APRIL:

• April 13^th, Humboldt Botanical Garden Education Series, Donna Wildearth, Native Plants. Location: at the Humboldt Botanical Garden (HBG), outside Marie's Terrace. Register at https://www.hbgf.org/contact-us 

• April 13^th, Seed and Plant Exchange, Humboldt Grange #501. Location: 5845 Humboldt Hill Rd., Eureka, CA. 11 am to 3 pm.
• April 20^th, Humboldt Botanical Education Series, Jeff Moore, Succulents, Location:                  CR Humanities building, room 110. Register at https://www.hbgf.org/contact-us
• April 20^th & 21^st, 2024 Eureka Home and Garden Show, Redwood Acres Fairgrounds. For more information, visit https://www.eurekahomeandgardenshow.com/
•  April 20^th, Seed Exchange, Willow Creek
• April 25^th, Eureka Chapter American Rhododendron Society, Mark Akimoff, Illahe Rare Plants, Chilean Andes Plant Hunting. Location: Eureka Woman's Club. For more information: www.eurekarhody.org

 MAY:

• May 3^rd, Humboldt Botanical Garden's ANNUAL PLANT SALE “Plant Ahead!” MEMBERS ONLY - PREVIEW EVENT, 3 pm to 7:00 pm. Shop early for native plants, perennials, ferns, roses, succulents, herbs, and more. Memberships can be purchased at the door. Please bring boxes to transport your purchases. https://www.hbgf.org/ or call 707-442-5139. 

•  May 4^th, Humboldt Botanical Garden's ANNUAL PLANT SALE, “Plant Ahead!” will be held from 9 am to 3 pm. Free, Open to the Public. Shop early for native plants, perennials, ferns, roses, succulents, herbs, and more. Please bring boxes to transport your purchases. https://www.hbgf.org/ or call 707-442-5139. 

• May 4^th and May 5^th, Spring 2024 Native Plant Sale. Browse their wide selection of native plants, explore the demonstration garden and talk to local native plant experts. To learn more about the event and to sign up https://northcoastcnpsnursery.org/ 

• May 11^th, Humboldt Rose Society Annual Plant Sale, 10 am to 4 pm. Location 1525 Harris Street, Eureka, CA. https://www.humboldtrosesociety.org/schedules 

• May 18^th, Annual Firewise Community Fair and Youth Ecology Day, 10 am to 3 pm. Veteran's Park, 100 Kimtu Rd., Willow Creek, CA, 95573. 

• On May 19^th, the 71st Annual Southern Humboldt Garden Club Flower Show, 10 am to 4 pm. Free Admission. Will be held at the Agnes J. Johnson Charter School, 73 School Rd., Weott, CA. There will be a Tea Room and an Opportunity Drawing (the monies raised are used for scholarships to local High School Seniors). Local vendors will also be present with plants and other items for sale.
• Farmer's Markets in Garberville, Miranda, and Shelter Cove will be open from May through October. For additional information, visit https://www.northcoastgrowersassociation.org/

 JUNE

• Farmers' Markets in Fortuna and Henderson Center, Eureka, will be open from May through October. For additional information, visit https://www.northcoastgrowersassociation.org/
•  We will have a table at the Henderson Center Farmers' Market on Thursdays, 10 am to 1 pm, June through October. Bring your gardening, landscape, plant, and pest questions, and we will get you the information you need.
• June 2^nd – 8^th is National Garden Week.
  
  
• June 9^th, Humboldt Rose Society Rose Show. Redwood Acres Fairgrounds, Home Ec. Building, 3750 Harris St, Eureka, CA. 1 pm to 4 pm, free admission. Entries accepted - June 8, noon to 1:30 PM, June 9,  7:30- 10 AM. https://www.humboldtrosesociety.org/schedules for additional information. 

• June 17^th – 23^rd is National Pollinator Week. Visit https://www.pollinator.org/pollinator-week for more information.

Disclaimer: All dates are subject to change. Check with individual vendors for more information.

 

Why, what's the matter,                                                  

That you have such a February face,  
So full of frost, of storm and cloudiness?
–William Shakespeare, from "Much Ado About Nothing"

Back in 2008, when we first began to garden, plan, and plant the Moss Family Temperate Woodland Garden in Humboldt Botanical Garden, we had a bare canvas and mostly bare earth except for the amazing load of weed seeds from the native soil and the many loads of trucked-in horse-barn shavings, spoiled feed, and manure.

We learned quickly that water flows downhill and over our beautifully compacted and rocked pathways and stairs. As the water flowed, it carried soil, eroded our new paths, and sought and took its own path. We learned where the water would run all year and where it would only run until the first of summer, and we learned to take advantage of its special qualities and behaviors. 

