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…)

Despite what feels like many weeks of rain (snow in the high country) and gray weather lingering into late spring this year, I am deeply gratified by those plants in my garden that are flourishing regardless. Some of these plants, as I would expect, are positively reveling in the almost coastal weather pattern. But some of these wet-gray-spring-garden successes are wonderful surprises - salvia number among these. Almost all of my salvias - from the greggii to the leucophylla and clevelandii, to the more exotic varieties, are in full growth and most in full flower now - many having started by mid-May. While generally heat and drought loving, they are all showing their tremendous tolerance for a range of climatic circumstances and will almost all of them continue to bloom with gusto until late summer and early fall. Hummingbirds, bees and butterflies - perhaps also weary of the lingering rain and gray skies - nectar enthusiastically at the the warm, bright salvia blooms.

With all of this in mind, it seemed a good time to re-run this piece, originally published in September 2010, featuring Mike Thiede, a regional grower and hybridizer of salvias talking about his passion for the plants and his thoughts on their care. Enjoy.

Mike Thiede gets excited about plants. “You will never guess what I just found?” he said in all excitement the last time I met with him - and he did not wait for me to answer or guess, but continued on describing to me a plant he’d run across that really shouldn’t have been where he found it. He was thrilled. Mike Thiede is a plantsman - and so plants in general do thrill him. But among all the plants that might thrill him, Mike has a special place for Salvia - the genus of plants most closely associated with his name and hybridizing skills in our region. Photo: Tall, blue and furry Salvia leucantha forms a backdrop for red and apricot Salvia greggii hybrids. (more…)

For almost all of her almost eight decades, Jeanne Zimmerman has been gardening and for a good part of that time she has been growing - and loving - the elegance and hard-to-beat beauty of clematis flowers and vines. “The radiant colors, the long bloom time and the ease of growing them - here and in Minnesota where I learned to garden - make them the perfect garden plant,” Jeanne says warmly. “Besides, they so nicely cover any ugly fence.” From a farming family, and a long-standing member of the Chico Horticultural Society, Jeannie is a natural gardener and naturally generous in sharing her experience and knowledge. “I am no expert,” she is quick to say, while other experienced gardeners and plants people smilingly dismiss this modesty: She is an expert with her clematis, they nod. Photo: Clematis ‘Dr. Ruppel.’ (more…)

On February 27th 2011 the Gateway Science Museum celebrated its one year anniversary of being open to science and nature lovers from around our region. With a stated mission to “create a life-long learning environment that enables people to explore, interpret, and celebrate the magnificent natural heritage of our region through science, research, and education,” the GSM - and its 26,000 visitors in this first year - has “a lot to celebrate!” said Acting Director Rachel Teasdale of the milestone. School groups, summer camps, dynamic exhibits and on-going educational lectures and outreach are all hallmarks of the young museum. (more…)

The seeds of much of the spring and summer garden are sown in the short days and early evenings of January’s wintery span. Perhaps these are the figurative seeds of ideas and plans sown in our gardeners brain by beautiful holiday garden books and the winters batch of seed catalogues that inspire us. Perhaps they are the real seeds of warm summer tomato plants sown inside warm, humid greenhouses across our region – tiny sprouts starting on their way to tall, aromatic green indoor expanses eventually pulling us back into spring. (more…)

“Always free, always beautiful.” That’s what Candace Miller and Judy Harvey said of the Dunsmuir Botanical Gardens as they toured me around recently. Judy, married to a former Dunsmuir City Manager, is the Chairman of the Board of Directors and Candace the lead horticulturalist for the non-profit, 10-acre wooded gardens which are tucked behind the Dunsmuir City Park along the banks of the Sacramento River. Photo: Dogwood leaves in festive fall color. (more…)

The first real winter storm and its life-renewing precipitation has now visited our region – most likely bringing some inconvenience, but also much blessing as the season turns on its cycle from the fullness of fall to the peaceful spareness of winter.

