Mimulus story

I've got an anecdote to report and would love some feedback. A friend had several hybridized Mimulus species growing in pots on her patio. She then got one that was not. All in pots. The birds ignored the hybridized varieties but within hours of putting out the straight species, she had wildlife!

Have you had experiences like this that you would like to share?

Love to have your comments.

California Friendly Gardens - coming up!

The Surfrider Foundation has worked with the Metropolitan Water District to create a "California Friendly Landscape Training" program, based on the "Ocean Friendly Gardens" program, for those of you familiar with that set of gardening precepts.

Now, the schedule is being firmed up for San Diego - dates and locations are about to be announced.

I'll be co-teaching the first one along with Joey Jacoby from the City of San Diego. August 3rd. I don't have details to post yet - will update this later in the day.

California Friendly means the minimum use of native plants = 10% and I am always pushing for more.

You saw the book, now go to the party....

From Laura Camp:

Book Release and
Book Signing Party:

WILDFLOWERS of ORANGE COUNTY and the SANTA ANA MOUNTAINS

Friday Evening, July 26, 2013 - 4pm-8pm

Join us at Tree of Life Nursery as we host a book signing party for the California Native Plant Society (CNPS), Orange County Chapter. Looking forward to an evening filled with food, fun, friends and of course the new wildflower books!

Authors Bob Allen and Fred Roberts will be signing their eagerly awaited book and talking to guests about their book-writing experience. Books will be available for sale through CNPS for the entire evening and Tree of Life Nursery retail store Casa ‘La Paz’ will be open for plant sales as well. We will also have special behind-the-scenes tours of the nursery each hour: at 4pm, 5pm and 6pm on the evening of the event.

This open house style event is FREE and open to the public. Come enjoy light appetizers, provided by the pleasant and generous folks at Orange County CNPS, and some delicious, special recipe sangria in the beautifully cool evening hours.

Tickets for an "opportunity drawing" will be available and prizes will be awarded at 7pm, followed by remarks from the authors about the book. They will take the opportunity to thank sponsors and share stories about how the book came into being.

We hope you will join us for this special EVENING event at Tree of Life. This is an event that is NOT to be missed.

Pleases RSVP and invite your friends to the event via Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/events/413138105470528/

What: Book Release and Signing Party (Wildflowers of Orange County and the Santa Ana Mountains)
Where: Tree of Life Nursery, 33201 Ortega Highway, San Juan Capistrano (7.75 mi. from I-5)
When: Friday July 26, 4pm-8pm

Event Timeline:
4pm-8pm: Light appetizers and beverages, purchase books, book signing, networking
4pm, 5pm, 6pm: 20 min. Tour of the Nursery and Gardens
7pm: Opportunity Drawing and Remarks by the Authors
8pm: Close

See you out here! Please RSVP by Wed July 24, 2013.

Garden Committee Meeting

We had a great meeting on Wednesday night and here are some photos:

Lee Gordon, Will Johnson, Susan Lewitt (hidden), Susan Marchetti (hidden), Susan Krzywicki, Clayton Tschudy, Lucy Warren (hidden), Jan Keeny, Hei-ock Kim, Greg Rubin, Steve Miller (hidden), Jake Sibley. Photo by Dave Flietner. 

Jake Sibley, Lee Gordon, Will Johnson, Susan Lewitt, Susan Marchetti, Susan Krzywicki, Clayton Tschudy, Lucy Warren (hidden), Jan Keeny, Hei-ock Kim, Greg Rubin, Steve Miller. Photo by Dave Flietner. 

Date: July 10, 2013

Highlights from the meeting:

Fall Seminar is on track to open for registration soon - watch this space! Five tracks with topics for every level and type of gardener, and family.

The San Diego Native Garden Tour is shaping up for March 2014. Hei-ock Kim updated us on the logistics and plans.

