In the chilly (32 degrees) dark of 5 am this morning, as I gave my dogs their morning biscuits, I admired the form of the ‘Big Dipper’ almost directly overhead. I stood, bundled up, in the center of my starlit back garden - just admiring. Five am at the height of summer, I can be getting my coffee and heading out to begin playing in the garden, but in mid-December, as we near the richly-storied winter solstice - the longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere - crisp early mornings make for a great star-gazing; the entire garden is a virtual planetarium. Photo: The Moon and Jupiter in close proximity in the winter night sky. In the Northern Hemisphere, several well-known constellations are associated with winter. While many people of think of the ‘Big Dipper’ as a constellation, it is in fact more accurately an asterism - or part of a constellation or larger group of stars. The ‘Big Dipper’ is a commonly recognizable asterism of the larger constellation known as Ursa Major.

As gardeners, perhaps, we are even more aware than many of the shifts in light and its relative availability throughout the seasons and the year. Cultures across the globe have long celebrated the winter solstice and held it dear as the day on which the dark has reached its peak. As of the winter solstice, with every subsequent day, we are headed back toward the life-renewing light - the full intensity of the Sun’s energy.

Many gardeners time their planting and harvest - both the time at which they plant and harvest as well as what they are planting and harvesting - based on the phases of the moon. They do this in order to take full advantage of the powerful influence of the Moon’s on Earth as seen through tidal shifts, etc. In particular, the gardening/agricultural philosophy known as Biodynamics uses the phases of the moon as one of the critical markers for gardening tasks. According to Biodynamics.com, biodynamics, based on the teachings of Rudolph Steiner, the founder of Anthroposophy, is “a type of organic farming that incorporates an understanding of “dynamic” forces in nature not yet fully understood by science. By working creatively with these subtle energies, farmers are able to significantly enhance the health of their farms and the quality and flavor of food. It is ….. A recognition that the whole earth is a single, self-regulating, multi-dimensional ecosystem. Biodynamic farmers seek to fashion their farms likewise as self-regulating, bio-diverse ecosystems in order to bring health to the land and to their local communities.”

In thinking about the solstice and winter night sky in relation to my garden, I wondered about what the solstice actually was. To find out, I turned to friend and colleague Dave Schlom. Dave is a full-time science educator, and longtime host of Northstate Public Radio’s weekly program on planetary (including Earth) science, The Blue Dot Report. This week on In a North State Garden, Dave talks about what a solstice is and how it impacts us.

Let’s start with planet Earth and how it is positioned in space. The equator is what we call the great imaginary line (line of latitude) around Earth’s circumference. The equator lies half-way between the North Pole and the South Pole. Earth’s rotational axis is tilted 23.5° relative to the Sun. The Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn are lines of latitude 23.5° north and south, respectively, of the equator (Figure 3). The Sun is always directly above a point between these latitudes. In our winter, the Sun is south of the equator and in our summer it is north. What we in the Northern Hemisphere call the winter solstice, is the day that the Sun is 23.5° south of the equator, or directly above the Tropic of Capricorn. During the summer solstice, the sun is directly above the Tropic of Cancer, or 23.5° north of the equator. “That is why what we call the winter and summer solstices are perhaps more accurately referred to as the southern and northern solstices respectively,” explains Dave. Photo: NASA’s diagram of Earth’s position relative to the Sun at the time of a Northern Hemisphere Winter Solstice.

“In Latin,” he goes on, the word “’solstice” means ’sun stop’ because as ancient Roman people were tracking the arc of the Sun each day, it was at each ’solstice’ that the Sun seemed to stop in its tracks and begin to move back in the other direction - causing daylight hours to either get longer as after the winter solstice, or shorter, as after the summer solstice. The vernal and autumnal equinoxes occur at those moments twice a year when the Sun is directly over the equator, making for equal hours of daylight and dark. http://www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/imagee.htm

Why is it cold in winter and warm in summer in our part of the world? The seasons change due to Earth’s rotational axis being tilted 23.5° relative to the Sun. So, for half of the year (our winter), the Northern Hemisphere is pointed slightly away from the Sun. This angle makes sunlight hit the ground in the North State at a lower angle in winter than in summer. So energy coming from the Sun is spread out - and thereby made less intense - over a larger area on the ground.

Interestingly, notes Dave, while the winter solstice might mark an official beginning of winter, it is only rarely the coldest day of the year. Because the Northern Hemisphere is moving only slowly more tilted away from the Sun’s rays from the summer solstice to the winter solstice, the mass of the Earth receives warmth from the sun each day and only slowly does it begin to lose more each night than it gains each day. Therefore, it takes a while after the winter solstice for the Earth to cool down as far as it is going to in any given winter.

So while the winter solstice does not mark the end of cold, but is closer to the beginning of the cold stretch for our North State gardens, this cold can be beneficial - killing unwanted fungi, pathogens and others pests. (Protect and cover your citrus and other tender plants so that the cold does not kill them.) The winter solstice does however mark the shortest day of the year - and while the cold temperatures and short daylight hours might slow your garden and you down some - things are only getting brighter from here.

Happy Winter in your North State Garden!

For more information on the solstice and stars in the winter night sky, Gateway Science Museum in Chico will be hosting related Education Station activities on Saturday and Sunday, December 17th and 18th, and on the Winter Solstice, December 21st from 1 - 3 pm each day. Docents will model the concept of a solstice, show you projections of constellations in the winter night sky, and give you pin-hole constellations cards to make and take home. Additionally, on the 21st, stories behind the winter constellations will be read in the Newberry Gallery from 1 - 3 pm.

Also, fellow gardener and star watcher, Karen McGrath wrote in to me with the interesting fact that although the winter solstice is the shortest day of the year, the earliest sunsets do not occur on this day! There is an interesting discussion about why at http://earthsky.org/tonight/earliest-sunset-today-but-not-shortest-day, which is a nice additional resource on these types of discussions.

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To submit plant/gardening related events/classes to the Jewellgarden.com on-line Calendar of Regional Gardening Events, send the pertinent information to me at: Jennifer@jewellgarden.com

Did you know I send out a weekly email with information about upcoming topics and gardening related events? If you would like to be added to the mailing list, send an email to Jennifer@jewellgarden.com.

In a North State Garden is a weekly Northstate Public Radio and web-based program celebrating the art, craft and science of home gardening in Northern California and made possible in part by the Gateway Science Museum - Exploring the Natural History of the North State and on the campus of CSU, Chico. In a North State Garden is conceived, written, photographed and hosted by Jennifer Jewell - all rights reserved jewellgarden.com. In a North State Garden airs on Northstate Public Radio Saturday mornings at 7:34 AM Pacific time and Sunday morning at 8:34 AM Pacific time. Podcasts of past shows are available here. Weekly essays are also posted on anewscafe.com a regional news source that is simultaneously universal and positively North State.