Most gardeners I know have been slowly getting ready for winter – top dressing their borders and beds with a good compost or mulch – chopped up oak leaves and grass clippings are readily available at my house. Putting these amendments down now helps to insulate your plants from the coming temperature and humidity fluctuations, but also allows the winter rains to slowly leach the nutrients out of them and down into your soil, reducing the amount of digging in you have to do come spring. I recently attended a talk on preparing your garden for winter given by Barbara Battaglia of Mendons Nursery in Paradise and she recommend applying a 0-10-10 fertilizer to just about all of your plants other than citrus right now as well. This level of fertilizer will give the root systems of your plants a boost for their winter work beneath the soil without adding any nitrogen, which would promote unwanted green growth. Pay attention to frost warnings and protect tender plants - many people recommend twinkle lights on citrus, frost cloth or moving what you can under house eaves or into garages or outbuildings until the danger has passed.

As long as the soil is workable, we are still in a really good window for the planting of new perennials, shrubs and trees – and bare root season will be in full swing by January.

Cutting back of perennials and edibles that have run their course continues – although I like to leave seed heads on many of my herbaceous perennials for the birds to be able to snack on weather permitting. My hummingbird feeder is now up and active again as many of my hummingbird nectar plants have finished their bloom time, but Anna’s Hummingbird our overwintering resident – is still hungry. Watching a busy hummingbird at the feeder outside of my kitchen window is one of many gifts of the season.

Gifts of the season are on most people’s mind this year. My favorites, you ask? You just can’t go wrong with something for your favorite gardeners from one of their local bookstores, cooking stores or independent nurseries. A gift certificate, a gift subscription to a gardening publication or gardening class series, some new gloves, a decadent gardening book. A big new garden pot that they would not buy for themselves. Even something as little as getting your favorite gardener’s garden clippers cleaned and sharpened for the coming season will go a long way to showing that you love them. Gifts of the season are the overriding theme in the calendar of gardening events this month - look through the events for wonderful opportunities to make gifts of your own, or consider Jewellgarden.com - all purchases of Jewellgarden’s lovely, botanically inspired and locally produced items support regional gardening and plant programming including the production of In a North State Garden. May the gifts of your season be those of peace, time with people and in places that remind you of the beauty of the world in which we live - and which we work and hope to make an even better place. Happy Holiday and Happy New Year to you wherever you may garden.

DECEMBER 2010

December 3 - Chico: Chico State Campus Tree Tours with Wes Dempsey and Gerry Ingco 10 am - 11:45 am. Meet in front of Bidwell Mansion in Chico, on the Esplanade for this informative walks to see and hear about the marvelous old trees on the mansion grounds and adjacent university campus. Over 200 species of woody plants. Many of these trees date back to the original landscaping by Bidwell in the late 1800s. Parking is free. Leaders: Wes Demspey: 530-342-2293; Gerry Ingco: 530-893-5123

December 4 – Redding: McConnell Arboretum & Botanical Gardens at Turtle Bay: Wreath Making Workshop 9 AM - 12 noon. Floral designer and instructor Darlene Montgomery leads this creative and fun holiday workshop. Each participant will create their own fresh, full-size holiday wreath for the front door or family room. All materials provided. Space is limited to 15 participants (adults and youths 16 or older). Pre-registration required, call 242-3108 to pre-register. Members $35, nonmembers $40 Turtle Bay Visitor Center – JSS Classroom More info: 530-242-3178 or www.turtlebay.org/nursery

December 4 – Redding: McConnell Arboretum & Botanical Gardens at Turtle Bay: Charlie Rabbit and Friends 9:30 AM. An interactive program in the Gardens (or Greenhouse in rain) for children, their siblings, parents and grandparents. Free with Park or Garden admission. Meet at West Garden Entrance. Take N. Market Street, turn on Arboretum Drive. Take the right fork. Parking lot and entrance are on the left. More info: 530-242-3178 or www.turtlebay.org/nursery

December 4 - Chico: Mt Lassen Chapter Cal Native Plant Society - Planting Day: Woodson Bridge Valley Oak Restoration 9:30 am Meet at Chico Park & Ride (Hwy 32 & 99) or at 10 am the kiosk of Woodson Bridge State Recreation Area. Bring Lunch, Water and wear gardening gear. We will be planting Valley Oak acorns in a new riparian area on the Sacramento River presently plagued with invasives. Nature walk through the new natural area included. Leaders, Jim Dempsey 530-846-1435 and Wes Dempsey 530-342-2293

