Posts Tagged ‘plants’

A mag­nif­i­cent grove of Dra­caena Cinnabari

I have a soft heart for pointy plants. Espe­cially suc­cu­lents in all their fleshy some­times spiny glory. As I flipped thru a Conde Nast Trav­eler mag­a­zine recently, an arti­cle came to my atten­tion on the island of Soco­tra and Dra­caena Cinnabari, or the Dragon’s Blood Tree. To my way of think­ing this is a gor­geous tree, with its twisty sculp­tural trunks and spikey canopy. Unfor­tu­nately it is endan­gered in its habi­tat by the grad­ual warm­ing and dry­ing of Soca­tra, a United Nations World Her­itage Site located near the Horn of Africa and Yemen. In ancient times the deep red resin derived from the tree was used as a dye, tooth­paste, astrin­gent and rheuma­tism med­i­cine — this is a plant that could earn its keep. It still pro­vides var­nish for vio­lins, among other uses. It would be per­fectly suited to our SoCal cli­mate but seems to be very hard to find. Wish I had known about this trees 3 months ago when I was in Egypt — that is prob­a­bly as close as I’ll ever get to Soco­tra and its Dra­caene Cinnabari.

For the arti­cle on Soco­tra: www​.concierge​.com/​c​n​t​r​a​v​e​l​e​r​/​a​r​t​i​c​l​e​s​/​5​0​3​111

On the web:

Sat­ur­day, Feb­ru­ary 26:

• Bonsai-​a-​thon @ Hunt­ing­ton Gar­dens, 2/​26 — 2/​27, 10:30 — 4:30, Bon­sai mas­ters share their pas­sion, live auc­tion at 3 pm, included in admis­sion; www​.Hunt​ing​ton​.org, (626) 405‑2100
• Theodore Payne Foun­da­tion: Relief Print­ing Work­shop, 10am — noon, $25/​35 non­mem­bers, $15 for mate­ri­als, and Let It Drip (drip irri­ga­tion sem­i­nar) 1:30 – 3:30, $20/​30 non­mem­bers, theodor​e​payne​.org/​818 – 768-​1802
• Edi­ble Natives for the Local Eater with Hank Kraus of Moosa Creek Nurs­ery, 1:30, free @ City Farm­ers Nurs­ery, San Diego, city​farm​er​snurs​ery​.com
• Com­post­ing 101/​11 am and Her­itage Oak Walk/​11 am — Des­canso Gar­dens, both free with admis­sion, Des­canso Gar­dens, (818) 949‑7980
• From Seed to Skil­let: A Gar­den Con­ser­vancy Talk with Jimmy Williams and Susan Heeger, Los Ange­les Arbore­tum, 11:30 – 1:30 The Gar­den Con­ser­vancy and the Los Ange­les County Arbore­tum and Botanic Gar­den are pleased to present Jimmy Williams and Susan Heeger, authors of the new book From Seed to Skil­let: A Guide to Grow­ing, Tend­ing, Har­vest­ing, and Cook­ing Up Fresh Healthy Food to Share with Peo­ple You Love. Jimmy learned all about veg­etable gar­den­ing at the knee of his grand­mother, a South Car­olina native from a tra­di­tional Gul­lah com­mu­nity. Susan, a gar­den writer and edi­tor, has been grow­ing veg­eta­bles at home for more than ten years. The two have cre­ated a per­sonal, beau­ti­fully illus­trated gar­den man­ual aimed at help­ing all gar­den­ers, from begin­ners to experts, grow edi­bles more suc­cess­fully. They will share some of the secrets to gar­den plan­ning, cre­at­ing healthy soil, rais­ing strong, pro­duc­tive plants, sav­ing seeds, and enjoy­ing the har­vest with fam­ily and friends. $20/​25 non mem­bers incl. admis­sion /​optional lunch/​jill.​berry@​arboretum.​com /

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/

Wild par­rots now abound in South­ern California

Oh, I love these guys! Every­time I see a flock or hear their wild screech­ing I am taken to the trop­ics. I finally decided to get some infor­ma­tion on these green aliens by search­ing the inter­net. Accord­ing to The Cal­i­for­nia Par­rot Project: “par­rots are an increas­ingly famil­iar sight in many urban areas in the south­ern United States, hav­ing become estab­lished from escaped or released birds that were imported for the pet trade.….….” They also address the fact that these par­rots are non-​native:

“We take no posi­tion on the desir­abil­ity of main­tain­ing par­rot pop­u­la­tions in the state (nor those of intro­duced euca­lyp­tus, palms, trout or turkeys). Par­rots are symp­to­matic of the expan­sion of urban habi­tats dom­i­nated by non-​native plants; they also illus­trate the capac­ity of humans to move wildlife around the planet for eco­nomic, social or aes­thetic rea­sons.” In other words, they’re here to stay, they’ve suc­cess­fully adapted and since they are endan­gered in their nat­ural habi­tats, maybe they can sur­vive among us.

For more infor­ma­tion: www​.cal​i​for​nia​parrot​pro​ject​.org/ and ama​zo​nia​.us/​h​o​m​e​.​h​tml

On the web: Sat­ur­day, ⁹⁄₁₈: Tara Kolla of Sil­ver Lake Farms leads a hands-​on work­shop on build­ing a bet­ter gar­den from the ground up. 10 a.m. to noon. Hunt­ing­ton Library, Art Col­lec­tions and Botan­i­cal Gar­dens, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino. $40 to $50. Reg­is­tra­tion: (626) 405‑2128.

Inside Rolling Greens

Scrolling through the nurs­ery web­sites on Socal​nurs​ery​plants​.com, I have come across some ter­rific con­tent in unex­pected places that I would like to share. Always remem­ber that nurs­eries often put coupons and sale notices on their web­sites. I’m divid­ing the sites into two sec­tions; the first one follows:

East Val­ley:

• www​.sgnurs​erynews​.com (San Gabriel Nurs­ery): a newslet­ter, monthly advice, pho­tos of exotic plants they carry
• www​.theodor​e​payne​.org: see the great classes they give on native gardening

West Val­ley:

• www​.papay​a​treenurs​ery​.com: videos on how to prune spe­cific fruit trees like curry leaf and che­r­i­moya; “ask Alex” fea­ture; in the news/​miracle fruit; guide for choos­ing rare fruit trees for your yard.

Los Ange­les:

• www​.arm​strong​gar​den​.com: Gar­den­ing from A to Z answers many of your ques­tions; a Save Water fea­ture; Gar­den Guides help gar­den­ers at every level; a gar­den forum.
• Mick​ey​har​gi​tay​plants​.com: a beau­ti­fully designed web­site with music that will take you to the trop­ics; check out the links, you will be surprised!
• www​.rolling​green​snurs​ery​.com/​: a gor­geous web­site with music.

Orange County:

• www​.lagu​na​nurs​ery​.net: news and events; owner Ruben Flo­res offers a free walk­ing tour in the Laguna area most Sat­ur­days at 10am.
• www​.Cal​i​for​ni​a​na​tive​plants​.com (Tree of life nurs­ery): Guest speaker series, lots of native plant information.
• Trop​i​calvibe​.com: Lots of infor­ma­tion on palms, and their selec­tion and care.

To be continued.….….

On the web: Pot­ted storewide sale; 9/​10 — 9/​19; 20% to 75% off; www​.pot​ted​store​.com