Eighteen or so of us braved the 405 yesterday morning to visit Rancho Los Cerritos and then Ricardo’s Nursery. Many of us were so impressed by both that return trips are already being planned.
At the Rancho, docents who had generously boned up on the parks “rare fruit” ahead of our arrival were able to display the gardens and orchards originally laid out by the groundbreaking SoCal landscape architect Ralph D. Cornell in 1931, as well as some amazing trees — including a rambling pomegranate — dating back to the mid 1800s. Over the past 32 years, the staff horticulturist Marie Barnidge-McIntyre has been researching and restoring and maintaining the trees Cornell originally chose. We got to see such unusual specimens as the Kashlen, Lyon and Puebla avocado trees, a thornless jujube, a huge black locust that was a local landmark for 150 years and California’s original Sweet Orange. Not to mention the macadamia, loquat, persimmon, dwarf thornless pomegranate and many many other trees.
Ricardo Ortiz, generously waiting as we straggled in from the Rancho, served us his sorbet made from his amazing Persian mulberries and lectured on both his nursery’s fairly recent swivel to tropical fruit, lessons he learned in the process and his newfound love of grafting. We were able to pick fresh Persian mulberries from one of his enormous trees and admire the vanilla orchid in his greenhouse along with many many other plants in various stages of growth. Needless to say, a great time was had by all.
We toured the gardens, sampled fruit from some of the plants, and if you wanted a cutting of something, there were two designated scion-takers ready to help. Then we went inside and Jorge provided a presentation of passion fruits he has been impressed with. Then finally, as promised, we went to the propagation greenhouse. For everyone who was willing to get their fingers dirty, we tested our skill at transferring little seedlings in dirt popsicles over to take-home bags. The root systems were still fragile, so this was tricky! There were four varieties: (1) a purple one similar to Frederick but from Australia, (2) Passiflora Ligularis (“Sweet Granadilla” — sometimes found in Hispanic markets), (3) a yellow-gold variety Jorge found in Peru, and (4) a yellow variety Jorge found in Westminster (the location is a trade secret). According to Jorge, all four are very sweet, without any of the bitterness that some passion fruit have. If you got any seedlings from this event, please keep track of what happens with them. We want to give Jorge an update in a couple of years about everyone’s growing experience. How did your plants do? What made them happy? What killed them? By helping him with these details, you’ll be helping other growers in the future. And for those of you who got Ligularis seedlings, remember to keep their roots cool!
