The ceanothus ‘Concha’ was looking perfect in mid-April, seen here in their alternate home. Photo by Margaret Widdowson.
We were disappointed to cancel the Spring Plant Sale when Shasta College closed its campus. We wrestled with the various logistics of trying to hold an alternative sale… and decided to wait until fall, which is, after all, a much better time of year to plant native plants.
Just before the campus closed, the patch of western bleeding hearts, Dicentra formosa, was looking lovely in the Shasta College Arboretum, AKA the Mother Garden. Photo by Margaret Widdowson.The bleeding hearts we potted up from the Matson-Mowder-Howe Celebration Garden were looking perfect in their pots just around mid-April; the smaller plants, lower left, are Catalina perfume or evergreen currant, Ribes viburnifolium. Photo by Margaret Widdowson.
With the campus completely closed down and almost nobody allowed access, luckily for us, Shasta College Horticulture Department staff and the agriculture students stepped up and have been taking great care of all our plants, including all the cuttings and seedlings in the greenhouse. We owe them all a huge thank you!
Our cuttings are doing very well in the greenhouse – these are California grape, Vitis californica. Photo by Margaret Widdowson.
Just before the campus closed down, we “rescued” some of the smaller seedlings, thinking we might be out for a couple weeks… They are growing well in their new temporary home and getting ready for the Fall Sale.
A selection of small seedlings and cuttings are doing well in their alternate home – including yarrow, Achillea millefolium; California aster ‘Purple Haze,’ Symphyotrichum [Aster] chilensis ‘Purple Haze;’ as well as some very vigorous white sage, Salvia apiana, and spicebush, Calycanthus occidentalis, grown from seed. Photo by Margaret Widdowson.A batch of seedling coast buckwheat, Eriogonum latifolium. Photo by Margaret Widdowson.
As we move through the next few weeks and months of uncertainty, it is comforting to have plants to take care of and watch them grow. We are resolved, one way or another, to have a Fall Plant Sale! -Margaret Widdowson, Propagation Chair
Ollie giving some of the smallest seedlings some extra attention in their alternate home. These are the well-named harlequin lupine, Lupinus stiversii, an annual lupine from the Sierra Nevada. Photo by Margaret Widdowson.
