May is upon us – gardeners and school children are pulled into that final vortex of activity that leads to summer. Many flowers are blooming and the natural world in almost all zones is awake and lively. No wonder that so many traditions exist surrounding the arrival of May: Maypoles, May trees, May baskets. Bringing in the May, Crowning of the May. It all sounds as good as the month generally looks and smells and tastes – delicious, fresh, hopeful. The lilacs, azaleas, peonies and iris are out where I garden - as are the clematis and the roses – ahhh, the roses. Are you rose people happy now after months of roselessness? I know I am. Photo: A deeply fragrant Bourbon Rosa ‘Madame Isaac Pereire’ blooming beside a tall-form Euphorbia.

Now is the time for planting heat-loving summer annuals, vegetables and herbs, for those of us in the higher elevations the average last frost dates are almost here, and hardy perennials and shrubs can still be planted. But for all regions of the North State, remember the later that you plant perennials, shrubs and trees, the less established they will be by the heat of summer, the harder that heat will be on the plants, and the more you will have to water and care for them. But in gardening and in life, sometimes you have to do things even when the timing is not quite right. Most of us are probably beginning to water more regularly. Spring’s unsettled weather is a good time to run through your irrigation, checking for leaks, and making sure all your plants are getting the water they need. Deadheading and weeding are once again regular garden tasks. Photo: A spring fiddle-head unfurling from a woodland fern.

You know how you have crushes on certain plants at different times throughout the seasons? The Year – the month? Your Life. My current plant “true-love” is a fern. Any fern, really. So while my roses and clematis, my lilacs and peonies are singing me their Spring siren song – it is the form and foliage of the many ferns we can grow in the North State that I am finding fascinating right now. I recently had the privilege of a guided tour around the a fern collection of plantswoman Emilie White – a long-standing and revered member of the Chico area horticulture world. Photo: The red-tips of a young fern frond.

Emilie and her husband Ken have been gardening on their Chico city lot since 1984. City lot sized though the garden is, many distinct garden areas have been created over the years. Large trees have come and gone and lawn area has come and gone creating different planting opportunities. Emilie is an active member of the Mt. Lassen Chapter of the California Native Plant Society, the Butte Rose Society and in 2009 is a co-President of the Chico Horticulture Society. Her collection of ferns are just one of her many interesting garden plant collections. “I love the shapes of the ferns, their subtle colors and the way their often evergreen structures hold parts of the garden up when so many other plants are dormant.” Photo: The distinctive coloring of Variegated Shield Fern (Arachniodes simplicior ‘Variegata’).

Not all of Emilie’s ferns are evergreen, and of her 21 distinct varieties, many are California natives and so apt to be dormant in summer and active in winter. Almost all of Emilie’s ferns are in dappled light beneath larger trees or shrubs. She feeds her entire garden with alfalfa pellets in late winter/early spring, top-dresses with home-made or organic compost up to twice a year, and will sometimes giver her ferns a dose of fish emulsion. “Don’t be too tidy. Let the natural duff of leaves and pine needles self-mulch around your ferns. Dead head fronds as needed - like a haircut,” she says. But even a veteran gardener like Emilie will sometimes lose a fern and not know why. “And then sometimes you think you’ve lost one - and a tiny fiddle-head will appear out of what looked like dead root ball.” Emilie does not water in winter unless absolutely necessary and waters approximately two times a week in summer. Photos: The fiddle-head of a Holly Fern (Cyrtomium falcatum) and the silvery foliage of a Japanese Painted Fern (Athyrium nipponicum ‘Pictum’)

According the American Fern Society: “Ferns have been with us for more than 300 million years and in that time the diversification of their form has been phenomenal. Ferns grow in many different habitats around the world. The ferns were at their height during the Carboniferous Period (the age of ferns) as they were the dominant part of the vegetation at that time. Most of the ferns of the Carboniferous became extinct but some later evolved into our modern ferns. There are about 12,000 species in the world today.” Photo: Emilie White near one of the many ferns in her garden.

“Ferns and fern-allies are more complicated in structure than most people would suspect. Their structures, though similar in some ways to those of flowering plants are different enough to warrant a distinctive terminology.”

