Gardening : ‘Fiesta de Flores’ Plant Sale, Show : Fiesta de Flores to Match Trees, Shrubs to Southland Soils
So you’ve surveyed your barren back yard, hauled out the gardening books, considered and reconsidered your planting options. Don’t despair.
Before you give up and install artificial turf, browse through this weekend’s “Fiesta de Flores 1989” plant sale at the South Coast Botanic Garden to select what might be just the right plant for your soil.
The 27th edition of the annual show is scheduled today and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and, featuring 10,000 plants, one of them is bound to flourish in your back yard.
The selection will include fruit, citrus and olive trees, vines and blooming plants such as roses (including the climbing varieties), azaleas, cymbidiums, bromeliads and even herbs.
“It’s targeted to anybody. There’ll be something for everyone,” says Kathy Lipp of the South Coast Botanic Garden Foundation, the volunteer group that sponsors the show.
Exotic and Commonplace
Sale offerings include the rare, the exotic and the commonplace, she notes, and should appeal to flower and vegetable gardeners alike, whether klutz or pro.
Prices will start at $1, with many offerings in the $1-$3 range. The upper range should be about $40-$45, Lipp says.
Proceeds from the sale will be used for development, maintenance and promotion of the 87-acre gardens.
For gardeners who face the special cultivation challenges of the Southern California coasts--salt-laden wind, fog, humidity and sandy soil--there will be a host of plants, including fruit trees, recommended specifically for those areas.
“Our propagation people pot and repot all year,” Lipp says. “We keep a list of plants found to be successful and those are ordered from growers.”
The Propagation Workshop is part of the volunteer, nonprofit South Coast Botanic Garden Foundation.
Coastal Plants
Among those coastal-hardy entrants available this weekend are orange-yellow flowered Peruvian lilies (Alstroemeria aurantiaca), the Chinese pistache (Pistacia chinensis) and the golden trumpet tree (Tabebuia chrysotricha).
If you’re looking for something special for that sunny spot in the back yard, the foundation propagators have had good results with Anisodontea cape melva, an outdoor ornamental. It’s suited to mild, dry climates like Southern California, likes the sun and well-drained soil and is moderately drought-resistant.
It will produce 1- to 1 1/2-inch blooms in white to light pink with streaks of vivid magenta at the base of the petals. It is a slender shrub that can grow up to 10 feet tall.
Gardening experts, landscapers and representatives of area growers and nurseries will be on hand with advice, information and samples of plantings. Lectures are scheduled for today and Sunday.
Gardening Exhibits
Among displays for the garden will be exhibits by Sam Bennett, “the gazebo man”; the Begonia Farm; Rancho Verdes Landscaping, and Monrovia Plant Introductions.
If you’ve a special interest to explore, it probably will be represented as well. Among the special-interest groups exhibiting will be the South Coast Bonsai Assn. and the Native Plant Society.
For those in search of a high-tech solution, Lipp suggests checking out the demonstration of a computer-aided gardening system. Bring in the specifics of space, light, soil conditions and foliage requirements and watch a computer produce planting options.
After you’ve exhausted your plant budget, tour the rose garden and the vegetable garden, (including a limited-space garden similar to the ones featured in the PBS television series “Square-Foot Gardening” and a Rodale Press book of the same name).
For those of you wondering where the produce goes, Lipp says the harvests are donated to area Meals on Wheels programs for the elderly.
Site of Landfill
South Coast Botanic Garden is located on the site of a former diatomaceous earth mine. (Diatomaceous earth is used in filters, absorbents and abrasives.) In 1956, the property was purchased by Los Angeles County as a sanitary landfill (read garbage dump-- more than 3.5 million tons of garbage are buried there).
When the site became part of the Los Angeles County Department of Arboreta and Botanic Gardens, the landfill was covered with soil and planted with more than 2,000 species from 140 plant families.
In addition to all things botanical and horticultural, the fiesta also will feature handicrafts, entertainment and food.
Volunteers will help you transport your purchases to your car, Lipp says, so you’ll be free to browse unencumbered.
Lipp says that those seeking a real botanical bargain can join the South Coast Botanic Foundation for a $15 annual fee that will entitle you and your family to admission to the gardens year-round. The gardens are open daily, except Christmas.
Otherwise, admission is $3 for adults, $1.50 for students and seniors and 75 cents for youngsters 5 to 12.
The South Coast Botanic Garden is located at 26300 Crenshaw Blvd., Palos Verdes Peninsula, south of Pacific Coast Highway.
