Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma
Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma
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While attending California State Polytechnic University San Luis Obispo many years ago, I had the great fortune to work at the Dos Pueblos Orchid Company in Goleta, just north of Santa Barbara. I worked on weekends and the summertime as one of five full-time estate gardeners for the main ranch-style house gardens alone. This 45,000-acre ranch land expanded from the Pacific coastline up to the Santa Ynez Mountain Range to the east. Highway 101 and the Amtrak trains runs...
Special to Village News What's more iconic than California's golden hills and dales dotted with the state's native oak trees? California's landscape has some of the most diverse plants and flora on this planet and it needs our help now. Native oaks are a vital important component of the vegetation of California and they grow in a wide variety of habitats that helps provide a distinctive character to our entire state. They provide food and shelter for many wildlife species,...
Staghorn ferns have been hanging around our gardens for years and have become a noble plant to have in any landscape setting. Platycerium bifurcatum is one epiphytic species of ferns and grows up in the canopies of trees from Australia, South America, Thailand, Africa, Madagascar, Asia and the Philippines. These are plants that have elevated their lives to grow high up in the branches of trees and collect rainfall, fog, mist, falling leaves, and assorted animal castings into t...
During the Mesozoic age, and before the extinction of flowering plants, ferns, horsetails, aquatics, and cycads flourished, dating back 250 million years. If we turn our botanical time clock back millions of years ago, we would see a completely different flora and fauna on this planet we call home. The earth was dotted with ancient cycads covering most of the continents, and they were a food source for the giant herbivorous dinosaurs such as stegosaurus in the Jurassic...
The carvings on aspen trees and other soft woods was a way that Basque sheepherders would leave their mark out in the west. Large ranches in the western United States were raising vast amounts of sheep to supply food for the railroad workers in the developing train empire across America from the 1850 to the 1930s. One supply of food was being raised by Basque sheepherders who migrated to California, Oregon, Nevada, and Idaho out in the western prairies and up in the aspen... Full story
My entire life has been surrounded by nature and the wonderful world of trees and the fabulous plant kingdom. As a young lad, I had the opportunity to live on my grandfather’s farm and woodlands of northern Sweden for many summers. I was always fascinated by the vast abundance of plants in that Nordic habitat in the land of the midnight sun. I spent summers hand cutting hay with a scythe and raking it with a wooden rake into piles and then pitched the cut hay up onto h... Full story
Do you like trees? Do trees mean something to you? Are you a collector of different, unique and flowering trees? Well, this week, I present Schotia brachypetala. Common names include the African walnut, tree fuchsia, weeping boer-bean and I call it “wonderful” for many garden settings. The genus Schotia was named after Richard van der Schot who was from Delft, Holland, and was the head gardener at the Imperial Garden in Vienna. This tree is in the Fabaceae family and is rel...
Welcome again to my world of trees, plants, environment and stewardship for the flora of the earth. Today's glorious find is the white flowering Chionanthus retusus, the Chinese fringe tree which is native to China, Japan and Korea. In the genus name, "chino" means snow, and "anthus" means snow-white flowers. The tree is classified into the Ooleaceae, or the olive family, and is a wonderful tree for gardens throughout Southern California The blossoms begin in May and June,... Full story
The Crown of Thorns, euphorbia milii, is a unique and ever-blooming plant that can brighten any garden setting throughout the year in a wide palette of flower colors. The unique thorns on the branches give the plant its name, Crown of Thorns, and has been grown and cultivated around the world and the Middle East as an ornamental plant. This plant is named after Baron Milius who introduced the plant into France in 1821 where it was grown as a hothouse plant in the cold... Full story
Do you enjoy nature and working outdoors in the garden, taking a hike in forests or maybe tending to your summer vegetable plot? If these activities help you to have a connected feeling to nature, why not have that same comfort zone with some interior plants inside your home? It is a proven fact that house plants give people a sense of comfort, lessen stress, increase physiological ease and help reduce air pollutants. Plant explorers for centuries have scoured the earth to...
My life has been dedicated to the natural world and the caring of flora and fauna throughout California, but what I see being done to trees today really concerns me and it is a shame how some trees are treated unfairly. When the public sees the topping of trees, it becomes like a plague in the neighborhood. The public thinks this is how trees should be treated, and it is not so. Trees are life for they bestow upon us a host of benefits that is part of the green world. They giv...
Spring is the season to be out and about and enjoy nature and all the spring wildflowers happening at the Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve which is so abundant this year after the winter rains. The plateau is in Riverside County, just north of Fallbrook and west of Murrieta on Clinton Keith Road. This 9,000-acre reserve is where a treasure of indigenous oaks, native grasslands, vernal pools, reptiles, amphibians, birds and a bounty of springtime flowers and even...
