Welcome to the Southern California Horticultural Society,
where passionate gardeners meet to share ideas
and learn from each other

On the second Thursday of each month, we invite speakers to present a talk or program about their area of expertise. We are once again offering in-person meetings as well as live-streaming on Zoom (with registration).

Meetings may also include Plant Sales, a Raffle and expert discussion of plants brought in to the Plant Forum. Do you have an interesting plant to share? If you can't bring one in person, send in a photo and requested information on our Plant Forum Page.

For more information about the Society, please see our About SCHS page.

Next Meeting: 

Thursday, December 8th, 2022

SCHS Holiday Program:

Crafting Crepe Paper Flowers

Photo supplied by speaker                                                                                         

Held IN-PERSON at the Friendship Auditorium

For the in-person return of our annual holiday meeting on December 8, the Southern California Horticultural Society will be treated to a special demonstration on crafting crepe paper flowers by one of our newest board members, Layla Valenzuela. She has been active in the California native plant community for the last 15 years, and currently works as a horticulturist with Descanso Gardens, where she is in charge of their Natives Garden section.

Valenzeula told us “I have always loved plants but my main reason for getting involved with natives is for their ecological benefits. I embrace any way I can to promote these valuable plants and have channeled my other interests into doing so through cooking, baking, floral arranging and crafting.

“My most recent crafting endeavor has been in making crepe paper flowers. I feel I was drawn to this craft by how realistic these flowers looked and I wanted to challenge my own crafting skills. I began with the California poppy by following a tutorial I found online. It was a success! A new passion was born and I quickly diverged into creating as many templates for native flowers as I could. By going through books, online tutorials and websites, I have created about 12 native species to date that are as close to scale and nature as I can replicate in crepe paper. I am still looking to add many more to my repertoire and recently ventured into making extra large flowers for use as fun photo backdrops and special event props.

“I currently have the exciting challenge of crafting holiday-themed flowers to share with SCHS members and guests who will be attending our December meeting. Paperwhites are on my very long list of flowers I’ve been wanting to try, and of course I will be demonstrating the most traditional holiday “flower” of all – the poinsettia! Additionally, I will have finished flower samples on hand for you to examine and which may also be purchased.”

Other activities the SCHS has planned include the annual holiday "freebie" table, and of course, refreshments - you won't want to miss any of it! Everyone is invited to join in the evening’s festivities and we hope to see you all there.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Photo of Aprille Curtis and Laura Bauer supplied by Aprille Curtis. All other photos supplied by speaker. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ MEETING: IN-PERSON This meeting will be in-person at Friendship Auditorium and videotaped for our YouTube channel. Thursday, December 8, 2022 Announcements: 7:10 p.m. / Program: 7:30 p.m. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________  NOTE: This program will be in-person. For the safety of our guests (and in keeping with recent L.A. County Health Dept. guidelines) we strongly recommend masks be worn indoors and that vaccine boosters are current.

Visit our Past Meetings page to re-watch previously recorded in-person meetings and webinars, download each meeting write-up, and reference any materials provided by our speakers.

If you have been enjoying our monthly webinars and would like to help support the SCHS until we can meet again in-person, please consider donating any amount you feel you can. Even better, become a member, with levels beginning as low as $15. for the year. You can find details about the various levels of membership on our website at Join SCHS.

Thank you for your attention - we always appreciate your support!

Other Events and News

Thursday, November 10 - "The Modern Crevice Garden: Going West With It" with Kenton Seth. Zoom Webinar

Thursday, December 8 - Annual Holiday Party with a special presentation on making crepe-paper flowers with Layla Valenzuela. In Person at Friendship Auditorium.

• Our Hort Happenings page lists events at local horticultural institutions. 
• Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Tag @socalhort in your photos to be featured on our page!
• Want to re-watch a previous meeting, plant forum, or event? Visit our YouTube Channel for all available recordings!
• Join our mailing list to be updated with important news about SCHS via email. Your email address will not be shared with anyone, and you may unsubscribe at any time.