Proteacea in January bloom in Santa Cruz/Watsonville, California


I had a great day plant shopping with another medit
plants member, Deborah Lindsay, at a great local
wholesale nursery in Watsonville,(Rosendale) that is
associated with new introductions from the UC Santa
Cruz Botanic Garden's Australian collections, and also
saw the arboretum.  The Banksias, Grevilleas,
Leucospermums, Leucodendrons, etc. were fabulous, and
it actually warmed up enough to not need a coat(it has
been hovering right above freezing at night in my
garden, and freezing most everywhere else!).  

After seeing the mature plants in full bloom, I also
bought several blooming Isopogon formosus, some
Banksia spinulosa 'Schnapper Point', Grevillea
'Superb', G. 'Wakiti Sunrise', Leucospermum 'Tango',
Leucodendron 'Wilson's Wonder' and L. galpinii and
Protea susanae, all because they were already blooming
or in bud, and I needed a Protea fix!  Most will be
going into my brother's new garden in Moss Beach, just
south of San Francisco and a block from the beach, and
I will now have a source of cut Protea flowers! (I'd
keep them for myself if only I had garden space with
sun in my own garden!)  There were so many other
things that I didn't buy, it was tough choosing!

Some of the highlights at the UCSC Arboretum were in
the Proteaceae family, which we had come to see
blooming.  I was pleased to see my first live Mimetes
cuculata, but still unavailable here.  The Phylica
plumosa were also stunning, and we were shown another
Australian small shrub for dry shade or sun called
Phebalium squamulosum var. squamulosum which may be a
new introduction for next year via the UCSC new plant
introductions.  This is a nice foliage plant with buds
of a rusty color opening to pale yellow, flowers
somewhat reminiscent of Hebe buxifolia, and also
reminding me of another South African shrub in my
garden, Gnidia polycephala, also with pale yellow
blooms off and on all year.

Some of the Banksias were fabulous, the large tree
sized B. integrifolia with pale yellow flowers and
silvery reverse foliage, B. spinulosa with stiff wiry
green somewhat fern like foliage and beautiful vivid
orange blooms, B. grandis with great glaucus foliage
and thin elongated bloom spikes which had yet to open,
and tree like B. seminuda with coral/orange blooms and
silvery reverse foliage, and B. baueri, with by far
the fattest orange bloom spikes on a dense growing 6
foot tall shrub with ferny foliage.

I fell in love with the Isopogons, of which I.
latifolius and I. formosus were both in bloom, looking
like lavender sea urchins on upright branches with
attractive bluish green foliage.  Several Proteas were
also quite spectacular, including tree like  P.
nitida, P. susanae, P. exima, P. scolymocephala, P.
'Pink Ice'.

Lots of familiar and new(to me) cultivars of
Leucadendron discolor and L. salignum, as well as L.
galpinii, L. meridianum, L. gandogeri and L.
stelligerum.  Standouts for me included L. s. 'Golden
Tulip', L. 'Rising Sun', and L. 'Wilson's Wonder'. 

The drive down Highway One along the San Mateo County
coast towards Monterey Bay was just picture postcard
perfect yesterday, clear skies, brilliant light, deep
blue seas, vivid green hillsides and virtually no one
on the coast highway, being a weekday and too cool for
going to the beach.  We passed lots of fields of
artichokes, brussel sprouts, and strawberries as we
approached Watsonville, and wild mustard and Oxalis
pes caprae in full bloom everywhere.  It is a little
scary how well adapted the Oxalis is here in coastal
California, it has taken over acres of fields, and
plowing just seems to spread it around.

For those visiting or living nearby, and also in need
of a Protea flower fix, both the UC Santa Cruz Botanic
Gardens and the demonstration gardens/nursery of Jeff
Rosendale's Sierra Azul Retail Nursery at 2660 East
Lake Ave/Hwy 152 in Watsonville are well worth a visit
this time of year.  Hope a vicarious visit was of
interest to fellow medit planters...


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