The sign at the entrance to the ornamental garden in Sacramento’s William Land Park reads: WPA Rock Garden, Established 1940. The sign is not original to the garden’s 1940s-era design and construction, it was erected less than 20 years ago by gardener Daisy Mah. In charge of this distinct one-acre garden since 1988, Daisy - a City of Sacramento Parks Department employee - wanted the garden on which she spends hours each day to have an entrance sign with its own name. “When I first began work here more than 20 years ago, people called the garden ‘The Jungle’ or ‘The Maze’ or the ‘Ivy Garden.’” Because many of the surrounding Land Park neighborhood residents regularly visit the garden’s meandering paths and magical plantings, Daisy polled the neighborhood for what the official name of the garden should be. The majority of responses were that the garden should be called “Daisy’s Garden” - but Daisy ultimately settled on the simply stated name and rustic metal and wood sign you see today. Photo: The entrance sign for the WPA Rock Garden at William Land Park in Sacramento. The garden is on 15th Avenue across the street from Fairytale town and beside to the park’s amphitheater.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was a Depression-Era work-relief program instituted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935 as part of his New Deal. The WPA employed out-of-work professionals, artisans, craftspeople, fine artists, and writers to work on projects that to improve towns and cities all over the country. Sacramento’s WPA Rock Garden, a one-acre naturalistic garden set on a sloping hillside between Fairytale Town and the Duck Pond in William Land Park was one such WPA project. Like many WPA projects after the New Deal funding ended, the WPA Rock Garden was left in large part untended for many years. When Daisy took on the job of the garden’s restoration in 1988, the site was overgrown with invasive vinca and ivy. One mature, now-well-tended, tree-like specimen of the original ivy still grows in the garden. Photo: A sketched overview of the WPA Rock Garden’s layout.

Having graduated with a degree in Art from San Jose, Daisy returned to the Sacramento area to be close to her parents - both of whom immigrated to the US from China, her father as a young boy. Daisy became really interested in gardening and horticulture when she and her husband bought their first house in the early 1980s. She subsequently studied Horticulture at the American River College and got her first job with Sacramento’s Parks Department working in the Rose Garden in McKinley Park. When the then-Superintendent of Parks showed her the overgrown WPA Rock Garden, its intriguing space in which you could lose yourself and potentially find secret delights along each pathway and around each corner, was far more interesting to her than the monoculture of the Rose Garden. Photos: A curve in pathway of the WPA Rock Garden, with a close-up of Iochroma cyaneum violacea, attracting multiple pollinators, below.

When Daisy won a $400 scholarship for her horticultural work in 1988, she wanted to use some of the money to give back to the community. She took half of the money and placed an order for flowering perennials from local grower Cornflower Farms with which to begin replacing ivy and restoring the plantings of the WPA Rock Garden. Daisy has been at it ever since: researching plants, propagating those she wants, ordering others, receiving still others from plant people all over the world, and then planting, weeding, pruning, reworking plantings, dragging enormous hoses to water, and generally tending thoughtfully to this lively garden. The result of Daisy’s labors is now a garden where the the public can lose themselves in the magic of a place where they can “satisfy that inner-need to connect with nature and beauty”, even in the heart of the city, remarks Daisy. Photo: A view to a mature crepe myrtle seen through one of the openings in the stone and metal semi-circular seating area in the center of the WPA Rock Garden. This seating area is not original to the WPA-era garden, but was designed by Daisy based on a photo she saw of a Jens Jensen-designed circular seating area. Built by volunteer masons using discarded stone used as ballast on ships and left at the city dump, the seating area is dedicated to a long-time volunteer in the garden: Norma Clevenger. The dedication plaque describes her as “A gardener’s gardener and a fierce liberal!”

Construction of William Land Park began in 1922, when noted Landscape Architect Frederick Noble Evans was Superintendent of Parks for Sacramento. An early graduate of the Landscape Architecture school at Harvard University in Boston, Evans served as Superintendent of the Parks Department for 26 years. It was under his design-eye and leadership that William Land Park was designed and built - including the many WPA- constructed wood and masonry elements, such as a rustic pergola with built-in benches, roadway curbing throughout the park, an amphitheater, the park’s many ponds and lakes, and the WPA Rock Garden. Photo: Another turn in a pathway of the WPA Garden and a late-summer illuminated rose. Two pollinators examine the rose before exploring further.

The Rock Garden’s wandering walkways were laid out by the WPA crew and flanked by local-granite masonry raised beds. The park as a whole was part of a nationwide movement known as the Reform Park Movement and is an example of Naturalistic Park Design. The call for such naturalistic green spaces to be incorporated into densely populated, unrelentingly-grid-patterned cities began in the late 1800s on the east coast in cities such as Washington DC, New York and Boston. These carefully-designed informal and naturalistic green spaces were intended to offer both physical and psychological respite as well as the health benefits of nature to urban dwellers, many of whom could not afford take time off from their industrial jobs, or to get out of the city if they could get time off. New York’s Central Park, designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, is perhaps the most famous example of the Naturalistic Park Design era. Photo: Along one of the central pathways in the WPA Garden, an industrial-sized hose hugs the side of a stone wall. Most of the plantings that Daisy has put into the garden are hand-watered by Daisy and her volunteers while they are getting established. An automated irrigation system was added to the garden only less than 10 years ago.

Walking through Sacramento’s WPA Rock Garden with Daisy Mah in late October, the garden is full of life around each corner. Through many years of work on her part, and on the part of Conservation Corps workers, other park workers, and various local garden club members - the ivy, vinca and other weeds are long gone. They have been replaced over the years by a succession of plantings. Daisy first began restoring the garden with traditional rock garden and alpine plants, but these proved too fragile and tender for a public garden. “The pressure of the public can be pretty hard,” admits Daisy - some plants - especially when they are little and getting established, get stepped on, trash gets left, I’ve even had large plant specimens dug up and carted off!” Photo: Deep blue salvia and bright orange-red California fuchsia contrast and play off one another in late October at the WPA Rock Garden.

The sometimes damaging effects of an admiring public does not seem to deter Daisy’s enthusiasm for providing a space that welcomes the public. One anecdote she shared was that when she had the semicircular seating area in the center of the garden built a few years back to mimic the look and feel of the WPA stone and metal work, she considered having thin wire anchored up the stone pillars so that she could train some vines up the pillars; “But the first day one wire was up, a boy came by and yanked them down. That’s clearly what he thought they were for,” she explained understandingly, “So I rethought the idea of the vines!” Photos: The rustic stone and metal semi-circular seating area in the heart of the WPA Rock Garden. Designed by Daisy, the seating area frames views into other sections of the garden and a place for visitors to meet and gather.

Currently, Daisy focuses on California native plants - including re-seeding annuals and bulbs - as well as sweeping variety of non-native, drought tolerant, climate appropriate Mediterranean plants. Deep blue salvias and red California fuchsias are blooming brightly here, roses and society garlic are blooming there. Although nothing bears labels or tags, which might distract from the sheer experience and enjoyment of the space, the Parks Department does have a pamphlet noting much of the garden’s plantings. Photo: A long view of the succulent bed which Daisy began to experiment with in 2001.