December 4 - Redding: Wyntour Gardens: WYNTOUR WONDERLAND ANNUAL HOLIDAY OPEN HOUSE You are cordially invited to attend Wyntour Gardens’ Annual Holiday Open House celebration to kick off the Holiday Season. Enjoy a nice cup of warm apple cider and munch on delicious goodies, while strolling through their beautiful holiday displays, created with a different theme every year by George & Carol Winter and their elves (staff). Make this one of your Holiday Traditions! Open 8am to 5pm. 8026 Airport Rd Redding, CA 96002-9445 (530) 365-2256

December 4 - Redding: Wyntour Gardens: KIDS HOLIDAY PLANTING PARTY 10am to Noon: Join our annual KIDS HOLIDAY PLANTING PARTY, during our Annual HOLIDAY OPEN HOUSE. This has become a Holiday Tradition for many of our families. Kids get to plant a holiday basket of pansies to take home and enjoy for the holidays or give as a gift. While you are here, check out our displays and enjoy a goodie or two. This is a great way to kick-off the Holiday Season and fun for the whole family! 8026 Airport Rd Redding, CA 96002-9445 (530) 365-2256

December 4 – Davis: UC Davis Arboretum: Guided Tour: California’s Native Plants 11 a.m., Buehler Alumni & Visitors Center, Old Davis Road, UC Davis. Tour the Mary Wattis Brown Garden focusing on plants native to California’s Central Valley. Learn more about these plants and why they thrive in our regional ecosystem. The free tour will leave from the Buehler Alumni & Visitors Center, across from the Mondavi Center on Old Davis Road on the UC Davis campus. Free parking is available in Visitor Lot 1 and the parking garage south of the Mondavi Center. For more information, please call (530) 752-4880 or visit arboretum.ucdavis.edu.

December 5 - Redding: Shasta Chapter Cal Native Plant Society: Mushroom Field Trip 9 AM City Hall Parking Lot. Join Susan Libonati, botanist and mycologist, and Ken Kilborn for a mushroom outing. The destination will be announced when we meet; we may drive half an hour out of Redding. You may bring along your own mushrooms for identification. Meet at 9 AM in the Redding City Hall parking lot, on the back (south) side of the building, next to Parkview Avenue. The City Hall is located at 777 Cypress Avenue—just west of the Cypress Avenue bridge over the Sacramento River. Bring lunch and water, and be prepared for cold, rain, and no facilities. Call Susan (347-4654) or Ken (221-2339) for details.

December 5 - Chico: Mt Lassen Chapter Cal Native Plant Society - Field Trip: Centerville Flume 9 am Meet at Chico Park & Ride (Hwys 32 & 99). Bring lunch, water, insect/sun protection, and money for ride sharing. Wear hiking gear. On our annual stroll along one of Chico’s most delightful walks, we will see the last of summer’s blooms (lessingia, snapdragon, camporum) and the first of the winter ones (manzanita, bay, mistletoe). We have recorded more than 24 species in bloom along here over the past years. Leaders, Gerry Ingco 530-893-5123 and Wes Dempsey 530-342-2293

December 5 - Chico: The Plant Barn: Wreath Making Workshop 1 pm and 3 pm. Reservations required and filling fast - make this your annual holiday tradition - fun, fun, fun with your favorite and festive flower floozy elves. 406 Entler Avenue. Chico, CA 95928-9579 (530) 345-3121 www.theplantbarn.com.

December 8 – Davis: UC Davis Arboretum: Guided Tour: Walk With Warren 12 p.m., Gazebo, Garrod Drive, UC Davis Arboretum Join Arboretum Superintendent Emeritus Warren Roberts for a lunchtime stroll in the UC Davis Arboretum on Wednesday, November 10. Enjoy the crisp fall weather, explore the pleasures of the autumn garden, and get a little exercise. Meet at noon at the Gazebo, on Garrod Drive on the UC Davis campus. There is no charge for the tour. Parking is available for $6 in Visitor Lot 55. For more information, please call (530) 752-4880 or visit arboretum.ucdavis.edu.

