Hello fellow Californians....let's introduce ourselves!

Janet, thank you for the welcome. ok, Amorphophallus. I have many tubers of:
A. Konjac
D. Vulgaris (very related)
I have a few personal tubers of:
A. Gigas
A. Titanum
A. Decus-Silvae
A. Kiusiansus (spelling)
A. Henryi
A. Koratensis
A. Peonifolius
I have seedlings of:
A. Titanum
A. Gigas
A. Decus-Silvae
A. Hewittii
A. Prainii
and I have seeds I'm waiting on to sprout of a few other lesser type.
See, I am an addict. lol
Mark

Hi,
I'm Mary and I live in Poway which is 3 miles west of the 15 freeway in San Diego County. Haven't browsed this forum for a long time because I've been obsessed with Brugmanisa and also make an occasional jaunt over to the Roses or Coleus forum. I'm more of a lurker than a poster anyways. A couple months ago we filled in our swimming pool and bulldozed the whole back yard. Talk about a blank slate! It used to look like a jungle. Secretly I miss the jungle; almost out of control look. My husband wants me to keep all the new plants in pots. We'll see. I might have to compromise since he's building me a greenhouse.

Dave's has been an enjoyable outlet for me. Aren't we lucky to live in California!
Mary

Mark, you really meant it when you said you were an addict. I think there's maybe 6 or 7 types of Amorphophallus listed in the plantfiles. If you have time, post a few pics of your faves for us. . a very interesting plant I hope to see one day. Seems like all of us here at Dave's are addicts of one sort (plant) or another or many LOL.

Hi Mary, my youngest son & his wife lived in Poway until 2 years ago when he moved to Las Vegas. Sounds like you have quite a project ahead. Be sure to take some before and after pics to share with us. I don't know about the rest here, but I sure like to plagiarize or ah..hemmm borrow other peoples terrific ideas. The greenhouse will really be a treat though. Welcome, even if you only lurk. Please share from time to time, if you have time LOL.

8-) Janet

Janet, don't have much to post in the way of pics. I sell on ebay and really only have room for seedlings. I do post many pics of all my awesome Passiflora however. They are actually my first love.
Mark

Hi

I'm originally from Hawaii but I've been living in Orange County for a few years now. I haven't really worked on my garden for several months since my little one came along. Just about the last thing I was able to do was to get my poinsettia to bloom again for the third year. While I'm nursing my son, I get a tall glass of water and poke around on DG to see what new and interesting things everyone is up to. This really is a nice group of people here.

Claire

hello, claire. congratulations on your little one.

Hi Claire. . .how exciting to have a little one. Just had my 5th grandbaby born 1 mo ago and she's every bit as special as the1st one 17 years ago. Welcome! 8-) Janet

Hi Mary,

Looks like we're practically neighbors. I live in scripps ranch so you probably drive by my house enroute to yours. :) I too would love to see before and after photos, as it sounds like you have a really big project ahead! Good luck to you.

Christina

Hi! I am a new resident here on Dave's Garden Web! I keep my little garden in Half Moon Bay, CA. And am quickly learning how much plants dislike that salty cool sea air that I love so much! I am a fan of plumerias and peonies and dahlias. However, I have yet to try my hand at mothering the last two blooms! I look forward to my new garden family!

Hi ABarker, Welcome to Dave's Garden! I know what you mean about the salty air as I grew up in Pacifica which is just up the road from you (as I know you know). You'll find great advice here however, and your garden will be flourishing in no time! Good luck! Christina

welcome, abarker! we're in the same zone!

Hi all, I'm Lauri from Anderson, Happy Valley actually and new to Dave's. I'm currently re-doing most of my yard, moving this here and that there. Well will be after these rains as everything is under 3" of water. I try to grow a little of everything from bulbs to roses and just discoverd SAC and bananas. Have a large amonut of bulbs mostly old stock cannas and ladys. I'll be borrowing quite a few ideas from everyone as spring gets going. Here is my 4' wide walk being taken over by my some of my cannas this past summer.

Hi I am new to Daves Garden,
My name is Angela and I live in San Jose California .
I am starting to see my fall planted bulbs opening early.I am not sure why.
Grape Hyacinths and crocus are opening up in January? I am new to gardening is that normal? I am in love with the hardenbergia blooming in my back yard. For some reason anything I planted in fall that ispurple is opening early????Oh well at least I have some color on dreary days.Hope to learn a lot from you experienced california garderners.Below is a photo of my hardenbergia.
Angela

Hi, Angela. Welcome.

