Bob Tanem

Bob Tanem’s life has been filled with delightful serendipity. He is also a man who takes chances!

After serving in the Army during the Korean War and then graduating from Cal Berkeley in 1953 with a specialty in political science and prelaw, one day Bob walked past a nursery in Santa Venetia that had a FOR SALE sign and knew that he was meant to buy it.

Mind you, Bob knew nothing about gardening at the time! After discussing his inspiration with his beloved wife Bev, they decided to sell their recently purchased home to raise the funds needed for the purchase.

“It was quite naïve of me to sign those papers,” Bob told me. “I didn’t read the fine print and for complicated reasons ended up in a foreclosure situation. This was a very rough time because I had three young children and no assets — and my wife Bev wasn’t employed.”

Bob’s eyes welled up with tears when he recalled that “a very kind man named Vince Myrtle, a retired printer, stepped up and came to my rescue. Vince lent me the needed money to complete the transaction.”

“I learned about gardening on the job,” Bob told me proudly, “and what I didn’t know I researched. I am lucky to have a good memory so what I read and learned stuck with me.”

After about two years, the business really started to take off, so much so that he eventually opened a second nursery in Tiburon. “I was born in Placerville and grew up in Willits,” he told me, “so I had a good feel for what would work in a small town.”

One day Bob’s crew installed a landscaping job he had designed in the front yard of a home in Marin. Word of the project got to Owen Spann,, who did a talk show on gardening for WKGO. Bob was invited as a guest, and the rest is history. His spots became so popular that Bob ended up with his own show on gardening.

And guess what? You can still tune in to Bob’s gardening show on KSFO (560 AM) on Sundays from 9 to 10 a.m. and ask any questions you have about your garden. Bob is now 90 years old and laments the fact that he can no longer drive, but the good news is that his show is broadcast right from his home here in Marin Valley!

In his “spare” time, Bob wrote several books, coauthored with Don Williamson, including Gardening Month by Month in Northern California, Perennials for Northern California, and Annuals for Northern California. They are all still available on Amazon. He is currently working on a memoir and also a book featuring historical gardens of the California Missions.

When Bob sold his successful nurseries in 1999, he had owned the Santa Venetia garden center for 45 years and the Belvedere/Tiburon one for 25. “I love people,” he told me, “and I didn’t want to stop sharing my knowledge, so I began volunteering at New Beginnings, a subdivision of Homeward Bound. I taught the formerly homeless how to garden.” This rewarding work earned Bob the Peter E. Haas Public Service Award, which recognizes alums of UC Berkeley who have made significant voluntary contributions to the betterment of society. This prestigious award came with a check for $40 K.
Bob, being the kind of service-oriented fellow he is, turned around and contributed half to New Beginnings and the remainder to Homeward Bound.

Bob and his wife Bev moved into Marin Valley in April of 2003. Alas, Bev died in 2017 at the age of 85. The couple had been married for 64 years! In addition to his three children, Bob has four grandsons
and two great-grandsons.

When I asked Bob about a large and magnificent rattail cactus proudly hanging on his front deck, he told me that the plant was started from a cutting given to his mother by his grandmother, who started growing it in 1897. So the plant has even more longevity than its owner!    ■