Natives for Novices - Susan Marchetti has speakers lined up through October. July is Will Johnson on Irrigation, September is the Landscape Trade Fair and October is Steve Miller with “Animals in the Native Garden: Pals, Prey, Pests, and Pets,” and Susan Krzywicki will talk about controversial Compost Tea ideas.

Sunset Cliffs - Dave Flietner showed us a progress report and talked about another upcoming project he will be bringing forward.

Arne Johanson is one of three finalists for his habitat restoration work for the Cox Conserves Heroes program. We’ll be asking our members to vote as soon as the web site is posted.

Volunteer Hours - we updated our chart and now have over 500 volunteer hours through July 10th Thanks, everyone!

Bee issues and Neonicotinoids

Kay Stewart has pointed out the issues around Neonicotinoids. She also suggested a site where you could donate $4 to create a marketing interrupt to tell the story to Independent Garden Center owners.


Our online buddy, "Garden Contessa" send us a bunch of links that give more info.

For now, here is a list of Neonicotinoids that show up in consumer-level products for home gardens. These are generic names, along with brand names.

The neonicotinoids include: acetamiprid, dinotefuran, clothianidin, imidacloprid, thiamethoxam.

Acetamiprid and dinotefuran are manufactured by many companies.

Thiamethoxam is made by Syngenta. Only Bayer makes clothianidin and imidacloprid.

• Brand names for imidacloprid include: Kohinor, Admire, Advantage, Gaucho, Merit, Confidor, Hachikusan, Premise, Prothor, and Winner.
• Brand names for clothianidin include: Gaucho, Titan, Clutch, Belay, Arena.
• Brand names for acetamiprid include: Assail, Intruder, Adjust.
• Brand names for thiacloprid include: Calypso.
• Brand names for thiamethoxam include: Actara, Cruiser, Helix, Platinum, Centric.
• Neonicotinoids: acetamiprid, dinotefuran.

Here are the links Garden Contessa sent: 

brand names that have neonicotinoids:

 

http://sustainability.stackexchange.com/questions/911/how-to-recognize-products-with-neonicotinoid-pesticides-in-them

 

http://www.beecharmers.org/Pollination2.html

 

http://gaia-health.com/gaia-blog/2013-04-16/colony-collapse-disorder-is-a-fraud-pesticides-cause-bee-die-offs/

 

http://digginginthedriftless.com/2012/04/13/are-the-neonicotinoids-you-are-using-in-your-garden-killing-your-bees/

 

http://www.beyondpesticides.org/pollinators/chemicals.php

 

http://www.xerces.org/neonicotinoids-and--bees/

 

http://urbanbeeprojectseattle.com/pesticidestory/

 

http://www.beeman.ca/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/neonicotinoids2.pdf

 

http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2012/01/bee-killing-pesticides-not-just-corn-fields

 

Some more CNPS Sacramento jobs opening!

Here are three more positions that are opening at the state level of CNPS:

1) CNPS Communications Manager

CNPS is seeking a Communications Manager who is passionate about supporting CNPS members and chapters.  He/she will listen to members and chapters to identify needs, develop creative solutions to those needs, and work with volunteers and staff to make chapters even more fun and more effective.  The successful candidate will join a growing professional staff and be part of a committed team that includes hundreds of smart and dedicated volunteers. This position requires an organized, highly collaborative individual with extremely strong communication skills.  He/she must be able to think clearly about systems that can be used by chapters across California, while embracing the principle that CNPS is a Society in which every individual is unique and valuable.  The Communications Manager will collaborate with other staff, volunteer leadership, and chapter leadership to survey existing communications needs and solutions, and to make the best solutions available to all chapters and volunteers.  This position will supervise at least one staff position, will manage a budget for contractors or vendors that provide specialized technical expertise, and will work with numerous highly skilled volunteers.  Position is open until filled, and full job announcement is available at http://CNPS.org.

