Meeting:

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Guest Presenter:

Laurel Woodley

Topic:

Discovering the South Coast Botanic Garden

The presentation provided some background regarding the unique history of the South Coast Botanic Garden followed by an introduction to some of the more outstanding plant collections found at this garden located on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

Laurel Woodley is a retired biology professor from Los Angeles Harbor College who has been involved in Southern California horticulture since the mid 1960’s.  A fourth generation Californian who was introduced to plants in her youth by her parents who operated H.F. Woodley Nursery (specializing in fern propagation), Laurel attended UCLA majoring in Zoology with a minor in Botany.   In subsequent years she was fortunate to have traveled to distant lands while taking Natural History classes led by Mildred Mathias.   She has been interested in southern California flora with a special fondness for desert adapted plants.  This led to her teaching classes for UCLA Extension in Dry Climate Gardening Using Cacti and Succulents, Horticultural Uses of Southern California Native Plants and co-leading Natural History classes to Death Valley, Anza Borrego State Park, Baja California; the Santa Monica and San Gabriel Mountains and ultimately Madagascar.  Macro photography has allowed Laurel to capture on film, and more recently digitally, the beauty of flowers with a special emphasis on the traits which make the plant families unique.

Plant Raffle

Plants provided by South Coast Botanic Garden.