“The frond is the part of the fern that we see as we wander through the woods it is the “leaf” of a fern. It is divided into two main parts, the stipe (leaf stalk or petiole) and the blade (the leafy expanded portion of the frond). The blade may be undivided to finely cut, each degree of division having a specific term. Fronds vary greatly in size, from tree ferns with 12 foot fronds to the mosquito ferns with fronds only 1/16 of an inch long. Rhizomes would be comparable to “stems” in the flowering plants. Fronds arise from the rhizome. The sporangia are the reproductive structures of the ferns and fern allies. They are miniature sacks or capsules that produce the dustlike spores that are the “seeds” by which ferns are propagated. The arrangement of sporangia varies greatly in ferns. Most ferns that we would see as we walk through the forest would have their sporangia on the underside of the frond, arranged in an organized pattern usually associated with veins in the pinnule (leaf). The “seeds” of the ferns and fern allies are called Spores. Ferns drop millions, often times billions of spores during their lifetime but very few ever land in a spot suitable for growth.” Photo: Sporangia patterns on the tips of a Maidenhair Fern (Adiantum raddianum ‘Pacific Maid’). Maidenhair Ferns hold their spore packets on the front of their fronds rather than the back like most ferns.

Ferns can be propagated by growing the spores along or by rooting bulbils. Northern California has many native ferns including Western or Giant Chain fern (Woodwardia fimbriata), Western Sword Fern (Polystichum munitum), California Maidenhair Fern (Adiantum jordanii), Five-Fingered Fern (Adiantum aleuticum), Gold-back Fern (Pentagramma triangularis) and Indian’s Dream or Serpentine Fern (Aspidotis densa). Many good books are available about ferns including Native Ferns, Moss & Grasses, by William Cullina (Houghton Mifflin, 2008), and The Encyclopedia of Garden Ferns by Sue Olsen (Timber Press, 2007). The North State has many good fern viewing locations including the Serpentine outcropping in Magalia and along what’s known as Fern Bank before the golf course in Chico’s Upper Bidwell Park. Photo: Sporangia pattern on a Holly Fern (Cyrtomium falcatum).

Emilie’s garden contains many of these ferns and was featured on the Mt. Lassen Chapter of the California Native Plant Society Garden Tour in 2008. Her garden will be featured on the upcoming Chico Horticulture Society’s Members-Only garden tour on Saturday May 16th. Many garden tours and events are on the calendar in May. On Saturday May 2nd, St. John’s Episcopal Church holds their 26th Annual Garden Tour, lunch and garden boutique. For tickets on Saturday go to the St. John’s Parish Hall at 2341 Floral Avenue. On Sunday May 3rd, the Cohasset Annual Plant Sale will be held at the Cohasset Community Association Building, the McConnell Arboretum and Gardens is hosting several interesting plant talks in May including a presentation on Water-Wise Plants for Mediterranean Climates on May 23rd. Photo: The rosy fronds of a Rosy Five-Fingered Maidenhair Fern (Adiantum hispidulum).

Although this next event is not until June, I am so excited to let other plant enthusiasts know that world-renowned plantsman Dan Hinkley, founder of famed (and now the former) Heronswood Nursery in Kingston Washington, will be speaking at the High-Hand Nursery in Loomis on June 13th and 14th. He will give a lecture on both Saturday and Sunday - tickets are $5.00. Tickets are also available ($65) to join Hinkley and others for dinner on Saturday the 13th in High-Hand’s conservatory restaurant. Tickets include dinner and Hinkley’s newest book The Explorer’s Garden: Shrubs and Vines from the Four Corners of the World(Timber Press, 2009). If you have never read anything by Hinkley or heard him speak, this is truly a rare opportunity to hear one of the brightest (and wittiest) people in the plant world speak about his adventures. Additionally, I personally feel the need to support a plant person of this calibre venturing into the “interior” of Northern California and beyond the predictable venues in San Francisco and along the coast. Perhaps it is the start of a trend? Next stop Yuba City? Chico? Red Bluff? Redding? The sky’s the limit. As a prelude to the event, Hinkley will be a guest on In a North State Garden later in May.

For a fuller listing of regional gardening events in May, June and beyond visit the In a North State Garden Events calendar. Have an event you would like to get listed? Send me an email: jennifer@jewellgarden.com. Until next week - enjoy May in your North State garden!

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.

