Find member-grown perennials, natives, succulents, vegetables, herbs and more
The historic Azevedo-Moll tank house in South Natomas will be open for tours during the Perennial Plant Club sale on the site. Kathy Morrison
Spring has everybody’s green thumbs itching for action. But what to plant?
The Sacramento Perennial Plant Club has hundreds of suggestions as it hosts its annual spring sale Friday and Saturday, April 12 and 13, in South Natomas. The Natomas Garden & Arts Collective is co-sponsor of the two-day event.
Find California natives, succulents, perennials, vegetables (including lots of tomatoes), herbs and many other plants – all grown by local club members. “Our amazing, hard-working propagators are supplying sun-to-shade loving perennials, natives, veggies, spring-blooming bulbs and more!” say the organizers.
The sale will be open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. both days on the grounds of the historic Azevedo-Moll House, 1911 Bannon Creek Drive, South Natomas, Sacramento. Admission is free and open to the public.
During the event visitors can tour the restored tank house on the property. Tours also will be given of the nearby Grassland Garden Pollinator Habitat Project at specific times: 12:30 p.m. on Friday and 11 a.m. Saturday.
Also during the sale "Stan the Tool Man" will offer kitchen and garden tool sharpening, plus container drilling (holes for pots for those new plants, for example). Glass and yard art will be for sale, and food vendors will offer cinnamon rolls and pierogies. Accompanying all this activity will be Native American flute music.
Some of the rare plants available are particular favorites of club members. For example, Patricia Carpenter grew variegated figwort for the sale. “It is very showy in her garden and often weaves through other plants,” say the organizers. “She uses the leaves in cut bouquets. Its reddish flowers are small and interesting.”
Daisy Mah propagated a pale pink hollyhock gifted to her by fellow club member Therese Ruth along with a back story: The original seedling had been abandoned after a Shepard Center sale and planted next to the center’s parking lot, where it bloomed for six months. Daisy named the hollyhock ‘Shepard’s Pink.’
Looking for natives? For this sale, Marla McLaren grew Woolly Indian Paintbrush, a beautiful low-water native that thrives in her garden. “It provides winter color and is a late winter/spring source of food for butterfly and moth pollinators,” say the organizers. Lorraine Van Kekerix contributed her beloved Douglas iris, which thrives in shady spots with limited summer water.
Abutilon lovers will find a whole forest of flowering maples including ‘Lucky Lantern Yellow,’ grown by LaVille Logan. It’s a dwarf variety that stays under 2 feet tall and wide, thrives in partial shade and attracts bees, butterflies, hummingbirds.
Details: https://sacplants.org/.
-- Kathy Morrison contributed to this post
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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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