- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Salivating over salvia?
You can see, salivate--and purchase--salvias and more at the spring premiere plant sale sponsored by the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden on Saturday, April 6.
They'll offer everything from "Bee's Bliss" to "Black Lace" to "Blaze" to "Brilliance." Among the many others: "Whirly Blue, "Pozo Blue," "Marine Blue," "Little Kiss," "Midnight," "Pink Cadillac" and "Hot Lips."
The plant sale, open to the public, is set from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the one-acre Arboretum Teaching Nursery on Garrod Drive. It's a great place to buy plants to attract our pollinators: bees, butterflies, birds, beetles and bats. Not to mention syrphid flies, aka hover flies/flower flies!
You can download the plant sale inventory on the website. Favorites include the Arboretum All-Stars and California native plants, as well as herbs, perennials, shade plants, bushes, trees, vines and more.
Can't make it on Saturday, April 6? Plant sales are also scheduled Saturday, April 27 and Saturday, May 11.
Happy spring! Happy salivating! And happy/hungry pollinators!
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Bees and other pollinators may have a tough time during the fourth year of California's severe drought, as they search for nectar and pollen. Expect to see many plants wither, wilt and die due to the "D" word, "Drought."
Gov. Jerry Brown's mandate that we cut our water use by at least 25 percent worries many a bee gardener.
But wait, the UC Davis Arboretum Teaching Nursery has scheduled a public plant sale for Saturday, April 11 starring low-water, drought-tolerant plants.
The sale will be from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the UC Davis Arboretum Teaching Nursery on Garrod Drive. They're offering a list of 35 Low-water Plants You've (Probably) Never Heard of. It's a good time to explore what they have to offer.
Going through the list, we see they have anemones, desert spoons, desert willows, gold tooth aloe, mouse-eared tickseed, buckwheats, and salvia (sages), among others. Many are bee favorites. (A good resource is California Bees and Blooms: A Guide for Gardeners (Heyday Publications), a book written by scientists affiliated with the University of California, Gordon W. Frankie, Robbin W. Thorp, Rollin E. Coville, and Barbara Ertter)
The low-water plants that UC Davis Aboretum lists?
- Agave americana ‘Mediopicta Alba' white-striped century plant
- Carpenteria californica ‘Elizabeth' Elizabeth bush anemone
- Dasylirion wheeleri desert spoon
- Agave vilmoriniana octopus agave
- Chilopsis linearis desert willow
- Dudleya caespitosa coast dudleya
- Aloe × spinosissima gold tooth aloe
- Coreopsis auriculata ‘Nana' dwarf mouse-eared tickseed
- Eremophila maculata ‘Aurea' spotted emu bush
- Arctostaphylos pajaroensis ‘Paradise' paradise Manzanita
- Correa pulchella ‘Orange Flame' orange flame correa
- Eriogonum fasciculatum ‘Theodore Payne' dwarf California buckwheat
- Eriogonum umbellatum sulphur buckwheat
- Geranium × cantabrigiense ‘Biokovo' Biokovo geranium
- Leucophyllum frutescens Cenizo
- Festuca idahoensis ‘Clearwater Blue' Clearwater Idaho fescue
- Grindelia camporum Great Valley gum plant
- Othonna cheirfolia Barberry ragweed
- Fremontodendron ‘San Gabriel'
- Horkelia californica California horkelia
- Pelargonium sidoides garnet geranium
- Gambelia speciosa ‘Firecracker' Island snapdragon
- Peritoma arborea bladderpod
- Perovskia atriplicifolia ‘Lissvery' PBR silvery blue Russian sage
- Phlomis ‘Edward Bowles' hybrid Jerusalem sage
- Salvia clevelandii ‘Aromas' San Diego sage
- Stachys albotomentosa ‘Hidalgo' Hidalgo stachys
- Prunus andersonii desert peach
- Salvia ‘San Carlos Festival' San Carlos hybrid sage
- Sternbergia lutea autumn crocus
- Russelia equisetiformis coral fountain
- Sedum stenopetalum worm-leaved stonecrop
- Yucca filamentosa ‘Color Guard' color guard yucca
- Salvia × jamensis ‘California Sunset' orange autumn sage
- Sophora secundiflora Texas mountain laurel
We're quite fond of the anemone--especially when there's a bee on it--and the gum plant--definitely when there's a bee on it.
In our yard we find that catmint (Nepeta), Mexican sunflower (Tithonia), tower of jewels (Echium wildpretii) take little water and attract many pollinators. The Tithonia, an annual, bloomed last year from April through October. It seemed happy even when the temperature hit 100 degrees.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
If you love to watch pollinators at work in your garden--especially the honey bees and the bumble bees--first you have to provide the plants.
Promise yourself to plant pollinator plants periodically.
But which ones?
The UC Davis Arboretum staff gets asked that question a lot. As part of its 75th anniversary celebration, the Arboretum has scheduled a Member Appreciation Sale from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 9 at its plant sales nursery on Garrod Drive.
Folks can become members on the spot, and the privileges are many. "Members of the Friends of the UC Davis Arboretum and the Davis Botanical Society not only receive 10 percent off their plant sale purchases but they also receive an additional $10 of of their purchases at this sale," said Missy Gable, public engagement manager (mjgable@ucdavis.edu).
The Arborteum prides itself on providing "the area’s largest selection of attractive, low-water, easy-care, region-appropriate plants, including Arboretum All-Stars." Live music, free refreshments and children's activities are also planned that day.
Three more spring public plant sales are upcoming (folks can become members then, too):
- Saturday, April 6 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- Sunday, April 28 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- Saturday, May 19 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. (clearance sale)
Here are some of the pollinator plants that will be available for sale:
- Salvia clevelandii, Cleveland sage
- Saponaria x lempergii ‘Max Frei’, hybrid soapwort
- Leucophyllum frutescens, cenizo
- Rosmarinus officinalis ‘Mozart’, Ed Carman’s rosemary
- Achillea ‘Coronation Gold’, coronation gold yarrow
- Perovskia atriplicifolia ‘Little Spire’, little spire Russian Sage
- Dasylirion wheeleri, desert spoon
- Salvia chamaedryoides, Mexican blue sage
- Teucrium fruticans ‘Azureum’, azure bush germander
- Epilobium canum, California fuchsia
- Origanum ‘Betty Rollins’, Betty Rollins oregano
- Salvia microphylla, Graham’s sage
The plants above are among those showcased at the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology's Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, a half-acre bee friendly garden located next to the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility on Bee Biology Road, west of the central campus.
And, have you heard about the UC Davis Arboretum Shovel Drive? At each of the plant sales, you can donate an old shovel, spade or trowel to the Arboretum for a campus/city sculpture project!
Just think, the garden tools you not longer need or want will be sculpted into something quite spectacular.