Diane Stout loves Prickly Pear (Opuntia spp.) cactus - all kinds of them. She likes them in artwork, she likes them in pots, she likes them in all shapes and sizes all around her Orland garden. She likes them so much she named her nursery in Orland after the plants. The home garden that she shares with her husband Dave is home to nearly 40 individual Opuntia plants, comprising 16 different species or varieties. Opuntias are quite hardy, very low-maintenance and, extremely drought tolerant. In general, they prefer full sun, lean rocky soil with sharp drainage, and once established, they need almost no supplemental water.Photo: Diane began her colllection in earnest by asking for cuttings from mature stands of Opuntias in the area, for instance from old farmsteads or churches. Here an established stand of Prickly Pears complement the side of an old industrial metal quonset hut in Los Molinos.

Opuntia is a genus of close to 200 species of cacti originating to North, Central and South America and the West Indies. The genus can be divided into what some people call the Prickly Pear cacti – with round but flatter pads, and the Cholla or Teddy Bear cacti – with heavily spined, oblong sausage-shaped pads. California beavertail cactus (Opuntia basilaris), Teddy Bear Cholla (O. bigelovii), Pancake or Dollar Joint Prickly Pear (O. chlorotica), Silver or Golden Cholla (O. echinocarpa), Old Man Prickly Pear (O. erinacea), and Buckhorn Cholla (O. acanthocarpa), are all considered native to California – mostly to the desert scrub and desert woodland regions of the state. Photo: A purple-fruited Opuntia.
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The California Native Plant Society is hosting a Conservation Conference; Strategies and Solutions, January 17 – 19th at the Sacramento Convention Center and the Sheraton Grand Hotel. On January 20 and 21, immediately following the official meeting, 13 native-plant related workshops are also being held. Regular registration ends Monday January 12th. Photo above: Coffeeberry (Rhamnus californica, Sunset zones 4-9) is a native, evergreen shrub that grows from 3 - 15 feet tall, has attractive berries and takes pruning well for smaller garden situations. Its evergreen foliage with frost adds nice winter interest to a mixed border.

I recently talked with Catie and Jim Bishop of Oroville about the upcoming conference. Catie and Jim are on the Chapter Board of the Mount Lassen Chapter of the CNPS and are on the CNPS state Chapter Council. They are both longtime gardeners and plant enthusiasts themselves. Their interest in native plants and conservation grew exponentially after moving, in 1990, to their one-acre foothills property outside of Oroville, where they are working to garden with and regenerate the native Blue Oak Woodland habitat. Based on a good deal of work in National Forests over the past decade, they will be making a presentation on the fens (montane peatlands) of Northern California at the upcoming conference. Photo Above: Catalogue of Offerings at the Conservation Conference, focusing on Strategies and Solutions for conserving our California native plants and their habitats.
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A small old ceramic bowl filled with little offerings sits on my desk. It reminds me of a monk’s alms bowl, but instead of being filled with food or money, my bowl is full of gifts from many of the people whose gardens I visited or who shared their gardening stories on In a North State Garden this year. The offerings include things like a lacy tomatilla skeleton, a sculptural spice bush seed pod, an owl faced walnut shell, the aerodynamic shape of a winged maple seed, a fragrant California bay leaf (Umbellularia californica), a white birch bark curl, silvery dried grandfather sage leaves, a plastic baggie of Humboldt lily seeds, a pinch of paprika, a small vial of lavender oil, a heart shaped pebble….and more. These offerings add layers of meaning, the ritual of giving and the creation of memory to my garden. And meaning, ritual and memory add depth and dimension to anyone’s garden and gardening.

My gardening this month will consist of finally finishing with the bulbs. I still have snowdrops and crocus to go. I’m also working on cuttings and starts of several plants to donate to various garden club’s Spring plant sales. I am working on Nepeta, 6 different scented geraniums (Pelargonium), one variety of true Geranium, as well as some hens and chicks and several varieties of sedums. I am raking the leaves from the lawn and pathways, making piles of them in out of the way corners so that I have leaves to add to my compost bin throughout as much of the year as possible. This kind of end of year work in the garden – along with the garden’s own seasonal decorations of remaining colorful leaves, bright red Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia) berries, snow frosting the mountains and foothills, yellow Meyer lemons and squat Mandarins – puts me in the seasonal mood.
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Friday October 17th In a Northstate Garden hosted a one-hour call-in special edition entitled:Landscaping Against Fire. Guest experts Calli-Jane Burch, Executive Director of the Butte County Fire-Safe Council, and Glenn Nader, Natural Resources Advisor, University of California County Extension and co-author of a UC publication entitled “Home Landscaping for Fire,” joined us for the program.