Tim and I had been to Pukeiti Garden in New Zealand (https://www.trc.govt.nz/gardens/pukeiti/), where the prodigious rain (4 meters or 160 inches) caused the gardeners to dig 3-foot-deep and wide ‘gutters' along their pathways. They also had large culverts where the pathways crossed the rain flow. We and our volunteers learned to use trenching tools to cut gutters along our pathways to give the water a place to run without too much destruction.

When considering how to manage water runoff, think about slowing down the flow of the water, creating low-lying areas in the garden to provide short-term storage for heavy runoff, and allowing sediment and water to soak into the ground instead of entering storm drains and creeks. Also, consider planting plants with fibrous root systems along the edges to prevent runoff and soil erosion. For more information, visit https://ccuh.ucdavis.edu/sites/g/files/dgvnsk1376/files/inline-files/landdesign%20water%20quality%20english.pdf

This time of year, keeping our 16-year-old gutters free of debris is a major task for our volunteers and staff. Luckily, our deciduous trees are finished with their fall disrobement and the leaves have been removed from gutters and pathways by the Wild Weeders and Grateful Deadheaders. The leaves are repurposed into the garden beds.

During our Docent-led tour on Saturday, February 3^rd, we saw the blooming Camellia reticulata along the road and the first of our brilliant pink Magnolia sprengeri var. diva 'Diva' and Magnolia ‘Caerhay's Belle' (M. sargentiana var. robusta × M. sprengeri ‘Diva'. These plants give the garden dramatic pops of color on otherwise dreary days. Tim says, “The joy of these magnolias is that they bloom in February, and the sorrow is that they bloom in February as wind and rain can strip the flowers.”

Soon the Wild Weeders and Grateful Deadheaders will begin their annual Camellia purgatory of spent blossom cleanup. We pick up the spent flowers to help prevent Camellia petal blight which is a disease caused by the fungus Ciborinia camelliae. Though our C. reticulatas are less susceptible than C. japonica or the Williams hybrids, we want to do what we can to prevent our flowers from turning brown and falling off prematurely.

Come visit the temperate woodland garden at Humboldt Botanical Garden to see how we manage water run-off, maintain the plants and soil, enjoy the lovely blossoms, and see how the garden changes throughout the seasons.

Resources:

Landscape Design & Water Quality
https://ccuh.ucdavis.edu/sites/g/files/dgvnsk1376/files/inline-files/landdesign%20water%20quality%20english.pdf

Landscape Plants: Fertilizing & Watering 
https://ccuh.ucdavis.edu/sites/g/files/dgvnsk1376/files/inline-files/landplants%20fertilizing%20watering%20english.pdf 

Soak Up the Rain: Rain Gardens 
https://www.epa.gov/soakuptherain/soak-rain-rain-gardens

If you want to feed the birds, start by feeding the caterpillars! Most songbirds will not thrive or choose to nest in habitats devoid of caterpillars. The plants best suited to support a diversity of caterpillars are native plants, but not just any natives. Just fourteen percent of native plants support ninety percent of caterpillar biomass; these are known as the keystone plants. 

Many of us enjoy birds, but we may be inadvertently hanging “No vacancy” signs over our gardens. Research by entomologist Doug Tallamy shows that to raise their young, birds need caterpillars – lots of them. Songbirds as little as chickadees require some six to nine thousand caterpillars to raise a brood of nestlings. In fact, ninety-six percent of terrestrial songbirds rely on caterpillars to feed their babies. The prevalence of these small, soft-bodied, protein-rich larvae affects where the birds choose to nest and how big a territory they need to defend.

Fortunately, we have a good jump on knowing what these vital keystone species are. The information presented below, and the identification of keystone plant genera is based on the research of Doug Tallamy of the University of Delaware, author of Nature's Best Hope.  

Here is a list of resources/databases to help you select keystone plants to support caterpillars and birds in our area: 

• Calscape - Restore Nature One Garden at a Time. Enter the city where you live to see a list of native plants to choose from. You will find lots of information about each plant: images, descriptions, growth habits, and the number and types of butterflies and moths supported to name a few. (The numbers of moths and butterflies hosted indicated in the plant list below are from this search tool.) 
   
• Audubon - Native Plants, Bring more birds to your home with native plants. Enter your zip code to see plants suited to your area and the birds they will support.
   
• National Wildlife Federation, Native Plant Finder Select from a list of host plants for butterflies and moths. Plants are ranked by the number of caterpillars hosted. 

Using the databases above, we have put together a list of native plants that do well in our area and support butterflies and moths, which provide caterpillars to feed the birds. They all support numerous caterpillar species in our area. Numbers in parentheses indicate the probable number of caterpillar species supported.

