house where we have to have our garden on our roof.

I have moved away from direct plant sales. I’m too old to be producing and shipping plants. Now I work almost solely with computers designing websites, except for a few botanical lectures, classes and consultation jobs here and there.

My latest botanical involvement is with the Puerto Vallarta Botanical garden but I can’t talk much about that project, yet, at least until is well underway. The ethnobotanically inclined should love it. In a year or so, Vallarta may well be the prime destination for people interested in true ethnobotany.

Anyhow, to all my friends out there, I just want to say that life is much better than I had expected it to be when I first moved here to Mexico. This was, by far, the best of many moves in my life.

On the commercial level, I am continuing to sell seeds and will be increasing the selection available. Our biggest problem with selling anything botanical from here in Mexico is the unreliable delivery systems and the extremely rigid shipping controls instituted in our largest market, the US, since their “Patriot Act” went into effect. Somehow, ethnobotanists are now often considered “terrorists” under this act(!?!)