It's not really normal, but it happens once in a while. My narcissus already finished blooming, and now all of the anemones and freesias are in bloom. I think fall here was so hot and lasted so long that it woke everything up early. Today I noticed that a great big Easter lily is in bloom in one part of my garden. Makes me wonder what's going to be left for spring.

Your hardenbergia is gorgeous.

Hi zuzu,
Thanks for the compliment on the hardenbergia. I agree with you about the fall weather causing early blooms.Can't wait to plant bulbs for summer.

Hi Lauri Wilson Welcome to Dave's..I was born near Anderson left there at an early age,but still remember the beauty of Ca...Hope you enjoy it here at Dave's and have a good time going to all the forums..I know I'm having fun...

Loretta...

hi, loretta. hello, zuzu.

welcome, angela and lauri =).

annapet

Hi everyone! I just rejoined DG and am so glad I did,lots of info and nice people! I've worked with plants off and on for about 20 years, orchid nursery, interior plant tech, and for the last 5 years ordering all the plants for the Home Depot I work at [ the BEST part of working there!] I have lots of houseplants and orchids, but my new interest is building my first raised bed for my tomato and pepper plants.Have lots of container plants on my patio[love Brugmansias!] Roses are new for me too, just got through planting a bare root 'Julia Child' i just had to have! Been in the Central Valley for 6 years,before I lived my whole life near SF, miss the cool summers, but love being able to grow tomatoes here!

I'm Pat in Redding, was raised in San Diego, lived in Baja for some years, then to El Cajon, Hemet and now Redding. Glad to see a few of you that live close to Redding. I think we've got enough people up here for a "roundup" sometime. Lost all my Dahlias this past fall, but got more coming, Mums were gorgegous, now trying to wade thru puddles of water that I'm sure I'll need this coming summer. Just joined Dave & gardening companions this past week! Happy Gardening To You All!

Hello to this forum that I finally found. My name is sheran, some here at daves call me the robin queen.

I live in the so calif area, northridge, to be exact and have been on daves for several years now. I am not one of those lucky large home gardeners or ranch gardeners, but am proud of my 1000 sq ft in a local coop.

My prizes of joy is my 20 rose , rose garden started from cuttings.
I love growing all types of vegetables, if the crops are small, well I always have tons of flowers. My loves are flowers of whites and blues.

I am the mom of 2, and a grandmother. For work I am a director of 2 Alzheimers units, am the facilitator of a family support group in Granada Hills.
Health gardening to everyone, feel free to stopin and say hello anytime.

Hi welcome to calpat1 and sheran and welcome back kimmers. Not alot of action on this thread like there was at the beginning, but it's a nice place to see who our fellow gardeners are and there's lots of interesting threads in our state forum. AND, we all like pics. . . so please share if you can. Janet

Took this last Friday. . .the colors on this flowering Kale and just beautiful in the cold weather.

Here's a closer up of some of them, just gorgeous, nice colors in the "dead" of winter, with hints of spring starting to show, as in lots of weeds LOL.

Hi! I've been hanging out here for a while and occasionally posting but figured I should introduce myself. My name is Liz and I've been living here in the East Bay for almost 4 years now, before that I lived in Ohio. I bought my house 3 yrs ago, spent the first year or two ripping out all the ivy that was covering up the front and back gardens, and then last year I was finally able to get started on planting stuff! I'm really more of a plant collector than a gardener--I like to experiment with lots of different plants rather than putting in multiples of the same plant like you're supposed to. I collect tropical flowering plants/trees (which live on my patio), and in my garden I like anything that's not an annual but blooms over a long time (right now my favorites are a white Nemesia and a sweet pea shrub that have been blooming for 11 months straight!) I also collect Salvias, Buddleias (any species other than davidii), plants in Melastomataceae family, and Australia/New Zealand/S. Africa natives (but not proteas--I can't seem to keep them alive!)