Daisy of course knows them all, and each plant or insect, even visitor holds a story for her. She points out a Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae), butterfly and notes that the host plant for its larva is the passion vine. She says hello to a man and his dog walking through and the man responds, “Hi, Daisy!” As we wander around corners, sunlight hits foliage and blooms up ahead, drawing you along. Specific plants unfold a variety of stories, and altogether these cumulatively tell not only the story of this garden and this gardener in the past quarter-century, but they likewise illuminate much of the story of horticulture in Northern California over the same time period: “I began gardening - like many new gardeners - with a feeling that I wanted it all right NOW!” remembers Daisy wryly, “But now each plant needs to tell some story or add to the story of the larger garden…This large-leaved Petasites came from Ed Carmen,” she says off-hand, pointing to striking, generously rounded leaves and referring to a well-known Pacific Coast nurseryman and award-winning horticulturalist of the region. “This rose I am not sure of the name - but it’s an old variety that I got from a garden in Oak Park - an older city neighborhood.” Photo: A WPA Rock Garden view and a Gulf Fritillary butterfly on an agave.

In the garden blooms a red flowering maple (Abutilon) that Daisy calls A. ‘Louise Blakey’, but a horticultural friend calls the same plant A. ‘Daisy’s Red’, because it grows in his garden since having received it from Daisy Mah. Photo: Abutilon ‘Daisy’s Red’

Tall trees - Cupressus cashmeriana, Magnolia ‘Vulcan’ and ‘Galaxy’, redbuds, and Arbutus ‘ Marina’, Gingko biloba, deodar cedar (Cedrus deodara)- provide shade and dimension to the space. Some are beginning to color-up with fall’s cooling temperatures and waning daylight. Over such a span of time, Daisy has seen large trees come and go - some have fallen over with age, others she has grown from seed to near-maturity. Hundreds of perennials have been planted, seeded, reseeded, lost and re-found in the 34 individual raised planting areas. Daisy has experimented with an all white-blooming border, she has experimented with fragrance and tough, good-looking succulents. “It’s not hard, it just takes time.” Daisy Mah - 95-pounds of dedication - has given a lot of time and makes the hard-won results look easy. Her efforts are profoundly evident in thriving, interesting plant choices, striking plant combinations and visitors who are positively affected by the garden at all times of year. Photo: Daisy Mah beneath a bunya-bunya tree (Araucaria bidwillii) that she grew from seed in the WPA Rock Garden.

In early 2010 a Cultural Landscape Survey and Evaluation of William Land Park was conducted for the City of Sacramento - evaluation and inventorying the park in order to determine the park’s eligibility for being nominated to be listed in the Sacramento Register of Historic and Cultural Resources, the California Register of Historical Resources, and the National Register of Historic Places. In October of 2011, the draft of the final report was published and the park - including its unique WPA Rock Garden easily meets criteria for listing in all three registers. According to the report, William Land Park, the largest park in the city of Sacramento, “meets evaluation criteria due to its association with important local trends in the following areas of significance: Community Planning and Development, Government, Entertainment/Recreation, and Landscape Architecture.” Included in these are its elements built from 1922-1969 embodying the Reform Park Movement, Naturalistic Park Design and WPA-construction features. Photo: Shining seed heads along a pathway leading into Daisy and her husband’s home garden in Sacramento.

Walking through the historic ornamental WPA Rock Garden in Sacramento’s William Land Park with the quiet- strength of gardener Daisy Mah leading the way, it is clear to me that the reasons for the garden’s construction originally are just as true today as they were 80 years ago: everyone benefits physically and psychologically from fresh air, green plants, and even momentary transport and escape from the lock-step, grid-patterned-daily-life-tensions that many of us face. “I grew up as the youngest of six siblings,” shares Daisy. “My father left China and its abject poverty for a better life in the US, and as a result, our garden growing up was an important resource for the edibles it could provide. Ornamental gardening was not seen as valuable. As an older man, my father visited my ornamental garden, exploring and enjoying the beauty and the life. He said to me after: ‘Your garden makes me feel like a rich man.’” Photo: Daisy’s light-hearted laughter filling a corner of the WPA Rock Garden, a garden she has grown and tended for more almost a quarter of a century.

Daisy Mah’s contributions to gardening in Northern California through her 23 plus years of work at the WPA Rock Garden adds richness to the lives of all of us who walk the garden’s pathways - be it a quick morning walk or a leisurely afternoon wedding. Photo: A sweep of purple society garlic (Tulbaghia violacea )catch the mid-day sun at the WPA Rock Garden.

A fixture of Sacramento’s plant community, Daisy is an active garden designer, horticultural speaker, and member of the Perennial Plant Club of Sacramento. She has designed a traditional Chinese Garden in Locke, California in the Delta region near where she grew up, as well as a Healing Garden at Sacramento’s Sutter Hospital. Additionally, she has been instrumental in the implementation and design of round-a-bout gardens in several of Sacramento’s urban neighborhoods. Besides the WPA Rock Garden, Daisy oversees long stretches of roadside gardens throughout William Land Park and several island gardens in the park’s various ponds and lakes. Photo: A working pot standing guard at the entrance to Daisy’s home garden. Known as Chinese egg pots, these ceramic vessels “were once used for shipping thousand-year old eggs, which my uncle in San Francisco incorporated in Chinese pastries. My uncle has died and eggs are now shipped in styrofoam,” she related.

More of my environmental writing can be found in the Chico News & Review, and Pacific Horticulture. Follow Jewellgarden.com/In a North State Garden on Facebook. Photo: One of the William Land Park’s island gardens that Daisy tends in addition to the one-acre WPA Rock Garden. Lower picture shows the colorful, heat-loving bloom in one of Daisy’s roadway plantings in the park: blue salvia, salvia clevelandii, yellow single-flowering marigold and red cosmos.

To submit plant/gardening related events/classes to the Jewellgarden.com on-line Calendar of Regional Gardening Events, send the pertinent information to me at: Jennifer@jewellgarden.com

Did you know I send out a weekly email with information about upcoming topics and gardening related events in the North State region? If you would like to be added to the mailing list, send an email to Jennifer@jewellgarden.com.

In a North State Garden is a weekly Northstate Public Radio and web-based program celebrating the art, craft and science of home gardening in Northern California. Made possible in part by the Gateway Science Museum - Exploring the Natural History of the North State and on the campus of CSU, Chico, In a North State Garden is conceived, written, photographed and hosted by Jennifer Jewell - all rights reserved jewellgarden.com. In a North State Garden airs on Northstate Public Radio Saturday mornings at 7:34 AM Pacific time and Sunday morning at 8:34 AM Pacific time. Podcasts of past shows are available here. Weekly essays are also posted on anewscafe.com a regional news source that is simultaneously universal and positively North State.

