Meeting:

November 9, 2006

Nevin SmithGuest Presenter:

Nevin Smith

Topic:

Native Treasures, Gardening With the Plants of California

November’s guest speaker, Nevin Smith, has spent his entire life growing plants in California and exploring its wild landscape with a passion. He’ll share that fervor in his presentation as well as through scores of his superb photographs and experiences.

As the Director of Horticulture at Suncrest Nurseries in Watsonville, Nevin employs his considerable skills as a respected selector, propagator, and nurseryman. In fact he has selected, named and/or introduced numerous native plants familiar to many of us, as he’s sure to discuss.

As a special columnist for Fremontia, the journal of the California Native Plant Society, Nevin calls upon his highly-praised writing talents. His ability as an author is also on display in the form of our November Book of the Month (see below).

Prior to joining Suncrest, Nevin was the owner of Wintergreen Nursery (also in Watsonville). Wintergreen was, as Suncrest is today, widely renown for new, rare, and unusual plants from around the world. A wide range of the best California native plants have always been grown at these nurseries. Suncrest Nurseries currently offers over 3,000 selections that reflect several different tangents, all aimed at enriching the variety of ornamental plants available to California gardeners.

Nevin Smith is an excellent photographer, author, and speaker. Don’t miss this rare treat to come hear him here in Southern California.

Introductions

Native TreasuresNevin Smith has selected, named and/or introduced numerous native plants including:

Erigeron ‘W. R.’
Fremontodendron ‘West Hills Hybrid’
Romneya coulteri ‘Butterfly’
Penstemon newberryi var. sonomensis ‘St. Helena’
Ceanothus thyrsiflorus ‘San Andreas’
Malacothamnus fasciculatus ‘Casitas’
Malacothamnus palmeri ‘Jolon’
Salvia spathacea ‘Kawatre’
Iris douglasiana ‘Portugese Beach’
plus numerous native Iris and Lewisia hybrids.

Photograph of Nevin Smith by Lenore Luscher.

Location: Friendship Auditorium, 3201 Riverside Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90027. Click here for a map to Friendship Auditorium.
The Plant Raffle will be provided by Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden.

Native TreasuresBook of the Month

Native Treasures
 Gardening With the Plants of California
 by Nevin Smith

The November selection is Native Treasures, by this month’s learned speaker: Nevin Smith (published by University of California Press , 2006).

This delightful paean to California and its plants discusses and details a choice assortment of native trees, shrubs, perennials, bulbs, and annuals – all illustrated by superb color photographs.

Rather than being a systematic “how-to” manual, Native Treasures combines Smith’s personal thoughts, sometimes maverick opinions, and matchless expertise with practical advice on selected groups of native plants and their culture. The author explains how California’s diverse terrain, climate, and geology support a wealth of plant species – more than 6000 – and offers suggestions for designing with most of the major natives in cultivation, as well as with some more obscure but garden-worthy groups.

With an engaging narrative and a wealth of illustrations, this ode to beauty and diversity celebrates California’s rich store of native plants and encourages readers to visit them in their native haunts and invite them into their gardens.

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