Posts Tagged ‘orchids’

Stay tuned.….

On the web:

Sat­ur­day, Jan­u­ary 29:

• Har­vest­ing and Look­ing Ahead @ Fuller­ton Arbore­tum, 9 — 12pm with Jonathan Davis, $25.00, call (714) 278‑8347
• Orchids 101 @ Deep Roots Man­hat­tan Beach, 10am, free (www​.deep​-roots​.net)
• low chill Cal­i­for­nia blue­berry bushes on sale thru the end of the month (www​.arm​strong​gar​den​.com)
• spe­cials on roses, cac­tus and suc­cu­lents @ Ander­sons La Costa Nurs­ery in Encini­tas (www​.ander​son​sla​costa​nurs​ery​.com)
• Tree of Life Nurs­ery in San Juan Capis­trano has 9 seed mixes for use in Cal­i­for­nia gar­dens (www​.cal​i​for​ni​a​na​tive​plants​.com)

These horses were magnificent!

What a great New Year’s Eve!!! I finally under­took a trip to Pasadena NYE with my friend Donna, some­thing I hadn’t done in 20 years. I remem­bered walk­ing along the side­walk then, on Orange Grove Blvd., and see­ing all the floats lined up and ready to go. It was even bet­ter this year than I had hoped. We were able to park on Belle­fontaine one block west of Orange Grove (reach­able by Arroyo Parkway) — this is impor­tant infor­ma­tion because many east-​west streets off Orange Grove are com­pletely blocked off. We got there about 11:30, and most of the floats were in place. Of course it was cold — 47ish — but worth it to get within a few feet of the floats and see the incred­i­ble detail.

The detail on this float is flaw­less — looks like a painting!

This kitty has fur made out of some sort of orna­men­tal grass tufts, in keep­ing with the rules that every sur­face must use an organic material.

The cac­tus flow­ers are king pro­tea and the cac­tus is cov­ered by euca­lyp­tus leaves. To see more pho­tos of the floats click on the Face­book icon on the top left!

On the web:

Tues­day, Jan­u­ary 4: Prepar­ing your orchids for show /​free /​San Diego Orchid Soci­ety /​Bal­boa Park, Casa del Prado Botan­i­cal Library, Room 104 (www​.sdgera​nium​.org)

Thurs­day, Jan­u­ary 6: Water Wis­dom 2011: An Overview for Gar­den­ers with Bob Gal­breath /​Thurs­day Gar­den Talks with Lili Singer /​Los Ange­les County Arbore­tum /​9:30 — noon /​(626) 821‑4623 /​www​.arbore​tum​.org

Matil­ija poppy, a Cal­i­for­nia native, is avail­able at the VA native nursery.

There is a new native plant nurs­ery in West Los Ange­les. As recently reported in my local news­pa­per, the Palisadian-​Post, it is oper­ated in con­junc­tion with the Ran­cho Santa Ana Botanic Gar­den. The nurs­ery is on the cam­pus of the Vet­er­ans Admin­is­tra­tion com­plex in West Los Ange­les near the 405 Free­way and Wilshire Blvd. The man­ager, Kata­rina Eriks­son, will be train­ing the vets in the pro­poga­tion, care and main­te­nance of Cal­i­for­nia native plants. The train­ing will offer them the oppor­tu­nity to con­tinue in this field once they leave the VA. The nurs­ery will ini­tially be stocked with 10,000 plants. They will also be sell­ing roses and cym­bid­i­ums left over from a prior pro­gram. Palisadian-​Post writer Sue Pas­coe writes “Adja­cent to the pro­gram is the first ani­mal ther­apy pro­gram on VA grounds in North Amer­ica. Res­cued exotic birds are cared for by vet­er­ans in a mutual ther­apy pro­gram, which involves vets feed­ing, talk­ing and work­ing with the col­or­ful, noisy avians.” Bot­tom line: West Los Ange­les gar­den­ers don’t have to drive as far to find native plants, while con­tribut­ing to a very worth­while pro­gram. Who wouldn’t want to do that!

The nurs­ery is located at Con­sti­tu­tion Avenue where it inter­sects with Sepul­veda Blvd, just north of Wilshire Blvd and next to the 405 free­way. Hours: opened on week­ends, Wedns­days to Sun­days 9am to 5pm. The man­ager, Kata­rina Eriks­son, can be reached by email at keriksson@​rsabg.​org.

Otto and Sons rose nurs­ery in Ven­tura County

Nurs­ery geek — that would be me. I’m proud of it too –gave me the idea for SoCal​Nurs​ery​Plants​.com! Over the last year I’ve vis­ited almost every nurs­ery out of the 141 nurs­eries on my web­site. I plan to see them all. The list below is just for fun; feel free to con­tact me and add to it! Or you can add a com­ment that will be seen by thou­sands of readers.

In no par­tic­u­lar order, nurs­eries that are the:

• Old­est : As far as I can tell, that would be Mis­sion Hills Nurs­ery (100+ years), in the San Diego sec­tion, fol­lowed by Belle­fontaine Nurs­ery (70+ years) and San Gabriel Nurs­ery (80+ years), both in the East Val­ley section.
• Most well known: Roger’s Gar­dens in New­port Beach.
• Biggest: My guess is Simpson’s Gar­den Town Nurs­ery @ 25 acres –also includes a car museum; in the San Diego section.
• Small­est: Laguna Hills Nurs­ery, because Gary Matouska is sell­ing out of his house: go to www​.lagu​nahill​snurs​ery​.com.
• Most unique: Eden Top­i­ary Nurs­ery: mostly top­i­ary, and M and M Nurs­ery: minia­ture and rail­road enthu­si­asts, both in the Orange County section.
• Most spe­cial­ized: Otto and Sons for all things rose, in the Ven­tura sec­tion and Nuccio’s Nurs­eries for camelias and azealias (East Valley).
• Nurs­ery with the most vari­eties of any one plant: West­er­lay Orchids: all orchids — in the Ven­tura sec­tion; Upland Nurs­ery has over 350 vari­eties of plume­ria; in the Orange County section.
• Num­ber of nurs­eries (that I have been able to locate) in each county/​area: Ven­tura — 13, East val­ley– 20, West Val­ley — 8, Mal­ibu — 3, Los Ange­les — 16 (does not include branches of Arm­strong and Anawalt — they are counted once), South Bay — 13, Orange County — 22, San Diego County — 21.
• My favorite nurs­ery: I’ll never tell; what’s yours? Tell me why and I’ll put it in a post!

FYI: I’m very for­tu­nate to be an attendee and a ven­dor at the Pacific Hor­ti­cul­ture Sym­po­sium Sep­tem­ber 23 — 26 at the Los Ange­les Arbore­tum in Arca­dia, CA. Titled Gar­den­ing under the Mediter­ranean Skies VIII: Style and Whim­sey in the Sus­tain­able Gar­den, this sym­po­sium is packed with infor­ma­tive talks, work­shops and gar­den tours. I will be shar­ing my expe­ri­ences and pho­tos in the com­ing weeks. There is still some last minute space; if you are inter­ested con­tact Susi Torre-​Bueno @ (760) 295‑2173 (after ⁹⁄₂₁ reach her at (619) 977‑0584) or go to the web­site @ www​.Paci​fi​chor​ti​cul​ture​.org/​e​d​u​c​a​t​i​o​n​-​e​v​e​nts.