Hi! I'm Di (Diana) and new here. I live and garden (16 yrs.) on 5 acres in Pinon Hills, Ca., which is located on the northern slopes of the San Gabriel Mtns., 10 minutes from Wrightwood. We locals say it's where the desert (high) meets the mountains. My home and gardens are located ~ a mile high, on a hilltop. This can present some challenges and micro climates reign supreme, but the views and peace & quiet keep me humble and my whining to a minimum.

We are having an exceptionally warm winter with temps in the 60-70s instead of our usual 40s. I'm loving it! And so are my roses, which I also love. I primarily garden in the cottage style and have a potager (ornamental vegetable garden) where I grow vegies and flowers for cutting. I grow lots of annuals from seeds and have been growing more perennials from seed in the last few years. I'll be adding more fruit trees this year. I already have apricot and apple, but would like to try a pluot and some cherries.

I'm married to a wonderful guy who indulges my gardening passion, building arbors and picket fences without too much eye rolling. I secretly think he likes it because there are usually new tools in the bargain. We also share our home and gardens with 3 cats and a dog. Or should I say they share with us? ; )

I am presently cleaning up my photobucket albums, but when I'm done I'll post pics. I love all of yours! They are so inspiring!

Di

Boy it's cold here for california ( San Jose) I still have a lot of blooming hyacinths,and muscari to brighten up the dreary day.I saw a group of wild turkeys at the park near my house today Not sure where they came from never seen them before in san jose.Lots of strange stuff around here.
Anyone else in San Jose area have spring/summer flowers blooming left and right? I even see a canna tyring to open as cold as it is today I am surprised at that.I'll put up a photo of them tomorrow.
Angela

Yup! cold here too..... in fact for us, here on the north coast, it's the first real cold snap I remember for a couple of years, just following a few days of really nice spring-like weather! I have peonies up about 6 inches, roses with new growth, stuff busting out ~ only to have to worry about covering everything up the last few nights, including tonight! I hope I don't lose anything.... I saw my first wild trillium in the grove we have here - the true (for me) first sign of spring. But dang it's cold out there right now!

Sanna in Eureka

I think the folks back east would consider us whiners. Definitely a change from the 70's of last week. I, too, saw wild turkeys just off Mission Blvd in the Niles area. I have hibiscus ready to open (maybe the christmas lights on them helps,) as well as at least one open Canna. My Douglas Iris have begun opening and the snails have come out in full force.

Hi - I'm new and in Hoopa, Humboldt County (near Eureka), CA via ...upstate NY, Santa Cruz County, Humboldt Coast, Western CO, AZ, and WI. We've been on our place for almost two years. The dirt and worms are phenomenal. My "yard" is an acre, about to grow to three, with one border on the Trinity River. Oh my!

Since our arrival in Hoopa in August 2003, I've inadvertantly and unavoidably become a dog rescuer. There were six or seven "strays" living in the yard of our tribal rental and despite my neighbor's first meeting advice, "don't feed the dogs and don't feed the kids," I began to leave food for them on the porch. Then I added blankets, flea preventative, brushing, tick pulling, occasional treats, and basic training. (Oh yeah, I fed the kids too, and sometimes there would be a dozen hanging around). Anyway, my neighbors just loved me (NOT), so the minute we closed on the property I moved the dogs out to it. But they wouldn't stay without me and found their way back to the rental place, 5 miles away!

So now, 40 dogs and many fine adoptions later, we've just added new fencing and my "playing in the dirt" challenges first start with planning around dogs. Currently there are ten and our great cat, Radar on the place, and two humans. The ones (dogs) ready for adoption are at http://dogrescuers.org. For some reason the link directly doesn't pull up the site, so you can go there through the usual way. I've tried several different times to make it work (thus, all the edits)

We have black locust, blackberries, wild plums, blackberries, apples, blackberries, roses, blackberries, fuschias, ferns, moss, and pepperwood, and dogwood trees. DId I mention blackberries? We have a dead oak with a live poison oak as thick as my forearm growing up it, and English Ivy bringing down giant black locust trees. It rains forever in the winter, and I would say the cold that comes with it is worse than Wisconsin. Much to my surprise I prefer snow and ice to buckets of icy water and mold) and doesn't usually rain at all in the summer with temps being 95-100 daily. Better than Wisconsin - dry, not humid. However, it's February and my daffodils are in all their glory, which I don't think is the case in WI.

