The arboretum is celebrating its 75th birthday this month with 75 favorite plants, as selected by staff and volunteers, and members of Friends of the UC Davis Arboretum.

You can see and buy the 75 favorites during the arboretum's season-opening plant sale, Saturday, Sept. 24 (see Plant Faire details below). Look for special signs featuring comments from the dedicated gardeners who selected the favorites, with the gardeners telling why they love the plants and how they may be used in special ways, say, in shady spots.

Jim Fowler, a volunteer in the Arboretum Teaching Nursery and a Yolo County Master Gardener, selected Miscanthus sinensis “Morning Light,” a lovely, fine-textured grass with golden summer and fall blooms.

Said Fowler: “The striped leaves of this grass give this plant a lovely ‘glow,’ especially in the morning and evening light. Persistent flowers provide vertical structure and interest year-round in the garden. It spreads slowly, remains largely clumped and is easily maintained.” Miscanthus, or eulalia grass, is tough and heat tolerant and makes a beautiful fountain shape useful as contrast with rounded shrubs or in the back of the perennial border.

Nancy Foster, another nursery voluntees, selected the purple smoke bush, Cotinus coggygria “Velvet Cloak” as one of her favorite plants. “I love the purple leaves that stand out against the greens in the garden,” she said. “Unusual flowers look like puffs of ‘smoke’ in summer.”

Foster also recommends the Baby Sun tickseed, Coreopsis lanceolata “Sonnenkind.” Said Foster: “It has bright yellow flowers that bloom forever. I like to use the flowers in bouquets because they make the other colors pop.” Coreopsis is great for summer color, and regular deadheading will keep it blooming for a long time.

Tuesday volunteer Nancy Crosby picked two shade-tolerant, blue-flowered plants as among her favorites. About Veronica “Georgia Blue,” she said, “It grows almost anywhere with little to moderate water and dark purple flowers cover it in spring over green foliage with purple tones. It transplants easily, too.”

Crosby also selected Campanula poscharskyana “Camgood” (Blue Waterfall), saying she likes it because “it has really long, trailing flower stalks that hang down and are perfect for containers. The flowers are a beautiful medium-blue color.”

She also recommends Origanum “Kent Beauty,” which she described as “a good plant for trailing over a wall or container with soft, subtle colors. It is a profuse bloomer and a tidy plant when not in bloom.”

Volunteer Lyn Taylor’s favorites include Ajuga “Black Scallop.” Said Taylor: “I really like the dark purple-black foliage and the dynamite, deep blue flowers. Gray foliage and yellow flowers on Sedum palmeri make a dramatic contrast with the dark-leaved Ajuga selection and are sure to brighten a dry, shady spot.

Terry Davison selected two upright plants in red and orange. The kangaroo paw, Anigozathos “Regal Velvet,” is an upright perennial with shiny, grasslike foliage, native to Australia. “I love the velvety flowers and delicate yellow stamens,” Davison said. “They are prolific and pop out of the ground brightly.”

She also selected the long-blooming, flowering maple, Abutilon “Apricot,” saying, “I love the cute little red ‘hat’ that tops the delicate orange flower. It grows quickly and fills in a shady spot.”

Missy Borel, program director for UC Davis’ California Center for Urban Horticulture, and Linda Schmidt, a curatorial assistant, both selected Rosa “Pink Gruss An Aachen.” Said Borel: “It has exceptionally beautiful flower color, is practically thornless and almost evergreen. In the right conditions it is also pest free.”

And it happens to be the featured Arboretum All-Star plant for the year.

Sales volunteer Chris Denton selected one of the arboretum’s most in-demand plants, Epilobium canum, the California fuchsia. This incredibly tough, sun-loving native brings a much needed spot of color — orange-red flowers — to the fall garden.

You are likely to see the California fuchsia a lot this year, as the plant has been selected to adorn the arboretum’s 75th anniversary promotional materials. Special events are planned through 2011-12, starting with the Plant Faire celebration later this month.

The UC Davis Arboretum was founded in 1936 to strengthen the campus's biological sciences. From its modest beginnings as a small collection of trees and shrubs planted by students and watered with buckets, the arboretum has developed into a vibrant, living museum with 100 acres of gardens, a documented collection of more than 60,000 plants representing almost 2,500 species and varieties, a rich menu of public programs, and a crucial role supporting research and teaching at UC Davis, and promoting sustainable landscapes throughout the state.

Preview tour and Plant Faire

The upcoming sale will feature hundreds of varieties of plants for Central Valley gardens, including Arboretum All-Stars, and house plants and exotics from the university's Botanical Conservatory. If you need help making your choices, staff and volunteers will be available to provide expert advice based on the conditions in your garden.

A sale preview tour is scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 17, and the sale itself for Saturday, Sept. 24. The Plant Faire, with music and children's activities, will start with a members-only sale from 9 to 11 a.m. (for members of Friends of the UC Davis Arboretum and the Davis Botanical Society); the gates will be open to everyone from 11 a.m. until closing time, 1 p.m. Admission is free.

Nonmembers can get in early, if they like, by purchasing memberships (or by renewing) at the gate.

Members, including those who join at the gate, receive a 10 percent discount; and every new member will receive a free plant.

The free preview the week before offers people a chance to get a head start on the fall planting season, by learning about plants that have been shown to work well in Central Valley gardens.

According to the arboretum, the tour will feature uncommon garden plants from California and other parts of the world — and those plants will be available for sale at the Plant Faire.

The preview tour and the Plant Faire will take place at the Arboretum Teaching Nursery on Garrod Drive south of La Rue Road (the nursery is just beyond the Unitrans bus yard and across from the School of Veterinary Medicine). Free parking in Lot 55 across from the nursery.

Diane Cary, communications director for the arboretum, contributed to this report.

More at the arboretum

Folk Music Jam Sessions — Pull out your fiddles, guitars, mandolins, penny whistles, pipes, flutes, squeezeboxes — you name it! — and join your fellow musicians during the lunch hour for a little bluegrass, old-time, blues, Celtic, klezmer and other world music. All skill levels welcome. Listeners, too! Noon Friday, Sept. 16 and 30, Wyatt Deck.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream — Presented by the Davis Shakespeare Ensemble in partnership with the Friends of the UC Davis Arboretum. 8 p.m. Thursday-Sunday, Sept. 15-Oct. 2, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 18 and 25, and Oct. 2, gazebo. See separate story.

All programs are open to the public, and all are free except A Midsummer's Night Dream. More information: (530) 752-4880 or arboretum.ucdavis.edu (for directions, click on “Plan Your Visit”). 

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