 Shrubs: Willows (211), Bitter Cherry (156), Ceanothus (85), Currants and gooseberries (85), Huckleberries (65), Wild Roses (66), Lupines (55), Manzanitas (56)  

 Perennials: Thimbleberry (70), Cow's Clover (67), Goldenrods (53), Beach Strawberry (32), Coast Buckwheat (31) 

 Annuals: Native Clovers (70), Miniature Lupine (54)  

For more detailed information on these and other native plant species options for your growing conditions, visit Calscape - Restore Nature One Garden at a Time 

If you would like to visit a local native garden, the North Coast CNPS, California Native Plant Society, has an extensive list of local native gardens from Trinidad to Ferndale.  

 

Protecting The Birds That Visit Your Garden 

OK! You've planted your keystone species, the caterpillars are on their way, and our feathered friends will follow. Yay!!  But not surprisingly, the birds, like us, need more than just food. Here are a few steps to help you turn your avian restaurant into a home.

Reduce or eliminate pesticide use: Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies, such as proper plant selection, can help gardeners adopt more sustainable landscape practices. 

Provide Fresh Water: Place a birdbath in the landscape and be sure to keep it clean. If you are really ambitious, a small fountain with protective plants around it will attract the birds! 

Add a nest box (birdhouse) - Nest boxes can provide valuable homes for many birds  For more information about nest box design and placement for specific birds visit https://nestwatch.org/learn/all-about-birdhouses/.   

Keep cats indoors: Free-roaming cats kill 2-3 billion birds yearly. If you want your cat to experience the outdoors, please consider building an enclosed cat patio (catio.)  

Prevent window strikes: Up to a billion birds are killed every year from collisions with windows. The site below has ideas on how to prevent these accidents. 

 

Layer your yard's habitat: 

• If you have space, consider adding large shrubs or small trees such as Bitter cherry (156), Toyon (4), Coffeeberry (23), Cascara Sagrada (27), Red Alder (70), or Vine Maple (55). These trees/shrubs not only support caterpillars but can also provide fruit and nuts, nest cavities, and perches. 
• Smaller shrubs, in addition to perennials and annuals, can provide cover and seeds for birds. 
• Leave some decayed leaves, twigs, and other plant debris on the ground to provide homes for invertebrates that birds eat, including the pupae of most moth caterpillars. 

Leave the seeds: Do not deadhead seedheads; they can be an important food source during fall and winter. Consider planting native plants such as Woolly Sunflower (Eriophyllum lanatum), California Aster (Corethrogyne filaginifolia), and Deergrass (Muhlenbergia rigens). These plants produce a profusion of seeds that attract and support seedeaters, such as finches and sparrows. 

Especially for hummingbirds:In addition to soft-bodied insects and larvae, hummingbirds can feed on nectar from most any flowering shrub, tree, vine, perennial, or annual. They are especially attracted to native species with orange, pink, and red tubular flowers, such as Humboldt County Fuchsia (Epilobium septentrionale) and Hummingbird Sage (Salvia spathacea). Manzanitas, gooseberries, and currants are important for caterpillars and can also supply nectar in the colder months. 

So, what are you waiting for? Now that spring planting is near, it is time to flip that “No Vacancy” sign to “Birds are Welcome!”  

For more information related to protecting birds visit: 

University of California, Sustainable Landscaping in California https://anrcatalog.ucanr.edu/pdf/8504.pdf 

Audubon, How to Clean a Birdbath — Attracting Birds to Your Yard | Audubon https://www.audubon.org/news/why-you-should-keep-your-birdbath-clean 

NestWatch, All About Birdhouses https://nestwatch.org/learn/all-about-birdhouses/ 

American Bird Conservancy, Cats and Birds https://abcbirds.org/program/cats-indoors/cats-and-birds/ 

American Bird Conservancy, Solutions for Pet Cats, Catios and Outdoor Enclosures https://abcbirds.org/catio-solutions-cats/ 

Cornell Lab, All About the Birds, Why Birds Hit Windows – And How You Can Help Prevent It https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/why-birds-hit-windows-and-how-you-can-help-prevent-it/# 

 

Heleborus ×hybridus is a group of evergreen, late-winter or early-spring flowering perennials in the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae). Helleborus (hellebore) is a small genus of about 20 species of herbaceous perennials native to Europe and Asia. Common names include hellebore, oriental hellebores, or Lenten rose.

The Lenten rose has many attractive features: easy to cultivate, hardy, long-lived, and evergreen. Flowers emerge in the dead of winter and continue a showy display for several months. Flowers come in a variety of colors and styles. Blooms can make good cut flowers, and their seed heads add interest to dried floral arrangements. Hellebores, like other members of the Ranunculaceae family, have alkaloids in the leaves and seeds and can cause mild dermatitis in sensitive gardeners; be sure to wear gloves when working around hellebores. These same alkaloids make the leaves undesirable to deer, rabbits, moles, and voles. Hellebores are extremely frost-hardy and very tolerant of dry conditions once established. They are summer dormant, and they require little attention. What's NOT to like about this plant? It is certainly worth planting in our Northern California coastal gardens.

