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With no in-person plant sales, UC Davis Arboretum nursery is very full

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED MAY 29, 2020

This is the scene at a typical UC Davis Arboretum spring plant sale, though not this year. However, the plants are still there and waiting for new homes. (Photo: Kathy Morrison)

Online sales with curbside pick-up expected soon

With no spring sales, the UC Davis Arboretum teaching nursery is practically overflowing with unsold plants.

“I’m babysitting an awful lot of plants,” said Taylor Lewis, the nursery’s manager. “It’s somewhere in the neighborhood of 50,000.”

Taylor Lewis, the arboretum's nursery manager

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the arboretum canceled all four of its spring sales. Its fall sales are on hold until further notice. The arboretum usually attracts more than 8,000 patrons annually to its sales.

But a solution is on its way.

“We’re getting close to rolling out our curbside-pickup, online platform,” Lewis said. (Watch for details at arboretum.ucdavis.edu .)

While arboretum tours and other events are on hold, Lewis has been hosting Facebook Live events at 10 a.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays. “Ask the Garden Gnomes” tackles garden questions and tours volunteers gardens.

“I call those (shows), ‘Gnome Away from Home,’ ” he said.

Meanwhile, Lewis has been pretty much by himself, tending thousands of California native plants, Mediterranean perennials and drought-tolerant Arboretum All-Stars. Usually, he has about 160 arboretum volunteers plus several student interns to help out.

“We have only one volunteer in the whole arboretum right now,” Lewis said. (That volunteer is monitoring hummingbird habitat.)

While the rest of the UC Davis campus has been quiet, Lewis has kept very busy.

“I’ve been at the nursery every day (since the shutdown started in March),” he said. “It’s really just about only me coming out (to care for the nursery) — and pruning like crazy. These plants are getting big!”

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Keywords:

Arboretum All Stars Sacramento coronavirus plant sales gardening Taylor Lewis native plants Yolo County UC Davis Arboretum landscape plants perennials transplants

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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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