What is more glorious and brings the warm feeling that spring is around the corner than our native blooming poppies that are sprinkled throughout the golden state of California? The genus of plants was named for Johann Friedrich Eschscholtz in the 1800s, and the species is from California. It was in the late 1880s that the California State Floral Society voted to select a state flower. There were three candidates on the ballot with; Matillija, Calochortus and the California... Full story
What is more characteristic of the California landscape than the majestic oaks that abound throughout our Golden State? They range throughout our state from high desert slopes to the Pacific shores. The relatives of modern oak species contributed to the landscape of prehistoric California more than 20 million years ago, and the state has over 20 species of indigenous oak species. As California’s population has grown, we have moved into territories that were once thick with t...
It's the season for putting your thinking caps on and growing your own wholesome and healthy fruits and veggies for the coming season for you, your family and the community, right at home. With the unknown of just how commercial fruits from foreign lands are grown these days what better way to ensure your family is getting vine-ripened healthy food right from your own garden. Now is when bare root trees and plants are available at your local hometown nurseries. The bare root p... Full story
The recent much needed rains came to a parched earth. I haven’t seen such an early rainy season for many a year, and it is greatly appreciated by the flora and fauna. It will take decades and more to regenerate the below-ground aquifers and continued snowpack in the Sierras to help the region out in the long run. The past fire season brought havoc to areas throughout the state, from Bonsall to Los Angeles, Ventura and up to Paradise in northern California. Erosion control i...
“There is one blue planet floating in space, let’s take care of her.” Here are my 2019 gardener’s resolutions: * First, adjust your lifestyle to be in harmony with the earth flora and fauna. * Tackle that problem area in the garden and take joy in fixing it. * Start more veggies from seeds and learn the art of germinating seeds. * Start a neighborhood garden and get your friends and family involved. * Consider permaculture as a new wave of gardening and lifestyle. * Conside... Full story
It was last December that the raging Lilac Fire blew across the hills of the community of Bonsall and the south end of Fallbrook. The fire started along the Interstate 15 freeway corridor, and the flames quickly were blown across the rolling terrain of West Lilac Road over to Camino Del Rey and down the San Luis Rey River bed. I was called in to assist several of those fire victims with damaged landscapes. A friend of mine lost his huge greenhouses that burnt to the ground wit... Full story
If you are into plants and beauty and would enjoy a wonderful holiday botanical outing, Roger's Gardens in Corona del Mar is a must do this time of year. This garden center has been voted as one of America's most beautiful nurseries, and I concur for I have been in hundreds of nurseries both in the states and the continent in my lifetime. A cheerful outing up to Corona del Mar, near Newport Beach is a garden lover's voyage at any time of year, but during the Christmas season,... Full story
With the holiday seasons beginning, what flowering plant is more traditional than the beautiful holiday poinsettia? The species poinsettia is from Mexico and the original plant is far removed from where it is today with modern-day cultivars of many different colors and shapes. The poinsettia was originally brought back from the wilds of Mexico and introduced into this country by Joel Poinsett, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico in 1825. Mr. Poinsett was an avid gardener who grew...
Many people ask me about fall-colored foliage trees like back east. They usually are referring to the blazing hardwood forest that is glowing with all shades of yellow, reds, orange intermingled with evergreen trees around the perimeter of the wooded areas at this time of year. Well, we might not have those exact autumn-foliage trees out west, but we do have our own fall colors like chorisia speciosa, the silk floss tree, that is ablaze with a colorful flowering canopy of... Full story
With the horrific fires that have burned up and down the state of California, I have recollections of the Rice Canyon fire of 2007 that burned here in Fallbrook. If you recall, the entire Fallbrook population was evacuated from that fire with the howling Santa Ana winds blowing cinders and sparks miles away from the origin of the fire. In the past week, the television's vivid broadcasting coverage has brought back those fire memories, and my heart goes out to all those in the...
This little blue planet floating in space that we call home has given us so much to appreciate, and trees are one of those magical growing components. The multiple benefits of trees are wide and varied, and we might not always think of how trees affect our lives daily but here are some thoughts to ponder in your daily life about the trees that surround us. • Trees combat climate change: Trees absorb CO2, removing and storing the carbon while releasing oxygen back into the a...
Matilija poppy has been called the "Queen of California flowers" in the words of Mary Parsons in her book "The Wildflowers of California," 1897. It seems more appropriate for this beautiful California native in lieu of the "Fried Egg Plant," a name which I never thought this elegant and stately plant deserved. Botanically speaking, it is a Romney coulteri, and Matilija is pronounced "ma-til-li-ha." It is one of most recognized of California flowering native plants. With some...
Spring is happening and so are the flowering redbuds (cercis canadensis). When you look real close, the petite flowers resemble a tiny pea, hence they are called "Pea Flowers" This species is native to eastern and central North America and is in the legume family. It's one of my favorite early flowering trees that announce the beginning of a new season, but there other species from California, Texas, Oklahoma, Mexico and even China with many cultivars. Redbuds are considered...
