Posts Tagged ‘plumeria’

Xray of a rose

Isn’t this spec­tac­u­lar? I saw this arti­cle in my Gar­den Design Mag­a­zine online newslet­ter. A bril­liant idea, med­ical xray tech­ni­cian Steven N Mey­ers xrays botanic spec­i­mans such as amaryl­lis, ferns, pop­pies, plume­ria and of course roses. I love Gar­den Design mag­a­zine (www​.gar​den​de​sign​.com). If you go to their web­site you can sub­scribe to their newslet­ter for free. To see the arti­cle on Steven’s art go to: http://www​.gar​den​de​sign​.com/​i​d​e​a​s​/​a​r​t​-​b​o​t​a​n​y​-​x​-​r​a​y​-​p​h​o​t​o​g​r​a​p​h​y​?​c​m​p​i​d​=​e​n​e​w​s​0​6​2​111

By the way…If you can tear your­self away from the trial (you know what train wreck of a trial I’m talk­ing about!) a series on National Geo­graphic Chan­nel called Amish at the Altar is worth check­ing out. These peo­ple are really in touch with the earth, and many scenes resem­ble a still life.

Upcom­ing SoCal events:

• Ongo­ing at the San Diego County Fair: some great talks thru 7/​4 for the sched­ule go to www​.sdfair​.com and check out the Flower and Gar­den Show.
• June 25: free classes @ Wal­ter Ander­sen: 9am Trop­i­cal fruit trees and vines @ Point Loma and 9:30 am Con­tainer color for sum­mer @ Poway — details at www​.wal​teran​der​sen​.com
• June 25: 3 part native plant design and Show­ers to flow­ers at www​.Theodor​e​payne​.org
• They are hav­ing a lot of music and Shake­speare for kids @ Des​can​sog​a​r​dens​.org
• Daylilly Hill Nurs­ery (Escon­dido) is now Water­wise Botan­i­cals (760) 728‑2641 /​www​.water​wise​b​otan​i​cals​.com

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.

A mossy foun­tain at Laguna Nursery

This is a dif­fi­cult post to write because most nurs­eries are spe­cial in some way. Every com­mu­nity needs and deserves a gen­er­al­ized “gar­den cen­ter” for obvi­ous rea­sons (espe­cially since Tar­get has closed all of theirs — yea!). So I’m not nec­es­sar­ily talk­ing about ser­vice, selec­tion or price. With des­ti­na­tion nurs­eries some­thing more inde­fin­able is usu­ally in play, start­ing with the pas­sion of the owner. Most of the nurs­ery men and women I’ve met love what they do — which is lucky for us in this harsh eco­nomic cli­mate. But it is much harder to spe­cial­ize because it cuts down on clien­tele. So, need Aus­tralian plants? Go to Jo O’Connell’s Aus­tralian Native Plants Nurs­ery in Ojai. Jo pro­vides Aus­tralian plants to the Hunt­ing­ton Botan­i­cal Gar­dens, among many oth­ers. Want your roses grown locally and accli­ma­tized — Otto and Sons in Fill­more has an enor­mous selec­tion. How about a cus­tom top­i­ary spelling out your name? Get it at Eden Nurs­ery in Orange County. Two nurs­eries that spe­cial­ize in jaw drop­ping foun­tains, planter arrange­ments, orchids, gar­den fur­ni­ture and acces­sories: Laguna Nurs­ery in Orange County and Rolling Greens Nurs­ery in Cul­ver City. Upland Nurs­ery in Orange County has 350 vari­eties of plume­ria. Does your spouse want to see a phe­nom­e­nal car col­lec­tion while you shop for petu­nias? The only place for that is Simpson’S Gar­den Nurs­ery in San Diego County. Also in San Diego County: Botan­i­cal Part­ners with every bam­boo imag­in­able, and Jun­gle Music for collector’s palms. The own­ers of these nurs­eries (Ralph Evans and Phil Bergman, respec­tively) will give you help in decid­ing what will do best in your gar­den — they want you to suc­ceed and come back for more. Of course, that is true of all nurs­eries, large and small, gen­eral or specialized.

I have a “Des­ti­na­tion Nurs­ery” list­ing at the bot­tom of my cat­e­gories on Socal​nurs​ery​plants​.com. For more infor­ma­tion on each nurs­ery, go to the cat­e­gory for that nursery.

Water plants at Upland Nursery

I may have to move just to get closer to Upland Nurs­ery in Orange. What a trip this place is. The day I dropped in I was for­tu­nate enough to run into one of the own­ers, the ebul­lient Jerry Hsu. For me, it was an E-​ticket at Dis­ney­land. Jerry is the most enthu­si­as­tic busi­ness owner you’ll ever encounter. His pri­mary pas­sion is plume­rias — he has 350 vari­eties. Stretch­ing a mile deep along a nar­row space under power lines (like many nurs­eries), Upland doesn’t so much reveal itself as unfurls. A green­house here full of suc­cu­lents, a row of 30 vari­eties of Japan­ese maples there, cacti, bon­sai, it is a collector’s dream come true. Not a place to buy pan­sies or impa­tiens (do that next store at Vil­lage Nurs­ery), this is the place to stretch your gar­den­ing mus­cle. I (almost) never buy plants when I’m research­ing for Socal​nurs​ery​plants​.com, but I bought some­thing here. I’ve been informed it’s called a Princess plant but to me it looks mar­t­ian. Regard­less, it is fab­u­lous and now resides hap­pily in my suc­cu­lent gar­den. Shop here, you’ll be in good com­pany: William Shat­ner does, as well as the Bel­la­gio Hotel of Las Vegas.