Autumn’s arrival for me is accompanied by a renewed sense of community. Perhaps it is the return of regular school schedules, and the return of regular monthly meetings for garden clubs and organizations. Perhaps it is the primal sense of oncoming winter and a need to come together and prepare. Perhaps it’s the anticipation and energy of the harvest – from the vast chartreuse rice fields and the statuesque almond, olive and walnut orchards running through our region, to the end-of-summer tomatoes, peppers, beans, and squash finishing up in our home gardens and now filling our kitchen counters, freezers and shelves. Cool, even cold, nights and days with a prospect of rain are returning. We are gathering, and we are planning and planting for the seasons to come. Photo: Rice fields, Central Valley in October. (more…)

As a person who visits gardens large and small, fabulous and fantastic as part of what I do, I find it really easy - frustratingly easy - to fall into a trap of garden envy and discontent. Maybe my garden should be bigger? Or smaller? Maybe it should be more whimsical? Perhaps more formal and statuesque? If only I had more trees? More ferns? More flowers? More time? More money? Ahhh…if only I had more. Photo: The Breakers historic mansion and garden Newport, Rhode Island, summer 2009.

But then late October and November come upon me and the garden. In many areas, it is the end of the growing season for summer flowers and typical summer fruits and vegetables. It’s the beginning of seasonal rain and snow, the season of evergreens and winter vegetables. It is the season of deep bold colors exuberantly lighting up in contrast to the softening, lessening light - the last ditch efforts at glory for our roses, our tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers. It’s the beginning of the citrus season in the valley portions of the North State. It’s the season of storing the fruits of our labor for winter; the season of digging hopeful and un-likely-looking bulbs into cooling, dark soil in hopes of spring beauty returning in time. It’s the season of that first killing frost having arrived in almost all gardening zones of our region and the beginning of simpler times in the garden. Photo: Autumn oak leaves. (more…)

Fall is the time to plant trees in the North State and a special edition of In a North State Garden aired this past Thursday, October 22nd, specifically discussing choosing, planting, and caring for trees in your North State garden. Two guest experts joined me to answer your tree questions and to discuss trees in the garden in general. It was a fascinating conversation, and I hope to have the podcast of the show up at Jewellgarden.com in a week or so. Photo: The gnarled evocative branches of an old oak tree.
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Northstate Public Radio - KFPR 88.9 FM Redding, CA and KCHO 91.7 FM Chico, CA is in the midst of their Fall 2009 Membership Drive and the theme of the drive is: Branching Out! During the drive, regular programming is replaced with special programming and I will be hosting a special, one-hour, live call-in edition of In a North State Garden this coming Thursday the 22nd of October from 10 - 11 am, featuring two special North State guests talking with us about trees in the North State garden. While you can only touch on a tiny amount of information pertaining to such a vast topic in the course of an hour, our conversation will try to cover some basic ideas on how to choose your trees, how to place and plant your trees and how to care for them over time, including how and when to water, feed and prune. So if you have questions - please feel free to tune in and call in at the time, or send me questions by email prior to the show and I will ask our guests during the show! Send questions to: Jennifer@jewellgarden.com. (Photos for this essay are all attempts at a Branching Out and/or Up visual metaphor.) (more…)

On October 3rd, the Red Bluff Garden Club Annual Floral Design Luncheon will be held at the Rolling Hills Casino from 8:30 am to 2:00 pm. This year entitled: “Garden Splendor - a Luncheon and More,” the design program will be led by nationally acclaimed floral designer Lorna Bonham, who will provide simple but unique floral designs that anyone can create. If you have never attemped a floral arrangment in your life or you’re an experienced designer, you will go home with new ideas. Come early to look over the raffle, amazing silent and live auction items as well as check out all the vendors: The Plant Barn and Gift Shop, Gourds Galore, Jenny’s Jewelry, Birdhouse and Crafts, The Gifted Garden, Graceful Charm Jewelry, A Stitch in Time, Natural Soy Candles, At Two Foxes and Photos by Megan! Tickets are available from Red Bluff Garden Club members and in Red Bluff from California Kitchen and Red Bluff Garden Center; in Corning from Interland Business; in Los Molinos from Latimers Pharmacy; in Chico from the Plant Barn, Little Red Hen Nursery, and Little Red Hen Gift Shop; in Redding, from Wild Thymes Nursery. For more Info: 530-529-2306 or 530-824-5661 or www.redbluffgardenclub.com. Photo: Flowers on the front page of the Red Bluff Garden Club’s very good website: www.redbluffgardenclub.com - check it out - you’ll love the music and butterflies entering to join in the fun.

Below is an profile about the Red Bluff Garden Club and their history and on-going work in our region, and which was published early this year.

Until I moved to the North State, I had never belonged to a garden club. My mother was never in a garden club, nor was my father, for that matter. I am not sure why, but in my own mind garden clubs were – well – ‘clubby’, sort of stuffy and a bit exclusive and not my cup of tea. But I had aunties – and not stuffy ones – who were very involved in their local garden clubs. My aunt in Virginia was one of these. When my cousins, her daughters, were married (at different times), the garden club ladies who had been long-time friends with my aunt came out in force - dressed in dirty jeans and muddy shoes, with their clippers and their beat-up cars full of garden stuff. They picked masses of flowers from their own gardens and spent the better part of the day before each of the weddings arranging. Finally, they arrived at each of the weddings cleaned up and flower-proud. This was not stuffy or clubby – this was a sisterhood of good gardeners doing good things. Photo: The new Cone & Kimball Plaza Clock Tower on the same corner in downtown Red Bluff where the historic clock tower stood.

Lorna Bonham, a retired educator, and Cathy Wilson, a retired nurse, are just such garden club ladies. Both are members of the Red Bluff Garden Club, a very active garden club dating back to the 1950s. Lorna’s mother was a charter member and her father was a well-known regional horticulturist. Cathy on the other hand has lived and gardened throughout the west and was a Master Gardener in the Yuba City area before moving to Red Bluff fairly recently. She has been a member of the Red Bluff Garden Club for a little over a year. But lifelong member or new member notwithstanding, Lorna and Cathy are both excellent examples of what garden club members for the most part actually are: good gardeners doing good things. Photo: Cathy Wilson (left) and Lorna Bonham (right), are members of the Red Bluff Garden Club and instrumental in the club’s part in the Cone & Kimball Plaza restoration project.

My copyright 1936 Taylor’s Encyclopedia of Gardening has this to say about garden clubs: “Second only to the experiment stations, the garden clubs are the greatest single agency of the advancement of gardening in America. Their lectures, test gardens and influence for better standards of the art of horticulture are of incalculable value.” According to the National Garden Clubs (once known as the Federated Garden Clubs), Inc website: “The first garden club in America was founded in January 1891 by The Ladies Garden Club of Athens (Georgia).” Originally garden clubs were often Ladies clubs or Men’s clubs, but in this day and age, they are men and women, young and old. Here and now, the North State is a region of active and dedicated garden clubs, the Red Bluff Garden Club being just one. See below for contact information on other garden clubs in our region.

One of the many good things that the Red Bluff Garden Club has taken on in the past few years is being a part of the community-based committee overseeing the restoration of the historic Cone & Kimball Plaza in downtown Red Bluff. As part of this committee, the garden club is working on the planting and garden aspect of the restoration and Lorna and Cathy have been instrumental on this front. I met with them one crisp morning last November to tour and to talk about the project. Photo: The raised planters have a vibrant combination of burnt-red Nandina ‘Firepower’ and Gaillardia ‘Little Goblin’ among other plants.

