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Gardens Gone Native event takes a break

Tour devoted to native gardens focuses on 2022; past tours can be seen online

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED MAR 31, 2021

Elegant clarkia ( Clarkia unguiculata ) was one

of many California natives on view in a Davis

garden during the 2019 Gardens Gone Native

tour. (Photos: Kathy Morrison)

For more than a decade, Gardens Gone Native has been a staple of Sacramento spring, as local residents opened their gardens to share their love of California native plants.

But like so many other garden events, Gardens Gone Native is sitting out this April.

“Regrettably, the tour has been canceled,” said Colene Rauh, the tour’s chairperson.

The Sacramento Valley Chapter of the California Native Plant Society, which hosts the tour, posted this notice to its website: “Sadly, we regret that we will not be able to move forward as planned, however our primary concern is the health and safety of our wonderful tour supporters and hosts.”

In April 2020, the chapter quickly pivoted Gardens Gone Native from an in-person garden tour to virtual event. In the early days of the pandemic, it was one of the first Sacramento-area events to do that successfully. Instead of inviting in scores of visitors, the participating gardens posted photos to the chapter’s website with hopes of hosting a live tour in 2021.

“We begin planning in August of the previous year for the tour,” Rauh explained. “In August of 2020, it was very unclear whether having 100 to 200 folks walk through your yard would be allowed. Or how our hosts would feel about it.

“In addition, I lost two critical resources I haven’t been able to replace,” she added. “I’m staying optimistic that will happen in the next few months.”

Visitors to a Sacramento garden on the 2019 tour saw labels

high and low on the native plants.

Instead of another virtual tour, the group opted to take a break.

“We decided to take this year off,” Rauh said. “We are revamping and rethinking what the garden tour can be in 2022. ... It is a blank canvas right now.”

Although there’s no tour this April, interested gardeners can still virtually tour past participating gardens online. Hundreds of photos capture California natives looking their spring best in suburban Sacramento settings.

“You can still be inspired by past year's images of a variety of gardens that showcase the beauty, versatility, and wildlife habitat value of native plants as well as their role in water efficient landscapes,” says the chapter. “We wish you all good health and hope to see you in person next year.”

See the garden galleries here: https://www.sacvalleycnps.org/native-plant-gardening/garden-tour

For more on native plants: www.sacvalleycnps.org .

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gardening Sacramento native plants coronavirus events California Native Plant Society California natives garden tours

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Garden Checklist for week of Nov. 3

November still offers good weather for fall planting:

* If you haven't already, it's time to clean up the remains of summer. Pull faded annuals and vegetables. Prune dead or broken branches from trees.

* Now is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs. This gives them plenty of time for root development before spring growth. They also benefit from fall and winter rains.

* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.

* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.

* Plant garlic and onions.

* Keep planting bulbs to spread out your spring bloom. Some possible suggestions: daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, anemones and scillas.

* This is also a good time to seed wildflowers and plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.

* Rake and compost leaves, but dispose of any diseased plant material. For example, if peach and nectarine trees showed signs of leaf curl this year, clean up under trees and dispose of those leaves instead of composting.

* Save dry stalks and seedpods from poppies and coneflowers for fall bouquets and holiday decorating.

* For holiday blooms indoors, plant paperwhite narcissus bulbs now. Fill a shallow bowl or dish with 2 inches of rocks or pebbles. Place bulbs in the dish with the root end nestled in the rocks. Add water until it just touches the bottom of the bulbs. Place the dish in a sunny window. Add water as needed.

* Give your azaleas, gardenias and camellias a boost with chelated iron.

* For larger blooms, pinch off some camellia buds.

* Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs while dormant.

* To help prevent leaf curl, apply a copper fungicide spray to peach and nectarine trees after they lose their leaves this month. Leaf curl, which shows up in the spring, is caused by a fungus that winters as spores on the limbs and around the tree in fallen leaves. Sprays are most effective now.

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