Archive for the ‘Press Releases’ Category

Tea tree shaped into a tight ball.

Some plants just worm their way into our lives. Per­haps because of its ver­sa­til­ity, the tea tree, or lep­tosper­num, is just such a plant. A native of Aus­tralia and New Zealand, it thrives in Sun­set zones 14 — 24. Jo O’Connell of Aus­tralian Native Plant Nurs­ery in Ojai says there are many dif­fer­ent vari­eties of this shrub. “While the plants all have sim­i­lar pink, red and white flow­ers, they vary in height and growth habits.” I per­son­ally love them trimmed into tight balls close to the ground or as trees with vis­i­ble branches. But the most unusual appli­ca­tion is pic­tured below in Wal­nut Creek: the lep­tosper­nums have been allowed to grow through a wood framed wire fence, cre­at­ing a glo­ri­ous liv­ing wall.

Tea trees like well drained soil, are drought tol­er­ant and good near the ocean. My one spec­i­man took a cou­ple of years to get going but it is thriv­ing now. There are 16 vari­eties of this shrub listed in the Sun­set West­ern Gar­den book — one could have a whole gar­den of noth­ing but tea trees!

www​.aus​tralian​plants​.com

A liv­ing wall of leptospernum.

On the Web:

Thurs­day, ²⁄₁₀: Cur­rents, goose­ber­ries and man­zan­i­tas for your South­ern Cal­i­for­nia gar­den @ the Los Ange­les Arbore­tum, 9:30 — 12, $20.00/ 626−821−4623 or jill.berry@arboretum.org/

Sat­ur­day, ²⁄₁₂:

• Make a fab­u­lous foun­tain from a water­ing can @ the Los Ange­les Arbore­tum — bring a water­ing can, all other mate­ri­als pro­vided at cost –I couldn’t find a cost on this class /​626−821−4623 or jill.berry@arboretum.org/
• Bird­ing basics at Des­canso Gar­den 8am — 10am — $20/​10 members/​www​.des​can​sog​a​r​dens​.org/
• Also at Des­canso: Com­pan­ion Plant­ing 1pm — $20/​10 mem­ber and: Back­yard Chick­ens and Bees 10am — 12pm — $25/​15 member
• Camel­lia Show and Sale @ Hunt­ing­ton Gar­dens Sat 1 — 4:30 and Sun 10:30 — 4:30 /​Hunt​ing​ton​.org/
• Hyper­t­ufa class: Make a con­tainer resem­bling a stone trough 10am — 12pm /​$35/​25 mem­ber /​theodor​e​payne​.org/

Sun­day, ²⁄₁₃:

• 27th Wild Mush­room Fair @ the Los Ange­les Arbore­tum, 10am — 4 pm details @ arbore​tum​.org/

The fol­low­ing is taken from an arti­cle about my site that appeared in the Los Ange­les Times Online Home sec­tion on Tues­day, Octo­ber 20.

Octo­ber 20, 2009 | 1:13 pm

Avid gar­dener and self-​described “nurs­ery geek” Susan Hirsch has launched the new online nurs­ery direc­tory Socal​nurs​ery​plants​.com to help sup­port mom-​and-​pop busi­nesses in the Los Ange­les area.

The web­site is meant to help gar­den­ers too by fea­tur­ing 56 nurs­eries in the area, list­ing what type of plants are offered, what kinds of pots or other mer­chan­dise are sold, whether land­scap­ing and main­te­nance ser­vices are offered, plus hours, loca­tions and links. Hirsch also offers inter­est­ing tid­bits such as who sup­plied plants to the Getty Center’s cac­tus gar­den (Cal­i­for­nia Cac­tus Cen­ter in Pasadena) and who offers deliv­ery as well as plant­ing (Jau­regui Nurs­ery in Gar­dena).
Hirsch says she has logged nearly 200,000 hits since the site pre­miered in August. “We’ve got to sup­port our local busi­nesses,” she says, “or they won’t be here anymore.”

– Lisa Boone

Pho­tos clock­wise from left: Mal­ibu Gar­den Cen­ter, Grow in Venice, Green Arrow Nurs­ery in Van Nuys and Cal­i­for­nia Cac­tus Cen­ter in Pasadena by Susan Hirsch

Click to link to the LA Times Home online edi­tion: http://​latimes​blogs​.latimes​.com/​h​o​m​e​_​b​l​og/

I would like to thank Lisa Boone for the great article!