Lenten roses are an outstanding plant for adding color and texture to the ornamental shade garden. They grow in areas between deciduous shrubs and under trees or naturalize in woodland areas. They can be the stars of the early spring garden as specimen plants or mixed with other spring bulbs. Attractive in the summer, the coarse, leatherlike foliage makes a good backdrop to more delicate shade plants. They are also excellent for planting on a hillside above a path where the downward-facing flowers can be viewed from below.

Mature plants can form clumps that are 18” to 24” tall and 24” to 30” wide. The glossy, deep green foliage can vary in color and shape, even within the same hybrid. The leaves are divided into 7 to 9 segments with an umbrella-like shape held up on a woody stem. The toothed, leathery foliage remains attractive throughout the growing season, remaining evergreen in mild climates.

FLOWERS

Gardeners are most attracted to the hellebore for its early flowers, which can be seen starting in late December or early January/February and last for 2 to 3 months. Available in both single and double forms, it is available in a rainbow of muted colors, ranging from apple green and chartreuse to ivory, mauve, eggplant, and wine.

Flower buds form during the previous summer, and the flower spikes emerge from the underground rhizome in late winter. Mature plants often have 50 or more flowers per plant.

Flowers have five petal-like sepals (a modified calyx) surrounding a ring of small, yellowish-green, tubular nectaries in an open, bell shape. The nectaries are the petals modified to hold nectar. Inside the ring of petals, there are numerous stamens and several pistils. After the flower is pollinated, the petals and stamens fall off, but the sepals remain on the plant for 1-2 months or more (probably contributing to seed development).

Flowers are often followed by unusual seed pods that offer ornamental interest and can produce viable seeds if left on the plant. The carpels eventually dry and split to release the bean-shaped, shiny black seeds, each with a white elaiosome that becomes wrinkled with age. Seeds are self-planted when ripe and can slowly naturalize in the garden.

 CULTURE and PROPAGATION

Hellebore does best in partial shade to full sun and well-drained, humus-rich, fertile garden soil. They are relatively drought tolerant once established but do best with consistent moisture. They are very sensitive to soggy soil, so the site must have good drainage. This plant requires little maintenance. The previous season's leaves will be dried and tattered after the winter and are best cut off at the ground as the flowers emerge in the spring. Sprinkle with a fresh layer of compost around the base of the plants before the flowers emerge. Fertilize in Spring. Apply slug and snail bait as the flower spikes emerge.

Commercial plants are propagated from seed, division, or tissue culture, but germination is slow. It can take four or five

years to produce a plant of flowering size, and seedlings will not come true from seed. Seeds ripen in late spring and early summer and must be sown fresh. Leaving the seed pods on the plants to allow volunteers to sprout is probably the easiest way to get seedlings. These can be carefully dug to move to pots or other garden areas or left to enlarge the clump. Established clumps can be left alone for 20 or more years but may be divided (each division should have several crowns), preferably in the fall or at flowering time. The recovery time is slow with division.

 CUT FLOWERS

A lot has been written about the fickle nature of Hellebores as a cut flower, but everyone agrees that they are worth the effort. The flowers make exquisite small winter bouquets. Different methods are used to increase the water uptake of the immature stem with some success. However, the more mature blooms will last the longest. Basic floral conditioning techniques work. Cut blooms in the morning using a diagonal cut. Plunge stems into cool water up to the flower head and keep in a cool dark place for 24 hours or until ready to arrange. Stems can also be cut at an angle and dipped into boiling water for several seconds to seal the stem, or the stem can be scored vertically with a knife to increase water uptake. Place stems into cool water.

Possibly the best advice comes from Erin Benzakein, the owner of Floret Farms, in her book Cut Flower Garden, “Getting Hellebores to last as cut flowers is simple but requires you to have some self-control: you must select blooms at the proper stage; otherwise, they'll wilt within a few hours of picking. …you must wait until the blooms develop seedpods in the center. The more developed the seedpods, the sturdier the cut hellebore will be and the longer it will last. A very mature hellebore bloom will hold up, unscathed, out of water for an entire day, lending itself to wearable creations such as boutonnieres, corsages, and flower crowns.”

 hope you are convinced of the many virtues of the Helleborus. This reliable perennial is worth trying. Planting a Lenten Rose or hellebore will bring you many years of enjoyment!

Resources:

Say hello to hellebores, January 28, 2018
https://www.floretflowers.com/say-hello-hellebores/

University of California, UC Master Gardener Program of Sonoma County, Hellebores
https://sonomamg.ucanr.edu/Plant_of_the_Month/Hellebores/

Wisconsin Horticulture, Division of Extension, Lenten Rose, Helleborus x hybridus
https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/lenten-rose-helleborus-xhybridus/