Here’s some background: The Cone & Kimball Building, with its 100-foot ornate Victorian clock tower, was originally built in 1886 and became “one of the most photographed buildings of the region.” It was often referred to as the “heart of Red Bluff” and was a regional icon. People driving across the North State often gauged where they were in their progress by how far they had to go to or how far they had come from the Red Bluff clock tower – which was visible for miles in all directions. On April 30, 1984 – at 98 years old - the building and its tower burned down. The resulting empty lot was fenced and lay barren for nearly 14 years. In 1997, the Red Bluff Rotary purchased the derelict lot and from there, formed a committee of community members and organizations, eventually including the Historical Red Bluff Association, city personnel, concerned individuals and the Red Bluff Garden Club. Together these groups hoped to “return the spot to a source of pride for the residents of Tehama County.” Photo: Vintage photo of the historic Cone & Kimball building in downtown Red Bluff. The building was often called the “heart of Red Bluff.”

According to grant applications written in 2001, “the plans for the Cone & Kimball Plaza included a replica of the tower on the corner where it originally stood, a small outdoor covered stage area, and a water feature along with benches and trees and shrubs to provide lots of shade and a restful downtown park…that will eventually become a part of the city park system.” The Red Bluff Garden Club took on the assignment of securing the funds and materials for the plantings as designed by the consulting landscape architect, Patrick Sullivan. The idea behind the design being to “select trees and shrubs and particular cultivars that suited to the area and will add color and/or a green background throughout the year.” Photo: Plans for the restoration of the Cone & Kimball site.

Ultimately, George Winter of Wyntour Gardens Nursery in Redding and the Red Bluff Garden Center in Red Bluff, agreed to provide many of the plants for the first stages of the plantings in 2001, including the seven prominent ornamental pears that form the backbone of the new plaza’s canopy. In the years since then, and under the direction of the Cone & Kimball committee, the new clock tower, the covered gazebo, the benches and walkways have all been completed.

In terms of the plantings, the sod is laid, the pear trees are maturing nicely, the planter boxes are filled with colorful and easy care perennials that can stand up to Central Valley heat. The raised planters have a vibrant combination of burnt-red Nandina ‘Firepower’ and the wide-leafed and wooly-textured silver sage, Salvia argentea. “Embracing” and “framing” the covered gazebo in fairly shady, far-back corner of the plaza are beds planted with the plump and welcoming shapes of Alberta Spruce (Picea) as well as the bright-yellow, strappy leaves of Acorus gramineus, and Osmanthus heterophyllus ‘Goshiki’, with its holly-like texture and its multi-colored, variegated leaves. Daffodil bulbs and Gaillardia ‘Little Goblin’ are planted throughout many of the beds to round out the early spring and late fall flowers. Photo: Burnt-red Nandina ‘Firepower’ and the wide-leafed and wooly-textured silver sage, Salvia argentea.

A mural on a wall adjacent to the plaza depicts a Victorian era park and avenue, complete with a Victorian couple strolling the boulevard. Working with that, the garden club planted an “avenue” of ‘Little Ollie’ Dwarf Standard Olive trees, under planted with purple-leafed Loropetalum chinense, or ‘Fringe Flower’. “We wanted to complement the mural, and with it to refer back to the Victorian history of the area as well as the importance of the Olive farms to the region,” Cathy explained to me. Paying homage to the history, pride and value of the heart of Red Bluff is clearly central to what this garden club project is about. Club members, currently overseen by President, Sharon Kessey, provide a good portion of the maintenance to the plantings throughout the year. Photo: The garden club planted an “avenue” of ‘Little Ollie’ Dwarf Standard Olive trees, under planted with purple-leafed Loropetalum chinense, or ‘Fringe Flower’.

The final phase of the total restoration project, and fund-raising for it, are well under-way. The restoration committee has still to choose, purchase and install a water-feature of some kind against the last remaining empty wall of the plaza. The Red Bluff Garden Club hopes, with the approval of the committee, to back the feature with a hedge of Camellia bushes, varieties of which they are researching as I write. The final touches are being placed on the walk-ways, including the laying of commemorative bricks edging main walkways to recognize the many people who have supported the overall project these many years. Donations are of course still being taken to finish the project – which the entire Cone & Kimball restoration committee hopes will be this year.

And you can still buy a brick with your name on it. How simple a gesture is that to help mend a broken heart? More information about the Red Bluff Garden Club and their monthly programs and community outreach projects, including their part in the Cone & Kimball Plaza restoration, can be found at: www.redbluffgardenclub.com

National and State Garden Club Organizations:

www.gcamerica.org
www.gardenclub.org/home.aspx
www.californiagardenclubs.com

For Regional Garden Clubs:

Anderson Valley Garden Club - President: Sue Anderson, Redding
email: anne-c@sbcglobal.net
YAC: Anne Capes, Anderson, CA

Cottonwood Garden Club- President: LaSaine Ware, Cottonwood, CA
YAC: Alice Spinks, Cottonwood, CA



Lake California Garden Club- President: Genevieve Leigh, Cottonwood, CA
email: gleigh@charter.net

Lewiston Garden Club - 
President: Barbara Bailey, Weaverville, CA
email: bbpatch@jett.net
YAC: Jenni Brookins, Weaverville, CA

Redding Wonderland Garden Club - President: Pat Malotte, Redding, CA
email: malottepat@wmconnect.com

Lake Shasta Garden Project - President: Lynni Miller, Shasta Lake, CA
email: lynni@thegrid.net



Trinity Garden Club- 
President: Rusty Lester, Weaverville, CA
email: wruetta@aol.com

Chico Horticulture Society -
Co-Presidents: Anna LaRossa, ajnrj@sbcglobal.net; Chico, CA
Emilie White, mleblanca@aol.com Chico, CA

Friendly Garden Club, Orland - President: Jo Wigdahl, Orland, CA
email: gerrywigdahl@thegrid.net



Garden Club of Colusa County- President: Cynthia D. White, Colusa, CA
email: jimncyn@frontiernet.net

Lake Oroville Area Garden Club - President: Joyce Rivera, Oroville, CA
email: joycie2u@sbcglobal.net

Magalia Beautification Association - President: Linda Weeks, Magala, CA
email: 2redhds@sbcglobal.net

Paradise Garden Club, Inc. - President: Donna Beronda, Paradise, CA
email: beronda@sbcglobal.net
web site: http://www.geocities.com/scpd730/PGCI.html

Sutter Buttes Garden Club - President: Kay Cockrell, Yuba City, CA Bev Foss 530-673-4565

In a North State Garden is an outreach program of the Gateway Science Museum - Exploring the Natural History of the North State, based in Chico, CA. In a North State Garden is radio and web-based and celebrates the art, craft and science of home gardening in California’s North State region. It is conceived, written, photographed and hosted by Jennifer Jewell - all rights reserved jewellgarden.com. In A North State Garden airs on Northstate Public Radio KCHO/KFPR radio, Saturday mornings at 7:34 AM Pacific time and Sunday morning at 8:34 AM Pacific time. Podcasts of past shows are available here. Weekly essays are also posted on anewscafe.com a regional news source that is positively North State.

