Orchard Trees of Rancho El Cerrito: Oranges
The primary orchard at Rancho Los Cerritos, in Long Beach, California, was designed by Ralph D Cornell in 1931, as part of an estate plan commissioned…
Plants: Edible plants
Blueberries: More Than Just Delectable Fruit
I have been growing blueberries in my Santa Monica garden for about ten years, and clematis about as long. It turns out that blueberries and clematis …
Learning from Lotusland’s Orchards
Finding just the right tree for a home orchard can be a challenge, with so many available at local nurseries and through the internet. Lotusland has b…
HORTUS Revisited: A Twenty-first Birthday Anthology
On the Pacific Coast, we are afforded magnificent and opposing views of the world. To the west, we see the East, and to the east,…
Bountiful Harvest
Among the early pioneers in Southern California was an entrepreneur named John Temple, who purchased the 27,000-acre Rancho Los Cerritos in the 1840s.…
Figs, Dates, Laurel, and Myrrh: Plants of the Bible and the Quran
In the words of the author, this book is the result of a twenty-year project, “to study every plant mentioned in the Bible and the…
Seeds: Miracles in Tiny Packages
The Northwest Perennial Alliance's seed exchange has been a part of its programs from the earliest days. Currently NPA produces about 7,000 packets an…
Green—in Beverly Hills?
My grandmother’s adage “Use it up, wear it out, make it do” might not seem like a mantra that most of Beverly Hills would adopt. But award the c…
It’s My Garden, and I’ll Try If I Want To!
We are all beginners, because our curiosity pushes us from one stage of gardening into new and unfamiliar territory, and, suddenly, we start learning …