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.

In a December 2024, photo, Jim, left, and Tom Nuccio stand in front of one of the nursery’s ramshackle wood storage buildings and a profusely blooming deep pink camellia known as Dazzler, a variety developed by the Nuccio family. Neither the building nor the plant survived the fire.

(Jeanette Marantos / Los Angeles Times)

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?”

Two days after the Eaton fire raged through Nuccio’s Nurseries in Altadena, the area is still smoking. Many trees, shrubs and almost all its potted camellias and azaleas survived unscathed.

(Jeanette Marantos / Los Angeles Times)

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.”

Tom Nuccio walks under a towering oak tree and a row of tall planted camellias in 2023. The nursery’s trees and potted plants around them escaped damage in the Eaton fire.

(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)

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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.”

Neil Gaiman, one of today’s most influential and commercially successful novelists, has been accused by multiple women of sexual misconduct. The author has denied the allegations. This is what you should know.

• Gaiman’s books include the graphic novel The Sandman, the children’s novella Coraline and a novel he co-wrote with Terry Pratchett, Good Omens. The British author has won prestigious literary honors, including multiple Hugo, Locus and Nebula awards and the John Newbery Medal. His works have inspired movie and TV adaptations. Time magazine included him in its list of the 100 Most Influential People of 2023.

• The sexual misconduct accusations, stretching back decades, first became public in the summer of 2024 in a six-episode series from Tortoise Media called The Master: The Allegations Against Neil Gaiman. In the podcast, five women accused the writer of unwanted sexual behavior, some of it alleged to be violent in nature. Gaiman denied the accusations. No charges have been filed. The podcast included interviews with the women, plus what it said were WhatsApp messages and phone call recordings between Gaiman and two of his accusers. In one conversation, Gaiman allegedly says he “obviously f*** up” and offers to pay an accuser, who goes by the name “Claire,” $60,000 to cover the cost of her therapy. NPR has not been able to independently verify the recordings because “Claire’s” identity is not public.
• More women have now accused Gaiman of sexual misconduct in a New York Magazine cover story published Monday. Some of the alleged behaviors include violent sexual assault and sexual misconduct that occurred while his young son was in the room. Gaiman has denied this. Gaiman’s accusers are adults, but much younger than the author, 64, including one who is nearly 40 years his junior.

• Gaiman responded to the allegations on Tuesday in a lengthy post on his website. Gaiman wrote that he watched the news of the allegations “with horror and dismay”: “As I read through this latest collection of accounts, there are moments I half-recognise and moments I don’t, descriptions of things that happened sitting beside things that emphatically did not happen. I’m far from a perfect person, but I have never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone. Ever.” He also denied “there was any abuse.”
• Recent fallout has included the suspension of screen adaptations of Gaiman’s works. Deadline reported that Amazon will end production of Good Omens with a 90-minute final episode to be produced this year, instead of a full third season. “Gaiman contributed to the writing of the series finale but will not be working on the production and his production company the Blank Corporation is no longer involved,” Deadline said. Disney paused an adaptation of The Graveyard Book.

• Trade magazine The Bookseller reported that Gaiman hired the crisis management firm Edendale Strategies and lawyer Andrew Brettler, who has represented Danny Masterson and Prince Andrew. Neither party has responded to NPR’s request for comment.

Jennifer Vanasco edited this story. Beth Novey produced the web build.