Do you ever wonder about all of the oak trees you see in California?

If you want to find out more about these oak beauties, here are some great resources:

UC Oak Woodland Management one great resource.  Their mission is to maintain, and where possible, increase the acreage of California's hardwood range resources to provide wildlife habitat, recreational opportunities, wood and livestock products, high-quality water supply, and aesthetic value. On this web page, they have a list of 8 common California Oak tree species:  Blue Oak, Valley Oak, Oregon White Oak, Engelmann Oak, Coast Live Oak, Interior Live Oak, Canyon Live Oak, and California Black Oak. 

When you click on one of the links to the species shown on right side of the page, you can view the common name, scientific name, pictures, description, range distribution maps and more.  UC Oak Woodland Management's web page offers a “quick click” way to learn more about our California oak trees.

UC Oak Woodland Management:   https://ucanr.edu/sites/oak_range/ select “California's Rangeland Oak Species, Values, and Habitat Descriptions”

Another way to see these beautiful oak trees up close is by taking a nice stroll in the beautiful UC Davis Arboretum on the UC Davis Campus.

The UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden have a huge arboretum, many acres of demonstration gardens and the Putah Creek Riparian Reserve.  Their purpose is to inspire human potential to help people and environments thrive.

If you want to stay focused on the oak trees, you can visit their Peter J. Shields Oak Grove.  Download their map from this site:  https://arboretum.ucdavis.edu/  

On the top of the page, select the link “VISIT”, and choose Directions, Map & Parking Information.

You are then going to look for Peter J. Shields Oak Grove on the map.  There are more than 80 kinds of oak trees found in this grove and they are all nicely identified with markers.

Bubblicious Plant

Remember the old days when you could go down to the local store and buy a piece of bubble gum?  I won't mention what the price it used to be…..  Now is the time to relive the old days!  This Petunia plant is the “Pop” that you've been looking for!   Petunia ‘Bubblegum' grows 2 feet tall and trails to 3-4 feet long. It is drought tolerant, low maintenance, likes Sun – Part Sun, and attracts Hummingbirds.  It blooms continuously from Spring until the end of Fall.   

It's not too early to start thinking about your spring garden in November.  It's such a busy “indoor” month with all the holidays fast approaching.  So, a bit of planning will keep our gardens healthy as we begin to shop, cook, decorate and celebrate and reap happy dividends in the spring.

Here are some key things to put on your “to-do” list for November gardening:

CLEAN UP

• Finish cleaning up the vegetable garden
• Store garden supplies,  including pots, where they've been summering near your beds.  That's where snails will want to cozy down for the winter and then be uninvited guests in the spring
• Mulch un-planted vegetable beds with leaves or straw to prevent weeds—unless you have  planted a cover crop or cool-season vegetable garden earlier in the fall
• Why mulch? It helps keep your soil from eroding, crusting or compacting during winter rains…it's another “glad I did this” when spring arrives!

WATERING

• Watch your container plants perched under patio roofs or eaves—it's easy to forget to water these places where winter rains can't reach
• Water only as needed: reduce the watering frequency as the weather cools
• Turn off your sprinkler controller once winter rains have begun

 FROST PROTECTION

• Keep an eye and ear out for frost forecasts
• Know the cold tolerance of your plants
• Plan ahead with stakes in the ground for frost covers
• Cover subtropical plants, succulents, and young citrus with frost cloth, old sheets or large cardboard boxes before sunset to help retain ground heat and remove during the day
• Hint: Coverings should not contact plant leaves and need to go to all the way to the ground
• Keep tender, in-ground and container plants well-watered—moist soil holds more heat than dry soil, keeps the humidity higher and helps protect against frost burn—(moisture being pulled from foliage)

 BLOOMS & BORDERS

•  Fall planting opportunities are just about over
• Plant newly purchased trees, perennials, shrubs, and ground covers well before you start cooking that turkey
• Finish planting bulbs

With those simple garden tasks complete, you can start planning your holiday menus, make your gift list and even have time to sit back and enjoy the beautiful fall season.

“Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits.”  Samuel Butler

It's quite interesting how certain plant geneses received their names; did the person discovering said plant in the wilds gives it their own name?  Was the plant family named after a colleague or a friend or, perhaps, even after a loved one?

Take the plants we call Fuchsias for example: what or who was behind the name?  At the last Vallejo Garden Club, I was privileged to hear a talk from Janis and Rodney of the Vallejo Branch (!) of the American Fuchsia Society who not only told the members about how to care, propagate, and just plain enjoy our fuchsia plants at home but the history behind these plants.

Fuchsias have been in cultivation since the 1500s when found in South America and sent to England as part of the great plant explorations of the time.  Adventurers were admonished to bring back plant specimens and seeds when they returned home.  As a result, fuchsias were brought back as exotic beauties that grew well in Europe.

There are currently 108 species of fuchsias now with over 9000 (!) named cultivars registered with the Fuchsia Society!  Originally, the plants had tubed flowers with small sepals, but now hybridizers have created short tubed flowers with 4 petals and longer sepals which usually curved back or a “duplexed” flower which simply means the flowers have many petals (doubles).

What interested me the most, though, was the name “fuchsia”.  It turns out that there was a doctor Leonhart Fuchs who was considered to have written the best book on using plants and herbs with medicinal properties. Although other such books had been written earlier, his book emphasized high-quality drawings as the telling way to specify what a plant name stood for and how to identify these plants.  Thus he was honored with the species Fuchsia.  It was thought for quite some time that he was also honored with the color fuchsia, but the name for the color actually is derived from fuchsine, an early trade name for the dye rosaniline hydrochloride in France by its manufacturer Renard frères et Fane to capitalize on the increasing popularity of the genus fuchsia in fashionable gardens and the fact that both Renard in French and Fuchs in German both mean fox.

Dr. Fuchs created the first medicinal garden at the University of Tubingen under the bidding of Ulrich, Duke of Wurttemberg, Germany in 1533.

If you are interested in belonging to the Vallejo Branch of the American Fuchsia Society, they meet on the 2^nd Tuesday, 1 pm, at the Church of the Ascension, 2420 Tuolumne St, Vallejo.  If you do go, please be there at 1 promptly as the doors are locked due to a robbery when a group was meeting.