The whole idea of landscaping against fire is a complex and yet important one. In the face fire – the likes of which Butte County saw in the Humboldt fire, for example - not many plants (or houses) stood a chance if they were in the direct path of the fire storm or the burning embers that preceded it. And short of planting your property knee deep in concrete – very little landscaping is 100% Fire Proof. When we talk about landscaping against fire, we are really talking about strategies for diminishing the chances that your landscape will make a wildfire worse and diminishing the chances that your landscape will help to lead a wildfire to your house.

We all garden and landscape for our own set of reasons: we like to garden, we want to creat a wind break or shade our house, we want privacy from neighbors or a sound break from a busy road, or perhaps we want o create habitat for wildlife. For most of us, living in Northern California is as much about the beauty of the region as anything else and, frankly, Northern California is prone to fire. We have a well established and serious fire season and so in moving here we tacitly agree to a certain amount of risk from fire. For most landscapes of the American west, fire has been an important part of the ecological cycle and as such is critical to the health of the ecological balance of things. Rejuvenating and cleansing, fire is a long-time part of the culture of native peoples. However, fire is also incredibly destructive to the people who live here.

A great deal of research and data has been compiled by a variety of sources to help people who choose to live in fire prone areas make decisions about how to diminish their risk of total loss of house and home from seasonal wildfires. When making designs and decisions about how to plant - including the Defensible Space, the Ignition Zones around your home- what to plant and how to properly maintain your grounds, it is absolutely worthwhile to do your research and make educated choices.

In doing my own research, one of the things that struck me as so heartening from a gardener’s perspective is that the health and “hygiene” of our garden is every bit as important - and perhaps even more - important than how or what you plant - within reason. So simple seasonal clean-up of dead leaves in and around your garden as well as in gutters, and pruning of dead branches - especially lower branches of mature trees, seasonal mowing of dry grasses and regular water on garden areas immediately adjacent to your house are good places to start!

For more information on the history and work of the Butte Fire Safe Council, links to other local Fire Safe Councils, and access to many fire related publications, please visit their site: www.buttefiresafe.org/

To find a Fire Safe Council near you: www.firesafecouncil.org/

For Glenn Nader’s publication on Home Landscaping for Fire, as well as other publications about fire safety, visit the UC Davis publication catalogue: http://anrcatalogue.ucdavis.edu/

For a good website on types of plants and their various levels of flammability, check out Las Pilatas, a native plant nursery: www.laspilatas.com

For Master Gardener Help and Recommendations about Landscaping With Fire in Mind:
www.csrees.usda.gov/newsroom/news/2008news/07101_wildfire.html

Donna Bayliss grows lavender – acres and acres, rows and rows of multiple varieties of certified organic lavender – and rosemary, lemon verbena, scented geranium, lemon balm, chamomile, sage and clary sage, to name a few – for the organic botanical industry. But in my mind, Donna grows those fields of lavender for me and for the views her fields offer to me as I drive up or down Highway 99. Those fields make me dream and their fragrance – or the thought of it - makes me happy.

Which is exactly why Donna Bayliss grows lavender – because lavender – its sight, scent, and taste makes people happier and healthier. “There are curative powers in lavender oil. The scent of the oil is relaxing and the active elements in the oil are healing. If I had not experienced these qualities myself, I would not be so sure. But I have and I am,” Donna tells me passionately. “My goal for this ranch is to continue to offer the opportunity for consumers to experience the real essence – not cheap synthetic imposters – of these plants. I also wanted to protect my son’s legacy and raise the bar environmentally on our ranch - to use less water, no pesticides or herbicides. Growing these naturally drought tolerant and relatively disease free herbs, I am able to do all of that – and be surrounded by their beauty year-round.”

Grown as a culinary and medicinal herb throughout the world, throughout time, lavender (Lavandula) is a genus comprising multiple species and hybrids. Bayliss Ranch grows many varieties, including Lavandula angustifolia ‘Hidcote’, “which keeps its dark blue color much longer;” Lavandula x intermedia ‘Grosso’ and Lavandula x intermedia ‘Provence,’ “which have longer stems for arranging.”

