Floral Native Nursery in Chico (www.floralnativenursery.com) specializes in growing and selling California native plants. They propagate the vast majority of their own stock, often collecting the seed or the wild cuttings themselves. Besides working with private homeowners, farmers and other business owners, they partner with local, state and federal organizations such as The Nature Conservancy, River Partners and Kids and Creeks on horticultural restoration projects. Zeb Puterbaugh is the Nursery Manager for Floral Native Nursery, which was founded by Zeb’s French-Canadian father Germain Boivin more than 10 years ago. Boivin was a nurseryman from the Montreal area. Seventeen years ago, he met Zeb’s mother, Patricia, while on vacation in the Caribbean and he followed her to the Northstate where he saw an opportunity for a good native plant nursery. Photo at left, taken in January 07, demonstrates that something is always in bloom at Floral Native Nursery.

Zeb, shown in photo at right, is a friendly and unassuming man. He has been the Manager of the nursery for the past two and a half years, but he has worked at the nursery throughout most of his life, getting a first-class-hands-on education. He grew up loving to backpack in the Sierras, where he now knows how to hand collect native plant seed, and is an avid home-gardener himself. Besides the retail nursery on Floral Avenue in Chico, Floral Native also has an annex in Cohasset with four beautiful new greenhouses. It is there that much of the growing for large restoration contracts and projects takes place. Zeb is understandably proud that Floral Native propagates close to 99% of the plants they sell.

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The McConnell Arboretum and Gardens at Turtle Bay Exploration Park opened to the public in May of 2005, but Lisa Endicott, the gardens’ Horticultural Manager began her work there as a volunteer in 1997. The length of her tenure gives an indication to her knowledge of and dedication to the mission of the gardens, which is to provide fun educational opportunities for visitors to learn how to garden successfully while working with our winter-wet and summer dry conditions, rather than working in spite of them.

The McConnell Arboretum and Gardens is made up of 200 acres of the natural habitat arboretum and 20 acres of cultivated Mediterranean display and pleasure gardens. A local Landscape Architect, Mark Holland, designed the Master Plan for the landscaped gardens and while these plans were in the works even before 1997, it took a great deal of time and resources to develop the infrastructure of irrigation, drainage and pathways before planting of the gardens began in late 2002. By the time the gardens opened, the first sections planted were in their third growing season, while the last planted were just getting started.

Endicott is in her sixth year on staff at the gardens and all the display gardens are pretty well grown in to themselves. She and I walked the gardens on a cold damp day in late January – and the plantings were vibrant still, despite the heavy winds and pounding rains of the month. Not vibrant in the same way as the full-summer garden is vibrant, but nevertheless rich with things to look at, touch, smell and admire. As we walked, a garden volunteer brought Endicott a branch of the radiant purple berries of Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) for her to identify, she talked with one of her grounds crew about supporting an oak that was leaning slightly after the strong winds of early January, and she chatted non-stop to me about her work at the gardens – especially her desire to continue to grow and expand the offerings of educational classes and workshops for the public in the gardens.

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Scot Wineland is the owner and founder of Wineland Walnut, a Chico-based company since 1976 “specializing in all aspects of the Walnut industry, from the planting of young trees to the harvesting of mature wood,” to the milling of the wood on their own sawmill for the production of lumber for custom products including gun stocks (the wooden portion on the handle of a gun), furniture, and large slabs for dining room or conference-type tables. Originally from Alturas, he moved to Chico in the mid 1970s to start his business and raise his two children, Shelley and Trevor, both now grown.

Wineland is also a long-time certified arborist – the first certified arborist in Chico - and spends a good portion of his time on the tree service side of the business, maintaining and caring for all varieties of living trees. Like most good full-service arborists he provides consultations on the health and shape of a property’s trees. Once he has performed a “well-tree check up”, his crew will then – as necessary - prune them for health, safety and vigor. On large older trees his crew can install safety cables for the support of limbs, and as a last resort they will remove dead or dying trees. He will advise property owners – from a small home-gardener in Chico to a large ranch owner in South America to city parks and recreation departments – on all aspects of tree care, from reminding them to dig out around a tree’s collar, to annual fertilizing and effective water schedules.

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My first show of each month will focus on things to do in your garden, garden related topics in the news, and field trips and events for gardeners in the upcoming month. If you have topics you’d like to hear about, events you’d like to see posted, or know of a Northstate gardener or resource that you would like to hear profiled - send me an email! Jennifer@jewellgarden.com

To do In Garden:

It rained more than 6 inches in the valley portions of the Northstate in January – well above our average for the month of over 4 inches. My rain barrels are full and rivers, ditches, lakes and even seasonal creeks are full of water and life. Have you heard the frogs in the creeks? I can hear them during the day if I listen hard – but in the dim hours of early evening through the black of night of even the coldest nights - their voices become distinct and strong: a deep, throaty swelling from the creek bed and woodland of many, MANY frogs conversing. In the early hours of morning, I also hear an owl calling. I wonder if it is in delight following a meal of frogs’ legs? These are sure signs of life in our Northstate winter.

It’s also been a banner year for snow in the high country. Mt. Shasta City is a winter wonderland. While my friends in higher elevations have some time before they work the soil again, I’ve been using the few - very few - dry moments in the valley for late winter chores: pruning and clearing branches or cleaning up leaves; mostly as a way of staying sane during the gray days. I’ve planted some little things here and there, for instance a Daphne odora and a French Pussywillow (Salix discolor), but I am dreaming of much more.

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