I grew up spending several weeks each summer with my parents, grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles in a small town on the rocky Rhode Island coast. In that breezy seaside climate, with sun and salt-air, the July and August roadsides and farmsteads were extravagantly adorned with the big, brash, bold and brazen blooms of hydrangeas. So-called mophead hydrangeas, lacecap hydrangeas and climbing hydrangeas were everywhere nodding their cheerful blue, pink and white heads. Now, mostly through association, hydrangeas are firmly in my top ten favorite garden flowers - they speak to me of summer vacation: of laughter and seashells, ice-cream cones and lighthouses, lightening bugs and late mornings with sandy sheets. Hyrdangeas are - simply put - happy. Photo: Blue lacecap hydrangeas (Hydrangea macrophylla) along a stone wall in Little Compton, Rhode Island.

Hydrangeas are ancient plants and fossils of hydrangea foliage in the southeastern United States date back to the early tertiary period of our planet’s history. In contemporary times, they happily grow in almost any township with water from Maine to Florida, New York to California, Washington State to Southern California. They are cheerfully ubiquitous. And all this speaks volumes about their hardiness. They can take sun, wind and bitter winter cold. They don’t mind the burning salt air, and they can even take some drought once established - but one thing they don’t like to live without is what the coasts have year-round: humidity. Which might make you wonder how well they will do in the relatively dry and reliably hot North State? Photo: Climbing hydrangeas (Hydrangea petiolaris) along an old outbuilding in Little Compton, Rhode Island.

Chico home gardener, Daran Goodsell and the 20 various hydrangeas that flourish in her Chico garden are here to tell you that hydrangeas like the North State Garden just fine. Photo: Cheerful pink mophead hydrangeas (Hydrangea Macrophylla) and the white panicle of an oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia) in Daran and Dan Goodsell’s Chico garden.

Daran and her husband Dan have been working on their current garden for about 5 years. When they moved in, Daran knew the backyard was ideal for hydrangeas because of its eastern exposure, which would allow for 4 -5 hours of morning light, and its many high trees, which would provide dappled mid-day light. She brought just one hydrangea with her from her old garden, but she was determined to get more. With this hydrangea expansion in mind, she and Dan prepared their backyard beds accordingly. “The soil is so important to hydrangeas,” Daran tells me, “they need nutrient rich soil and regular water, but they do not like to have wet feet.” To provide the right drainage, the Goodsells double dug their garden beds to loosen the soil more than two feet down, and then added 1 foot of new compost to the mix. This high concentration of organic matter mimics that of the woodland floor to which hydrangeas are native in East Asia and North and South America. Photo: Daran Goodsell among her hydrangeas.

In addition to the careful soil preparation, Daran feeds her hydrangeas two times a year, right before their bloom cycle and then as needed throughout the season. “You’ll know when they need a boost,” she tells me. “Their leaves will look yellow or heavily veined.” Daran uses an organic hydrangea/camellia (which is slightly acidic) food sold at nurseries. Finally, once a year, she top dresses her plants with a new 1-inch layer of compost to keep the soil loose and rich. Photo: The luminous creamy panicle of a mature oakleaf hydrangea (H. quercifolia) complementing the deep burgundy of a japanese maple in Daran Goodsell’s garden.

After the soil prep, regular water was the next consideration. Daran and Dan allowed for two kinds of water to the hydrangea beds: drip for the regular deep watering, and small mister heads to get humidity-like moisture to the foliage “especially on our hot, hot summer days,” says Daran. She waters her plants from May - October and does water them once a day in our hottest summer stretch. She then turns the misters on mid-day or early afternoon briefly for that shot of cooling moisture to the leaves. Hydrangeas are pretty thirsty plants, Daran stresses. “If watering or drainage is an issue - the way to go is containers,” Daran tells me. Photo: One of the hydrangea borders at the Goodsell garden.

Hydrangeas are a genus of more than 80 species and many, many cultivars and hyrbids of evergreen and deciduous shrubs and climbers. Native North American hydrangeas include: Hydrangea arborescens also known as smooth hydrangea, which is native to the eastern United States as far west as Iowa, and Hydrangea quercifolia, or oakleaf hydrangea, which is native to the southern US. While hydrangeas rarely grow as trees, the Hydrangea paniculata ‘Grandiflora’ - also known as the ‘Pee Gee’ Hydrangea, is often grown limbed up (with all lower branches removed to expose a main trunk) as a small tree. Hydrangea macrophylla is perhaps the most common species, and includes the common “mophead” and “lacecap” forms - often with their cotton-candy colors of blue or pink. Hydrangeas can run reddish, purple, blue or pink based on amount of available aluminum in their soil and aluminum is made available to the plants based on the acidity of the soil. To a certain extent, you can affect their color using soil supplements to alter the acidity. In general, white forms of hydrangeas will remain white in any soil, although some ‘white’ forms move from creamy to pinkish through the season. Photo: The red stem of H. macrophylla ‘Lady in Red’. The red stem holds winter interest much like red twig dogwood (Cornus sericea).

Hydrangea flower heads are actually large collections of small flowers - the most showy ones are sterile and the little fuzzy-looking ones in the center or underneath are the fertile flowers. These collections of flower heads, known as corymbs, come in various shapes and sizes from the flat form of the lacecaps and climbers (Hydrangea petiolaris) to the domed and rounded heads of the mopheads to the elongated panicles of the oakleaves and paniculatas. Daran likes the oakleaf hydrangeas best for beginning growers because they do not go fully deciduous and they have great burnished red fall color. “You just can’t kill them,” she assures me. Photo: A close up showing the sterile flat white flowers on a hydrangea corymb with the fertile flower heads below.

To keep your hydrangea plants in good form, prune the stems that flowered last year down to the first set of double leaves on the branch. You can prune right after blooms are done or you can leave the flower heads through the winter for winter interest. As cut flowers, it is hard to beat a hydrangea for drama, but they can be finicky and one will wilt right away while another will hold its bloom for weeks or even dry in the vase and be lovely as a dried flower. Some people recommend burning the end of the flower stem to seal the moisture into the stem, others advocate cutting the stem at a steep angle or even mashing the end of the stem to allow it to absorb as much water as possible. Photo: A purple form lacecap.

Currently, three sides of the Goodsell’s back garden are lined with hydrangeas. The common blue mophead blooms happily alongside the specialty varieties. Daran likes hydrangeas as much for their interesting foliage as for their stunning blooms - and her garden has three gray, white and green variegated plants as well as a coveted tri-color, which has white, yellow and green leaf markings. The star of the show (pardon the pun) when I visited in early summer was perhaps the ‘Starburst’ hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens ‘Haye’s Starburst’), whose delicate double-sterile flower heads are borne on varying length stems giving the impression of a shooting star. Gorgeous. Photo: Hydrangea arborescens ‘Haye’s Starburst’ in Daran’s garden.

Daran has orders in for at least four more hydrangeas she has read about about now “must have.” Dan, a former potter whose artistic work can be seen throughout their house and garden and whose old kiln bricks make up their garden patio, is in charge of garden hardscape - and something tells me he is going to be busy building and digging this fall. Photos: (Right) The variegation on Daran’s Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Variegata’, and (Left) her Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Tri-Color’.

