Garden Variety : Botanical Grounds Abloom With 300 Exotic Plant Types
On a Thousand Oaks hillside with a sweeping view of the silvery Ventura Freeway and the red tile roofs of tract homes, juicy loquats hung heavy on the branches of a loquat tree.
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Nearby, a bumblebee flirted with the pistil of a California poppy, and Barbara Song noticed that the spice bush was blooming for the first time ever.
“It smells like a French pastry kitchen there,” said Steve Heidmann, leaning down and holding the flower to his nose.
Song and Heidmann are among the volunteer gardeners who make the Conejo Valley Botanic Garden bloom. The 35-acre plot, carved out of Conejo Community Park, is home to 300 varieties of plants and is ablaze with color this spring.
Sixty rare fruit trees grow in an orchard sponsored by the California Rare Fruit Growers. Banana trees, a fruiting mulberry tree, carob trees, capulin cherry trees, Surinam cherry trees, macadamia trees and, yes, a loquat tree native to China, pregnant with tasty yellow plum-like fruit that you cannot find at the supermarket.
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Sixty-two kinds of sage, including some native to Chile and Argentina, cover part of the hillside with their whitish leaves and purple blossoms.
Near the top of the hill, a dozen oaks form the core of what gardeners hope will one day be a “world-class” oak collection, befitting a city named Thousand Oaks.
Established in 1973, the garden is still a work in progress. In the past three years alone, 12 Eagle Scouts have found service projects clearing paths, installing benches and otherwise improving the unfinished areas of the garden. Girl Scouts, for their part, planted a butterfly garden that has already attracted monarchs and Western painted ladies to its specially selected flowers and bushes.
The botanical garden has grown in fits and starts, depending on the whims of donors and volunteer gardeners. A nonprofit group, the Gregor Mendel Botanic Foundation, maintains the educational garden year-round. Its small budget is supported by members’ dues, the city of Thousand Oaks, corporate donors and gifts from local nurseries.
“People think they can’t grow things out here because of the lack of water, but that’s really not true,” Song said.
She said Mediterranean, Australian and South African plants can thrive in Southern California’s arid climate, and are therefore sought for the Conejo Valley Botanic Garden.
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Even though the plants do not require much water, they seem to thrive after a wet winter like the one that just ended. So do weeds, which Song was yanking out of the ground Friday with a vengeance.
Heidmann, the president of the botanic foundation, said more volunteers are always needed to help with the gardening.
Still, with people like Song and her husband, Garry, around, the weeds seem destined to fight a losing battle.
As she stood on the garden path, with a northern red oak swaying in the wind, and the 12-inch prickly blue flower of a Pride of Madiera plant reaching lazily skyward, she said 10 years of hard work seemed worth the effort.
“It’s just important, I think, for people in the community to have a place like this, just totally apart from the crazy world,” Song said.