December 9 - 11 – Red Bluff: Red Bluff Garden Club Holiday Scholarship Boutique 216 Pine Street, the Victorian on the corner of Pine and Rio. The wreaths, swags, center pieces, table & mantel runners, are made from fresh pine, fir, redwood, cedar, arborvitae, holly, magnolia, laurel, bay and other plant material that will last the season. All of the fresh plant material provides the smells of Christmas even if an artificial tree is being used. Beautiful ribbons, cones, berries and other colorful dry material are used to decorate the wreaths and table designs. These handmade wreaths are priced two to three times less than the wreaths which can be purchased from catalogs and the internet because the greens come from the gardens of members and willing friends and neighbors. If you have a tree or shrub that needs to be pruned and you would like to contribute the pruned plant material for the wreaths call 527-4578. For more info: www.redbluffgardenclub.com

December 11 – Redding: McConnell Arboretum & Botanical Gardens at Turtle Bay: Family 2nd Saturday - Holiday Festival 10:30 AM - 3:30. Get in the holiday spirit and create holiday-themed crafts or a gift for someone special while enjoying a festive atmosphere! Spread the holiday cheer and make your own peanut butter pinecone bird feeder. A merry event for the whole family. Free with Park admission. Paul Bunyan’s Forest Camp More info: 530-242-3178 or www.turtlebay.org/nursery

December 11 – Davis: UC Davis Arboretum: Guided Tour: Why Do Some Trees Lose Their Leaves? 11 a.m., Gazebo, Garrod Drive, UC Davis Arboretum. A look at the difference between evergreen and deciduous trees in the Shields Oak Grove. The tour will leave at 11:00 a.m. from the Gazebo, on Garrod Drive on the UC Davis campus. There is no charge for the tour, and free parking is available along Garrod Drive and in Visitor Lot 55. For more information, please call (530) 752-4880 or visit arboretum.ucdavis.edu.

December 11 - Chico: Chico Horticulture Society: Holiday Greens Workshop 2 - 4 pm. Come make festive wreaths, swags and centerpieces for gifts or your own holiday home! All materials provided, bring your own container for special centerpiece arrangements. $12 fee for materials. Chico Library 1108 Sherman Avenue in Chico. Register by calling Avis Barrett at: 530-343-6738. More info: email President Jon Bennet at: ChicoGardenClub@yahoo.com.

December 11 – Redding: McConnell Arboretum & Botanical Gardens at Turtle Bay: Winter in the Woods - Members Only Holiday Festival 5 - 7 pm. Get in the holiday spirit and Come enjoy a members-only evening of holiday cheer and tasteful shopping! • Take a stroll down the twinkling lights of the boardwalk • Get first choice of special Holiday merchandise • Listen to Holiday music • Meet Santa • MEMBERS RECEIVE 20% OFF all Museum Store merchandise this evening only • Children’s activities provided Free Members’ Only event Museum Store More info: 530-242-3178 or www.turtlebay.org/nursery

December 19 – Redding: McConnell Arboretum & Botanical Gardens at Turtle Bay: Lookout Tree Take Down Party 1 - 4 pm. Delight in this whimsical and imaginative willow sculpture by internationally acclaimed environmental artist Patrick Dougherty. Some art is meant to be with us for only a short time. Help us celebrate the end of winter and the end of this beautiful sculpture at a special Lookout Tree “take down” party. Bring your garden gloves. Free with Park or Garden admission. Turtle Bay’s McConnell Arboretum & Botanical Gardens - Carl & Leah’s Meadow. From N. Market Street, turn on Arboretum Drive. Take right fork. Parking lot and entrance are on the left. More info: 530-242-3178 or www.turtlebay.org/nursery

December 21 - Full Moon/Winter Solstice

January 1 - HAPPY NEW YEAR!

January 1 - Chico: Mt Lassen Chapter Cal Native Plant Society - Field Trip: Upper Bidwell Park Banana Belt Hike 10 am Meet at Horsehoe Lake Parking lot in Upper Bidwell Park. Bring lunch, water, insect/sun/cold/rain protection. Wear hiking gear. Start the new year right with a brisk scramble up the North Ridge up above Horseshoe Lake. On windless, cloudless nights, it can be 10 degrees warmer up there due to temperature inversion, hence we often see the first of the new year’s blooms. Leaders, Gerry Ingco 530-893-5123 and Wes Dempsey 530-342-2293

January 2 – Butte Rose Society: Rose Pruning Demonstration 10 am Stansbury House, 307 W. 5th Street Chico. A yearly, fun and educational event teaching rose lovers of all skill levels how best to prune all manner of roses. For more information, contact President Neva Youngs at 530-588-0158. www.butte-rose-society.org.

