Chapter members, just a reminder: our holiday party is Saturday and the plant raffle is really starting to shape up,. Gros Michel banana pups, rose apple seedlings, and a one-gallon ice cream bean tree are among the offerings. This is a pot luck so bring your best dish (as well as plants to include in the raffle if you have them) See you there!
Paradise Nursery address
Yup, forgot it in previous post:
10943 De Soto Avenue,
Chatsworth, CA 91311
This is just south of the DeSoto exit on the 118 at Rinaldi. Entrance is easy to miss, so keep eyes peeled.
Plants available today only (10-15-18!)
A member living in Brentwood has to vacate her apartment suddenly. She has many many rare plants, some in 50 gallon containers and she is making them available to anyone who wants them. Because she is sight-
challenged, she cannot accept texts but call her at 310-936-3150 if you can take them today. For the bigger plants, you will need a dolly and truck.
Black jacket
It was left at our October 13th meeting (Edgar Valdivia on Cherimoyas and Figs). Please let me know if it’s yours.
Badges
Because many of you have asked about the attractive permanent name badges some of our members wear, we are going to have a sign-up for them at the October 13th meeting.
To order a badge give a check or cash for $15 to our treasurer Andreé at the time of the order, i.e., before the order is placed. The West LA CRFG name badge has the distinctive CRFG logo and two lines of engraved black text (see badges worn by Sofia Ames and Jane Beer). The badge is roughly 2″ x 3″ and has a magnetic clasp, although you may request a pin clip if you prefer.
More about our October 13th meeting
Cribbed from the excellent newsletter Margaret Frane writes and sends to our members:
“Edgar is well known in the CRFG throughout California for developing great tasting (and beautiful) dragon fruit (pitahaya) varieties. You can purchase his dragon fruit varieties, such as Tricia and Edgar’s Baby, in many specialty nurseries. Edgar grows well over 100 other fruit such as at least 20 varieties of cherimoya, lucuma, mulberry, and figs. You can see a small smaple of them on the CRFG, Inc., “Let’s Find Out” series #12: https://www.crfg.org/piwigo/picture.php?/4733/category/53.
To hear other examples of Edgar speaking, listen and watch him on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZtoyxK-Fqs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UR-Zt-c0gu0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqrOkUAxYCE ”
information on the Citrus Clonal Protection Program
More details on the Sept 8th field trip
From Bruce Blavin, our old Chair: “Our chapter is extraordinarily lucky to be getting this opportunity to tour a truly inspirational home garden. The owner has been growing fruit for more then 30 years and has literally hundreds of successful grafts. He continues to graft and cultivate some of the rarest varieties of fruit trees from around the world. The citrus collection is truly amazing and there is also a wide variety of Cherimoya, and even a rollinia tree. He has researched irrigation systems and has also planted a unique ground cover, which is drought tolerant.
His gardening passions extend beyond rare fruit trees and he has put together a world-class collection of Cycads, which he recently added to from a number of private collectors. There are also chickens, peacocks and other fowl on his property. The home is in a unique micro climate not too far from the beach and therefore spared the extreme heat and/or frost problems some of us occasionally face. If you are fortunate enough to make the cut off, be sure to bring a pad and paper. Our host is extremely knowledgeable and excellent at answering complicated questions. I never left him without having learned something new.”
An update on our upcoming plant raffle!
So far Charles Portney has 75 plants picked out for the raffle: Sugarcane, blackberry, babaco, paprika, pepino, nopales, loquat, cape gooseberry… and he is not yet done. There will also be a hefty 5-gallon plant started from Stavros Olympios’ Greek fig tree plus I’m sure contributions from other members. Do not miss this!
Persimmon Tasting
Join the South Coast Research and Extension Center for the upcoming persimmon tasting and plant clearance sale at the UC ANR South Coast REC on Thursday, November 9th, 2017 at 10:30 am. This is not a CRFG-hosted event but we have graciously been invited.
For more information about the tasting and the special VIP event (pre-registration required), go to http://screc.ucanr.edu/?calitem=376819&g=68933
Tammy Majcherek
Outreach and Research Coordinator
7601 Irvine Blvd.
Irvine, CA 92618
Phone: (949) 653-1824
E-mail: tjmajcherek@ucanr.edu
Fax: (949) 653-1800