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Bloom: Water everything and leave town!
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Anonymous user Fri Jul 28, 2006 14:18:27 PDT
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0 responses 0 comments This is the time of year in Bakersfield that most gardeners have given up and decided to wait for cooler weather to reconstruct their yard.
If you are looking for a few side trips I have found a couple of “secret gardens” that are easily accessible and located in areas where the temperatures are generally cooler than they are in Bakersfield at this time of year.
Considering the demands for palms is so great, I have chosen two places open to the public that have an excellent display of many varieties available for indoor and outdoor use.
The two I have selected are Quail Botanical Gardens and South Coast Plaza West (Crate and Barrel and Macy’s Home Store), formally known as Crystal Court.
Quail Botanical Gardens is located at 230 Quail Gardens Drive in Encinitas just off the I-5. They are open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with evening concerts at different dates through the summer months. For more information, call (760) 436-3036 or log onto: www.qbgardens.com
If you want to give everyone in your group something to do, head to South Coast Plaza for a look at a sensational grove of palms from around the world. The collection, which once graced the Beverly Hills estate of the late Dr. A.J. Vance, is distributed in and around the westernmost division of Orange County’s most elegant shopping mall. There, the mild winter coastal location and the protective, warming effect of a large, climate-controlled building provide a fine environment for the palms. South Coast Plaza is located at 3333 Bear St. at South Coast Drive just east of San Diego (405) Freeway in Coast Mesa. For directions or more information, call (714) 435-2160.
Each of some 90 species from the family Arecaceae (Palmae) is labeled with its common and botanical names, as well as its country of origin. Even the most casual visitors will enjoy the common names (weeping cabbage palm, shaving brush palm and slender lady palm) and be intrigued by the places or origin (Mascarene Islands, Lord Howe Island, Madagascar, Senegal and New Caledonia). Novices and palm experts alike will appreciate the massive fruit clusters of Caryota urens (solitary fishtail palm) that hang down like gigantic strings of beads or the smooth, jade-green crownshaft of Roystonea regia (Cuban royal palm). Even plant lovers familiar with palm culture may be astonished at the species growing in the outdoor landscape. Howea forsterana, the familiar indoor-potted “Kentia palm,” survived our last big cold snap (December 1990) with minimal damage. A 40-foot tall example of the previously mentioned Roystonea, probably the second largest specimen in California, looks as healthy and vigorous as if it were growing in Havana.
Check just inside the main entrance or with the concierge at South Coast Plaza for an excellent brochure detailing a self-guided tour. The brochure lists all the palms in the collection and shows their location on a map of the complex. For those interested in a collection of plants to try at home, the brochure features lists of palms that are fast-growing; clustering vs. solitary; drought-tolerant; shade-tolerant; and those able to withstand the dim light of an indoor setting. Some of the plants in this collection –– such as Trachycarpus fortunei (windmill palm), which is being grown as a street tree in Vancouver, BC –– are able to tolerate cold temperatures.
Don’t worry that these exotic beauties are unobtainable. Demand for palms is so great that even those species that were discovered only in the past few decades, such as Wodyetia bifurcata (foxtail palm) from Australia and Ravenea rivularis (majesty palm) from Madagascar are now available in many nurseries throughout California.

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