January 10 -11 – Chico: Northern California Botanists 2011 Symposium California State University Chico, BMU Auditorium. Two days of fascinating presentations and posters of all manner of topic related to botany - from the very general to the highly technical. For Program and Registration Information got to www.norcalbotanists.org

January 15 – Mills Orchard: Pruning Your Home Orchard 10 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., cost is $20.00. Please wear warm clothing and be prepared to do hands on pruning. If you have pruning loppers, hand shears, bring them. Gloves recommended. Participants will learn how to plant/train the new fruit tree and how to prune established trees. Taught by Pam Geisel, University of California Master Gardener Program Coordinator & Bill Krueger; Pomologist for UC Cooperative Extension. To register, please go to: http://ceglenn.ucdavis.edu/OrchardCrops_MainPage/ Or call (530) 865-1107. The class will be held at 7782 County Road 16; Mills Orchard, CA (located between Hamilton City and Orland, CA off of Highway 32). Google Maps: http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tab=wl

January 16 – Chico: 1st in a series of 10 Chico Organic Gardening Class: 1:30 - 3:30 Chico Grange. Whether you are a novice or have gardened for many years, you will enjoy the presentations from experts in growing delicious and beautiful vegetables, fruits, eggs, and more. For more information or to register, go to: http://valleyoakmagazine.com/about/monthly-publication/organic-gardening/chico-organic-gardening-society-cogs/chico-organic-gardening-class.

January 27 -30 – Chico: Snowgoose Festival - Experience the Wonders of the Pacific Flyway Over 50 guided field trips and workshops; Junior Naturalist Activities; Art Exhibition & Reception and Avenue 9 Gallery & The Artistry; Banquet and Silent Auction - John Muir Law, Naturalist; Exhibits and Vendors Galore! Registration begins in early December: www.snowgoosefestival.org; 530-345-1865; info@snowgoosefestival.org

In the Garden: note card, journal and 2011 calendar collections. Support In a North State Garden AND Delight the gardeners, readers, writers and food lovers in your life with thoughtful, sophisticated and artfully unique note card sets, journals and calendars from Jewellgarden.com. Dedicated to the art, craft and science of gardening, produced wholly in the North State on recycled papers, Choose from Holiday Cards (shown above) Natives in the Garden, Edibles in the Garden and the NEW Seed Series. Available now on-line or at local fine shops near you. All of Jewellgarden.com’s cards are printed in Chico by Quadco printing using recycled paper and vegetable-based ink in many cases.

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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.

Bridgette Brick-Wells, founder of the Healthy Lunch & Lifestyles Project working in Shasta, Tehama and Butte Counties; Gina Sims, Garden Coordinator at Chico Country Day Charter School and also working with the Center for Nutrition and Activity Promotion at CSU, Chico; and Debra Abbott, School Garden Educator in the Chico Unified School District as well as with the Chico Area Recreation District (CARD), all joined me for special one-hour live program on Tuesday October 19th from 10 am - 11 am. We discussed how school gardens, farm-to-school connections and healthy school lunch options are sowing the seeds for better life-long physical, cultural, environmental and economic health throughout our region. Photo: Kids in a young gardening program at Chico Christian School in Chico. (more…)

They catch the light - especially the low, soft slanting light of Autumn; they dance in the slightest breeze; they hold dew drops and rain drops like pearls, winking on a string; they arch and drape and cascade, adding both vertical and horizontal beauty and interest to any garden; they are often drought tolerant and deer resistant, and many of them provide both forage and shelter for native and migrating song birds. They are ornamental grasses, and with more varieties, colors, shapes and sizes (and native choices) available to home gardeners every year, there is one (or 30) to brighten and dress-up just about any garden throughout the seasons. Photo: Deer grass under planted with blue fescue in the California display garden at the McConnell Arboretum & Botanical Gardens. (more…)