2) CNPS Data Entry Clerk/Administrative Assistant

The California Native Plant Society (CNPS) is seeking a full‐time Data Entry/Administrative Assistant (will consider two part‐time positions). This position requires a highly organized, detailed oriented, and computer savvy individual to maintain the CNPS membership database and provide administrative support to the Executive Director and other CNPS staff as needed as well as to provide administrative support to CNPS membership volunteer staff. The Data Entry Clerk/Administrative Assistant reports directly to the Finance and Administration Manager. Position is open until filled, and full job announcement is available at http://CNPS.org.

3) East Bay CNPS Native Here Nursery ManagerNative Here Nursery is a project of the East Bay Chapter of the California Native Plant Society (CNPS).  The nursery was founded in 1994 and operates as a project of the chapter dedicated to growing plants propagated from seeds collected in Alameda and Contra Costa counties for restoration and gardening projects.  The nursery is seen as the premier nursery in the area devoted to local native flora.  Conservation and restoration are at the heart of Native Here’s mission and the nursery is dependent on community engagement from experienced and talented volunteers to operate efficiently. More information on the job is available at http://ebcnps.org/native-here-nursery-manager-position-open/

If you are interested, or know anyone who is, please click on the appropriate link and check it out!

Big News! Arne is a finalist

Recent Gardening Committee meeting - from left: Arne Johanson, Will Johnson, Sue Marchetti

Every year, Cox Communications runs a grant program called Cox Conserves Heroes.

Cox Conserves Heroes is an awards program created by Cox and The Trust for Public Land (TPL) that honors Heroes among us who work to create, preserve, improve or enhance the shared outdoor places in our communities.

We nominated Arne Johanson for his work in the restoration field (excuse the pun) and he is now one of three finalists.

This is very exciting.

Here is the way Greg Rubin describes Arne: ""Arne Johanson is one of my conservation heroes. For years he has been doing incredibly important work with very little fanfare. Arne is so modest, in fact, that few know of the significant contributions he is making to the health of our local ecology in the Escondido/Rancho Bernardo/Poway areas. While so much emphasis (and money) is thrown at replanting, Arne realized that the eradication of weeds is essential to the success of any ecological restoration project.

In fact, he came to the conclusion that if the sites are maintained weed-free, the ecology will often start to recover on its own. Along the way he has pioneered procedures that enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of his methods. Arne has applied this successful and cost effective approach to many acres of habitat, preventing their conversion to weedy, fire-prone "cow pasture" and ensuring ecological viability for many years to come.

A number of his sites are now park-like in their beauty and diversity, harkening back to a time when our ecology was so clean that indians could comfortably walk barefoot for hundreds of miles. It is backbreaking, thankless work. It is a strategy that favors long term success over the instant gratification of "feel good" planting. New plants often fail because our extremely delicate, fragile native ecology is overrun by aggressive, non-native invasives unchecked by bio-controls. Arne is both commander and infantryman on the front line of the weed wars. His tireless efforts to re-establish our sense of regional identity and his contributions to our quality of life are deserving of recognition."

An interesting quote...

I read this at a Linked-In site. It was posted by Tim Brown who is the CEO at IDEO:

Gardening helps us frame future design challenges
The old assembly-line metaphors of the Industrial Revolution won’t help us design the future. Our world is complex. Like a garden, we must tend it, cultivate it, steward it, and encourage it to meet our needs instead of always trying to be in control of it. Our solutions must accommodate the competing needs of humans and the rest of nature. Successful design, like successful gardening, is never finished and is constantly changing.


He was making the point that we could all take lessons from the gardening world. And I agree. Some of the most interesting ideas I've had, I created based on gardening metaphors: ideas about patience, how to plan a project, and, of course: Love.


Have fun today!

Salvia strip - what a cutie!

Driving around in Point Loma, I saw this parkway strip planted with Salvias - dunno whose house this is, but I couldn't resist stepping out of my car to take a couple of snaps.

Nice work!