Native Plant Demonstration Garden

Notes from the Demo-Garden: Fall Colors & October Tour

You must come out to see the red and gold toyon berries right now, they are beautiful! Once you see them, you’ll understand why every native or drought tolerant garden in the SacValley area must have at least one on their property. I mean it! And if the toyons aren’t enough color for you this fall, come check out our still blooming fuchsias, wooly blue curls and monkey flowers at the garden. The birds and bees that visit our garden right now must think they are in heaven!


Yellow berry toyon or Davis Gold (Heteromeles arbutifolia)	California fuchsia (Epilobium canum)

Toyon, Christmas Berry (Heteromeles arbutifolia)	Wooly Blue Curls (Trichostema lanatum)
Mitchell Alford teaching proper ceanothus pruning technique (10-28-07)
All photographs by: Angela Pratt (Angela Pratt (prattstockphotography.com)

If you don’t believe me, just ask any of the SacSplash horticulture students who came out for a garden tour and horticultural session on Sunday, October 28th; or check out Angela Pratt’s blog about the tour (http://sacgardening.blogspot.com/2007/10/happy-halloween.html) or her slide show of the tour (http://www.sacramentogardening.com/cnps_slideshow_10_28_07/). See what you missed.

The tour was a great success due to the involvement of the SacSplash team (Eva Butler, et all), instructors Bernadette Balics and Patricia Carpenter, and our dedicated Demo-Garden volunteers (Paul Townsend, Andy Phillips, Joy Nishida, Jillian Keplinger, Liza Steizner, Daniel Barnett and Angela). Thanks Bernadette, for the ceanothus you gave us (C. Maritimus ‘Valley Violet’ and C. g. ‘Kurt Zadnik’). They will be a delightful compliment to our expanding ceanothus collection at the garden. A special thank you also goes out Joy and Jillian for the best mother-daughter volunteer team we’ve ever had at the demo-garden! You girls rock!

Please join us this winter and help us get ready for a fabulous spring. Your help with our ongoing garden activities, pruning, mulching, weeding, deadheading, plantings and seeding would be much appreciated. Consider joining Mitchell and Kristie Scarazzo, Liza and Daniel in updating our garden plant lists, signage and mapping in time for “Wildflower Weekend 2008”. We also need volunteer garden managers that can come out on a Saturday and/or Sunday to assist with working with the Sheriff’s Work Project crew assigned to our area on the weekends, or the Americorps crews that would like to work at the garden during the week.

As always, we hope to see you in the garden soon.

Mitchell Alford & Sabrina Okamura-Johnson
   SacValley CNPS Co-Chairs,
   Native Plant Demo-Garden @ Historic City Cemetery
   1000 Broadway, Sacramento CA

Read more about a few plants you might like to use on the Plant Profiles page:

NATIVE PLANT PROPOGATION WORKSHOP Join the California Native Plant Society for a native plant propagation workshop to learn how to propagate native plants using cuttings and seeds from the CNPS's demonstration garden in the Old Sacramento City Cemetery. You can take home natives to grow and plant! Wear closed shoes that you don't mind getting dirty, garden gloves, and a hat if the weather is sunny. If you have pruners/clippers, pots, or soil, please bring those as well. If you don't, we will have some supplies on hand.
Where: Demonstration Garden (see below for directions)
See a Plant Propagation Workshop here...
Please contact Jessica Hankins at (916) 731-4910 to RSVP, or if you have any questions.

2004 SACVALLEY CNPS BOARD AT THE GARDEN (left to right). Sitting: Cassandra Nguyen-Musto (recently resigned), Bonnie Ross, Amy Boyer, Chris Wilkinson, Glenn Holstein, Peggy Berry. Standing: Mary Maret, Frank Wallace, Eva Butler, Sabrina Okamura-Johnson, Heidi West, John Hunter, Mary Schiedt, Chris Lewis, Bill Patterson.

Please join the SacValley CNPS Board in welcoming Mitchell Alford as our new Demonstration Garden Chairperson. Though relatively new to our Chapter, Ms. Alford is a long time CNPS member with a horticulture & California field botany background (AKA Ms. Phytophinder...). Mitchell and the Demo-Garden Committee need help on the following days:

Volunteer at the Demonstration Garden Join Matt and other young volunteers with Americorps, Hands on Sacramento, McClatchy High School, and many other groups that volunteer their time, energy and smiles in beautifying the Native Plant Demonstration Garden.
Making new friends, learning about healing plants, edible plants and other cultural uses and creating habitat for beneficial insects and our regional birds ... these are just a few of things you will learn about and experience by volunteering at the Demonstration Garden.
For more information about the Garden, volunteering, or helping with plant donations, please e-mail Mitchell Alford.

Getting to the Garden The Demonstration Garden is located in the Old City Cemetery on 1000 Broadway, Sacramento [map link!]. The main entrance is on 10th and Broadway. To reach our garden, enter the main entrance and head east (directly toward Target on the small interior road. Follow this road as it turns to the south (toward Los Angeles, home of the evil Lakers) along Riverside Blvd. The Demonstration Garden is at the end of this road as it begins to turn west. You will see our sign at this corner. [here is a cemetery map to help you]

       Cleveland Sage                                  Fremontia                                    Monkeyflower
       Salvia cleveland                            "California Sunset"                         Diplicus aurantiacus
                                                         Fremontia californicum

In January of 1997, the Sacramento Valley Chapter of CNPS was given the opportunity to construct a native plant demonstration garden. It is located in a large section of Sacramento's historic Old City Cemetery along the east side. The garden's purpose is to interest and educate the community about growing native plants in an urban setting. The garden is very visible from Riverside Boulevard and entry is through the main gate along Broadway.

Native Plant Close-ups From the Garden:

Fuschia-flowering gooseberry                   Sulphur buckwheat                           Western columbine
       Ribes speciosum                          Eriogonum umbellatum                          Aquilegia formosa

Interested in Gardening With Native Plants? If you're interested in gardening with native plants please read the following Chapter publications:

Native Plant Demonstration Garden Historic City Cemetery, 1000 Broadway, Sacramento CA

Native Plant Demonstration Garden
Historic City Cemetery, 1000 Broadway, Sacramento CA