In a North State Garden is a radio- and web-based outreach program of the Gateway Science Museum - Exploring the Natural History of the North State, based in Chico, CA. In a North State Garden celebrates the art, craft and science of home gardening in California’s North State region, and is conceived, written, photographed and hosted by Jennifer Jewell - all rights reserved jewellgarden.com. In A North State Garden airs on Northstate Public Radio KCHO/KFPR radio, Saturday mornings at 7:34 AM Pacific time and Sunday morning at 8:34 AM Pacific time. Podcasts of past shows are available here. Weekly essays are also posted on anewscafe.com a regional news source that is positively North State.

Lynette Gooch loves lavender. All kinds of lavender for all kinds of reasons. In the United Kingdom the gardening world has things known as National Collections, wherein when a specific garden has more species or varieties of any one kind of plant than any other garden, they can become designated a National Collection. Private gardens and gardeners are as likely to hold National Collections as larger public botanic gardens. In the United States, we do not have such a scheme, but if we did, Lynette Gooch and her husband Richard might well hold the National Collection of lavender with their 207 different named varieties of lavender at the display gardens in Whitmore: Tuscan Heights Lavender Gardens.

Grown as a culinary and medicinal herb throughout the world, throughout time, lavender (Lavandula) is a genus comprising multiple species and hybrids. Species of the genus originate from the Mediterranean, Africa and Asia, and the genus thrives in the Mediterranean climate of the North State.

The Tuscan Heights’ story started in 1999 when Lynette and Richard, farmer/gardeners at heart, were looking around the North State with possible re-location in mind. Living in Roseville at the time, Lynette is from Calaveras County originally and of strong Italian descent, with fond memories of the large family production garden she grew up helping to tend with her father. “Of five kids, I seem to have been the most gardening inclined, which I think has helped me out here!” she tells me the warm summer day I toured around the gardens. “We were about to leave and head home when Richard by chance picked a local discount classified paper and happened to read about land in Whitmore. ‘Where’s Whitmore?’, he asked me. So we drove up, I got out of the car, looked around, breathed deeply, kicked at the dirt with my foot and said - This is it. Let’s write the check.” Although the sloping land was covered in poison oak, manzanita and blackberry, Lynette knew she was home. The Fern Fire had devastated the area 12 years earlier, and Lynette could see that the soil had begun to recover and was ready for any garden she might want to grow. Neither she, the land nor Richard knew just what that garden would become.
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Who does not love a wildflower? While not every wildflower enthusiast is a gardener, every gardener I know is a wildflower enthusiast at some level.

I chatted recently with Linnea Hanson, former Forest Botanist and now Ecosystems Manager for the Plumas National Forest and Chris Christofferson, District Botanist for the Forest about the enduring appeal of wildflowers. “I am just a sucker for a pretty face – who isn’t?” said Chris, “wildflowers sport fabulous blooms and so many of them smell so great! I can’t resist them.” Linnea went on to say “The spring wildflower bloom is so exciting – when you have lived in the same area for a long time, you mark your internal seasonal clock by the wildflowers’ blooming – it’s like seeing old friends again and as you walk or drive through the region you want to call out – ‘Oh hi! the Tidy tips are out’ or ‘Look – the fiddleheads have returned!’ And it makes you happy.” Photo: Fiddlenecks (Amsinckia menziesii var. intermedia in March.)

Wildflowers start to bloom in force in the lower elevations of our region in late February early-March and keep on going through June, July and August in the higher elevations. According to Julie Nelson, Forest Botanist for the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, “The low elevation stuff is popping. Clikapudi Trail on the south side of Shasta Lake has beaucoup shooting stars (Dodecatheon hendersonii), hound’s tongue (Cynoglossum grande, one of my all time favorites), goldback fern (Pentagramma triangularis), osoberry (Oemleria cerasiformis) and toothwort (Cardamine californica) to name a few.” Photo: Coast Boykinia (Boykinia occidentalis).

Perhaps one of the reasons we love wildflowers is that they are not necessarily easy to grow or desirable in your home garden, and so their beauty is that much more fleeting and precious. With this in mind, as wildflower season continues, make sure to follow the commonsense rules best summarized as: “Take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footsteps – and those should generally be on the trail!” Further, pay attention and be observant so that you can avoid encounters that might detract from your wildflower viewing: always bring water, sunscreen, good shoes and appropriate clothing - raincoat, hat, gloves, etc. Keep your eyes open for poison oak and spring creatures such as rattlesnakes and bears that might be waking up. Photo: Buttercup (Ranunculus)

Finally, while picking wildflowers might be your first instinct, think again and leave the flowers where they are to bring beauty to the next viewers, feed the pollinators and continue to build the plant communities we love. If you want to have some of these gorgeous plants and flowers for yourself, purchase them from a reputable seller or grower such as your local garden center or nursery or better yet at one of our regional California Native Plant Society Plant Sale fundraisers, such as the Mt. Lassen chapter’s Wildflower Art Show and Plant Sale in Chico on April 19th. Photo: Douglas Lupine (Lupinus nanus).

Look through the events, classes, workshops and good wildflower viewing sites listed below and - Let the Show Begin!

Upcoming Events and Classes: (Listed chronologically)

o Shasta College Class Wildflowers of California (BOT 50 Section 2343) March 16 through April 27, Mondays, 6:00-8:50 pm. Learn to identify our local wildflowers along with examining their structural characteristics. Two field trips are planned to observe these beautiful flowers in their natural settings and to reinforce sight identification. Instructor: James Nelson. For more info: http://www.shastacollege.edu/cms.aspx?id=435 Photo: A single Buttercup (Ranunculus) on a rocky outcropping.

o Friends of the Chico Herbarium Name that Wildflower! Workshop, March 28th, led by Linnea Hanson and Jenny Marr. Will include some classroom instruction and some field work around Horseshoe Lake in Upper Bidwell Park, Chico. Students might see Twining Brodiaea (Dichelostemma volubile), Lupine Bicolor (Lupinus bicolor), Yellow Violets (Viola praemorsa), Ithuriel’s spear (Triteleia laxa), Yellow Carpet (Blennosperma nannum) and goldfields (Lasthenia californica). For the $35 entrance fee you get a full day of training AND the Peterson Field Guide to Wildflowers of the Pacific States - an outstanding value. For more info: http://www.csuchico.edu/biol/Herb/Events.htmlPhoto: Blue Dicks (Dichelostemma capitatum) in Chico’s Upper Bidwell Park in March.

o General Meeting for the Mt. Lassen Chapter of the California Native Plant Society, - April 2nd, 7:30 pm. Chris Christofferson will present a talk on Burning Bear Grass for California Indian Basketweavers. Butte County Library, Chico. More info: Gerry Ingco: 530-893-5123.