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I wager most gardeners would say that they welcome birds and butterflies into their gardens, and that many gardeners would say that in part they even plan their gardens or choose their specific plants in order to attract butterflies, hummingbirds and songbirds. Brian and Jill Williams and their two young boys, Canyon and Cooper have a bird and butterfly friendly garden well beyond what I have ever imagined, and in fact is more accurately described as a wildlife friendly garden. The Williams’ work to attract waterfowl, raptors, song birds, butterflies, moths, woodland mammals, lizards, snakes – even grubs, because the Williams’ philosophy is that “wildlife makes a garden alive and adventurous,” and who would want anything less?

Brian Williams is a consulting wildlife biologist. He comes from generations of farmers in Placer County and graduated with his graduate degree from Sacramento State. He and, Jill, an educator, have been creating their house and 10 and a half-acre garden outside of Honcut since 2002. The concept of planning for a wildlife friendly garden actually started with the Williams’ search for a home site. They had very specific criterion, which included that their dream property had to have water. After looking at several different land parcels around the Northstate, the Williams chose their property outside of Honcut in part for the ½ mile of Honcut Creek, which runs year-round through the property. They also chose this property for its many mature, native Pines and Oaks. These elements – creek and trees - were not only aesthetically attractive, but – from the Williams’ perspective - they would provide the water, food, and shelter necessary for a truly wildlife friendly garden.

Next, the Williams’ carefully sited and then built their house by hand – literally – of adobe bricks mixed from their property’s red clay, straw and sand and then baked in the sun. While building, Brian and Jill noticed that rough wing swallows were darting in and around the adobe walls as they progressed. Brian came up with an ingenious version of a “bird house” by building 3-inch PVC pipe lengths into the house walls in three spots around the house. The pipes are open to the outside and lead into three nesting boxes that are faced with removable ¾ inch exterior-grade acrylic on the inside. These peek-a-boo nesting boxes are curtained so that they remain dark and private for the nesting families, but still allow the Williams family occasional close-up looks at the nesting cycles of the birds. The acrylic panels are removable so that the boxes can be cleaned out annually. Besides the bird boxes, the exterior of the adobe walls host many a swallowtail butterfly larvae in the winter.

This attention to the patterns of the wildlife already on their property - noticing the rough wing swallows exploring for nesting sites – is one of the important habits to develop if your really want to create a wildlife friendly garden, Brian emphasizes. Pay attention to when the animals that are already there come out to feed, where they show up already and either re-produce sites like the ones they already like, or make the ones they already like more protected from predators, more accessible, whatever. Brian and Jill do more than just pay attention to patterns – they track the patterns of the wildlife in their garden on a spreadsheet. Brian keeps track of when different species appear each year, if and when they nest, how many eggs, if the nest was successful, what they eat, when they depart. Williams says that an average garden equipped with a handful of bird-feeders will attract 6 or so species. At last count, the Williams’ garden in Honcut had 160 different species of birds visiting every year.

When I visited his garden, Brian said: It doesn’t look like a garden does it? And in fact there is little in the way of traditional lawn, or flowerbeds as of yet. The Williams plan to add a very small adobe walled garden close to the house in time. But theirs is already a garden nonetheless - carefully planned and cared for specifically to welcome and nurture wildlife. Besides the “infra-structure” of water and trees that they looked for when choosing their home site, the Williams have used the ensuing six years to create even m ore “habitat” for creatures. “Encouraging the whole food chain is the best way to encourage any one part of the food chain,” says Brian, so if you want birds, you need bird food. And by that he does not mean man-made feeders outside of your windows. He means the whole web of things that feed wild birds throughout the year: plants that create the seeds as well as attract the worms and grubs and bugs and other small critters that will nourish a large bird population, including migrating, nesting and with young, or over-wintering birds.

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Denise Kelly always wanted to own The Plant Barn (www.theplantbarn.com) Denise spent her early childhood in Southern California. Her family relocated to Susanville when Denise was in the 8th grade and she moved to Chico to attend CSU Chico. After graduation, Denise stayed in the area and worked variously as an event planner, wedding consultant and landscape designer, all the while raising her children and home gardening herself. Each corner she turned for work seemed to bring her back to the Plant Barn for flowers and plants. “I have always been a plant nerd, and it just made me so happy to be there and chat about plants with the owner Ilona Cronan. I always thought, that is what I really want to do. I want to own the Plant Barn and make other people feel this way all day.”

She failed, however, to mention this fact to Ilona and one day about 5 years ago, she realized that without the business ever going on the market, the Cronan’s had sold it to one of their employees. Denise was devastated and felt as though she had missed her one chance, but she did not make the same mistake twice. Without delay, she told the new owner that if she ever wanted to sell, Denise would be interested. Sure enough, almost two years ago, Denise got a call asking if she was still interested. YES! She said immediately and with the help of family was able to make her dream come true. What she did not know at the time, was that two other buyers had also lined up to purchase the long-time nursery. One of them, however, wanted to tear down the iconic barn for which the business is named and the other was not able to get their financing. “Good things always happen for me in threes,” laughed Denise showing me a tattoo of a key and the number 3 on her inner wrist, “I have three great kids, I was the third owner in line, I am the third owner of The Plant Barn. 3 is the Key.” She got the tattoo shortly after securing the purchase and it’s a constant reminder of how she is making her dream come true.

Ilona and Dave Cronan started Chico Propagators wholesale plant greenhouses and The Plant Barn over 27 years ago. When they sold The Plant Barn, they kept the wholesale growing business in the greenhouses behind the retail nursery. This is a great arrangement that spreads out the work and responsibility of two such big businesses, which are related and yet very different. “There’s a great symbiotic relationship between Dave Cronan, the owner and Sally Greenwood, the head grower at Chico Propagators and myself at the Plant Barn,” Denise says. “I am learning as I go here, about plants and about the business (Although she clearly knows a good bit about both). When a customer comes to me and asks if I have a certain plant, I can call Sally on the walkie-talkie and ask if we can grow it.”

This capability in turn allows customers a remarkable opportunity to learn about and explore new plants as well. It also helps the staff at The Plant Barn, including full-timer Rebecca and part-timer Nancy as well as Denise to stay on top of what they do best. One of the things The Plant Barn is now known for is its fabulous array of custom planted containers – the plants they put together and they containers they put them in will make you take note and consider amping up your own home container plantings.

One of the other things The Barn does really well is to set customers at ease. The staff are always cheerful and never seem to mind if you buy something today or not. The site is not too big and so is not overwhelming, but it has lots of ever-changing interesting vignettes made up of gifts, pots, furniture, fountains, and loads of interesting plants tucked into the main display space. The greenhouses are also available to walk through, and walking into a warm, moist, plant filled greenhouse on a cold grey winter day is just short of heaven. And for me one of the best draws of the plant barn is how many of their specialty perennials are available in 4 inch pots rather than just gallons – as a plant-aholic myself, this takes some of the financial sting out of trying out some new plants, as well as allowing me to buy three or more so my garden runs less risk of becoming a cluttered mess of one of every kind of plant on the planet.

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Ruth Roberston was born in Orange, California. She is since lived in many places around the world, but for Ruth home is where the oranges grow. And the lemons, limes, mandarins, grapefruit and kumquat. While Ruth and her husband Jeff enjoy growing many kinds of edible plants in their small Chico garden, it is the many citrus varieties that enjoy pride of place.

Besides being an enthusiastic home-gardener, Ruth is also the Office Manager for Lifescapes, A Landscape Company in Chico, and Jeff is an educator. It was in the Lifescapes offices that I first started talking to Ruth about her citrus trees. Ruth and Jeff returned to California and settled in Chico in the early 1990s after living in Australia and South America for work. Their first Chico address was on Citrus Avenue. When they moved to their current house in 1991, Ruth began planting what she now half-jokingly calls her very own Citrus Lane – referring to the side of her garden dedicated to growing citrus.

On the day I visited her garden, Ruth mixed me a glass of homemade iced lemonade to sip as we walked. The lemonade had that very particular ‘Meyer’ lemon fragrance, which always makes my eyes close and my mouth water. Lemonade in hand, we started at one end of the lane where Ruth has a ‘Bearss’ lime that is hedged into a box shape (taller than me) against the house. Continuing from there is the dwarf grapefruit on one side of the walk, and the satsuma mandarin orange on the other. Just past those, the path is dominated by the iconic citrus-tree globe shape of a ‘Robertson’ Navel orange tree, which is the dwarf form of the Washington Navel. Past that is the ‘Meyer’ lemon – a big bushy tree, more squat in stature than the orange. “That poor lemon lived in a box on my patio for 12 years,” admits Ruth. “he’s been in the ground for 4 years and he is much happier.” The only potted citrus in Ruth’s collection is a shoulder-height kumquat tree just outside her kitchen door. Even in late spring it is still decorated with the cheerful, tangy little orange fruits.

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