o 3rd Annual Wildflower & Nature Festival at Riverbend Park in Oroville April 4th & 5th, 10 – 4 pm each day. This two day festival will feature educational booths and tables hosted by the agencies whose task it is to manage the many land resources in our region – including education people about wildflowers and helping viewers to better enjoy and protect these treasures. Guided hikes on Table Mountain and to Feather Falls will be offered as well as Plant Sales, Wildlife Art, Barbeque and much more. And I have heard that Smokey the Bear just might be there! For more info: http://www.frrpd.com/index_files/WFF.htm. Photo: Iconic California poppies (Eschscholzia californica) blooming along a roadway in Chico in March.

o Mount Lassen Chapter of the CNPS Wildflower Plant Sale and Art Show! April 19th CARD CENTER, CHICO, 10 am – 4 pm. Mount Lassen Chapter of the CNPS Wildflower Plant Sale and Art Show! is the major Biennial Fundraiser for the Mount Lassen chapter of the CNPS. Over 200 species of plants from local plant communities will be labeled and on display for you to see. Deb Yau, owner of Native Springs Nursery in Yankee Hill, is in charge of the Native Plant Sale aspect of this event and tells me “This is a sale NOT to miss. It will feature treasures grown by members and local nurseries – things you wont see other places. You will be able to grow in your own garden some of the gorgeous wildflowers you love in the wild – and you will be supporting your garden’s diversity, the Mount Lassen chapter of CNPS, and native plant and pollinator populations! It’s a win-win-win.” The Native Plant Art Show will feature photographs, paintings and other art by regional artists depicting the wildflowers of our region. Educational Displays will have information about invasive and rare plants. Books, posters, t-shirts, and more will be for sale. Plant Experts will be on hand for your enjoyment and Nature Walks, and Children’s Activities will round out the activities. For more info Contact: Ellen Copeland: 530-345-1826. Photo: California Fuschia (Epilobium canum; syn. Zauschneria californica) at the McConnell Arboretum and Gardens in August.

o Cal Native Plant Soc Mt. Lassen Chapter General Meeting May 2, 7:30 pm with presentation on Managing Rare Plant Communities on Serpentine outcrops with Linnea Hanson. Butte County Library, Chico. More info: Gerry Ingco: 530-893-5123. Photo: Pipevine (Aristolochia californica) in bloom in lower Bidwell Park in Chico in February.

Good wildflower viewing sites throughout the season include: (generally listed moving from the south to the north)

➢ Table Mountain, which is in full swing now through April, and Feather Falls, which is just beginning now but should be in full swing in April, are both near Oroville and are great walk/hikes open to the public year round. Follow these links for maps and hike descriptions: http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/plumas/publications/pdfs/hiking/fr_featherfalls_infomap.pdf; http://www.calphoto.com/clcwl/table.pdf Photo: Wild Cucumber or Common Manroot (Marah fabaceus) twines through grass and scrub.

➢ Near Lake Oroville, The Potter’s Ravine Trail should be in bloom now through April and early May.

➢ Lumpkin Ridge Road – further up in the Plumas-National Forest and east of Oroville, west of Quincy – should be in full-bloom in May and “The Harlequin Lupine (Lupinus stiversii) will knock your socks off,” Chris Christofferson said.

➢ Rim Road above Concow is a rare plant community habitat on serpentine outcroppings and is a good place to watch fire recovery in action after last year’s fires. Photo: Miner’s Lettuce (Claytonia perfoliata) along a damp embankment in late February.

➢ Magalia – all along the Skyway provides great views over wildflower meadows and oak habitat.

➢ Bidwell Park in Chico: Horsehoe Lake and Trails in Upper Bidwell Park as well as most of Lower Bidwell park as well will be good wildflower viewing March – early May.

➢ Vina Plains Preserve is managed by the Nature Conservancy and they often host wildflower tours in spring. The site is home to more than 280 species of plants and you should see Adobe Lily (Fritillaria pluriflora). Because Vina Plains Preserve is a working ranch, it is open to the public on a very limited basis. For more information, call (530) 527-4261. Photo: Butter and Eggs (Triphysaria eriantha) blooming en masse in Upper Bidwell Park in Chico in March.

➢ The Sacramento River Bend Area, just north of Red Bluff, offers spectacular wildflower displays throughout the spring. Vast vistas of yellow and purple fields are common during a springtime hike along the Yana trail. Contact the Redding Field Office at (530) 224-2100 for more information.

➢ Sacramento River Trail in and around Redding – runs through part of the McConnell Arboretum and Gardens.

➢ Shasta Lake Clikapudi Trail on the south side of Shasta Lake is a good place to watch fire recovery in action–it burned several years ago in the Bear Fire. Here’s a link to a trail map:http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/shastatrinity/documents/st-main/maps/rogs/shasta-lake/trails.pdf. Photo: Tidy tips (Layia fremontii) in March.

➢ Blue Door Flat - northeast California, south of Alturas. “The Blue Door Flat area provides an interesting area to watch waterfowl, shorebirds and songbirds, as well as colorful wildflowers…in spring the meadow provides a fantastic array of color…” Contact the Alturas Field Office at (530) 233-4666.

➢ Later in the season, Waters Gulch and Squaw Valley Creek are good–see
http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/regions/pacificsouthwest/WatersGulch/index.shtml
http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/regions/pacificsouthwest/SquawValley/index.shtml Photo: Star-Lily (Zigadenus fremontii).

➢ Also later in the season - Bunker Hill Ridge on the Pacific Crest Trail should be in full bloom June/July. The trail around Little Grass Valley Reservoir provides a great view of the lake and the wildflowers in June/July.

Good resources:

Some great resources for learning about and identifying Wildflowers include the USDA Forest Service’s on-line resource Celebrating Wildflowers with in-depth discussions of issues facing wildflowers and other native plants, Children’s activities and Teaching resources – check it out: http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers Photo: Butter and Eggs (Triphysaria eriantha), Star-Lily (Zigadenus fremontii) and intermittent Tidy tips (Layia fremontii) light up a damp March meadow in the North State.

Many good books for about western and regional wildflowers are in publication – most of which are available at your local library, local books stores such as Lyons Books in Chico, and many should be available for purchase at the CNPS Mt. Lassen Chapter Wildflower Plant Sale and Art Show! On April 19th at the CARD center in Chico:

Peterson Field Guide Pacific States Wildflowers, Theodore F. Neihaus & Charles L. Ripper, Copyright 1998.

National Audubon Society Field Guide to Wildflowers Western Region, Richard Spellenberg, Copyright 2001 Knopf Publishing.

Wildflowers of Table Mountain, Butte County, California
 by Samantha Mackey and Albin Bills, illustrated by Larry Jansen,
Copyright 2004, CSU Chico Studies from the Herbarium.

Wildflowers of Nevada and Placer Counties, California, Copyright 2007, Redbud Chapter of the California Native Plant Society.

In a North State Garden is a radio- and web-based outreach program of the Northern California Natural History Museum, in Chico, Calif. The mission of In a North State Garden is to celebrate the art, craft and science of home gardening in California’s North State region. The program is conceived, written, photographed and hosted by Jennifer Jewell - all rights reserved. To read more from In A North State Garden or to listen to the podcasts aired on Northstate Public Radio KCHO/KFPR radio, click on jewellgarden.com. Weekly essays are also posted on anewscafe.com a regional news source that is positively North State.