We do have irrigation water, so that is gold for the gardening, but as much as possible I want to use native and xeriscape plants for privacy, mosquito and flea repellant, boundaries, flowers, and ground cover. No lawn, please! I've started blueberries and some fruit trees, and have had two seasons of vegetables which were not fenced, so each new dog had to be taught to stay out of the beds. Mostly it worked, but this year new fence has been installed bisecting the first acre to protect the garden and perhaps set up a training area for individual dogs. Thanks to the current crew of collies, gophers, moles, and mice have moved on, leaving me with lots of dog (I mean dug)-out burrows.

So, that's me in Hoopa, CA. Too much info?




This message was edited Feb 28, 2006 8:09 AM

Never enough info as far as I'm concerned. It all sounds like quite an adventure. I tried to see the dogs, but the link only goes to the Server King home page.

Welcome to the California Gardening Forum. Don't forget to check into the Pets Forum. They'll love hearing your dog stories and they're a great bunch of people (as we all are).

I can sympathize with your blackberry problem, but I still have gophers galore in addition to the blackberries. If only the gophers would eat the blackberries and leave everything else alone. I'd love to use dogs as deterrents, but my cats won't let me.

Thank you, Zuzu, for the heads up on the Friends For Life site and the welcome. I can't seem to make it work from here, either, but it does work through the usual methods. I will check in with the pet forum. There is so much to read/learn/participate in here that it's easy to spend hours at it! This is such a great networking place, I'm pleased to have found it. I'm "watching" 65 forums, though have only spent time with a handful. Thought this one would be a logical start.

Actually, I don't hate those berries all that much. Where I don't want them, we've so far gotten way ahead of them with active pruning, digging, and a little Round-up (I never thought I would use it, but, maybe there's a place for everything). Where they remain, taller than me (I'm 6') I pick the most wonderful berries, some of the biggest I've ever seen. I think the black locust seedling/saplings are my bigger problem, which I've addressed on the trees forum.

I'm thinking of planting wax myrtle around the perimeter of most of the fencing for privacy and for mosquito/flea control. I understand it's a native. Any comments?

Also, I have a property border that is between two driveways. I want to define the line, block the view and cut the dust from neighboring drive. However, I don't want fencing, or something deciduous or particularly woody, so that if it was necessary to drive over it or cut it way back, it wouldn't be permanantly damaged. The only thing I've come up with is oleander. It has to be xeric and tolerate full sun to part shade (especially in summer). Ideally it wil grow to at least 10 feet tall, with the spread pruned as needed. Suggestions? Experiences? Thank you.

WoW!!!! Thorne here in the wild High Desert of So CAL!! Our winters range seriously from 7a to 8a, and we have 2 or so months of 100+ degree (does anybody know where that lil degree dot is hiding on the keycaps?? *s*) F heat in summer. Oh! Let's not forget about the flash floods! *LOL* It's too much fun! I love it here, and am happy to meet all you Californians! (Good Idea Kachinagirl! See you in chat!)

So here's a lil TMI:

I live with: My lover and partner Tammette, girrrlllyboi extrordinaire, Masteresse of delayed gratification, and harmony to my melody; my 87 year old grandmother, (wheelchair queen of ice water and soap operas, and weekend warrior of rock music, and drag races; Hildy (the african queen, my african grey parrot-soul mate and familiar, aka the amazing psychic bird); Sam (Samwise, Samson, Sam the Man, Sam I Am, pig in a bird suit, my red-lored amazon and abusive boyfriendbird); Sir Kisses, (Greater Sulfer Crested Triton Cockatoo, cuddleslut extrordinaire and perpetual 2 year old [as in "terrible"]); Sweetpea, (youngest of my featheredflock at 6. A Military Macaw who has a beak the size of Texas, but not [thankfully] yet the will to use it...nicknamed "batty" for her cagetop hanging antics); Flute, a 30-something yr old wild-caught Mollucan, broken hearted, self abusing feather plucker with a case of zinc poisoning when I got him in March 03. He's a happy healthy Too now, who has grown back about 70% of his feathers! (yippee!!)[In October of 2004, my Precious Flute was killed by the Dogs in a horrible freak accident. I miss him every day, and mourn not only his loss, but my failure in the sacred trust of caring for him. He, in all his imperfectly feathered glory, is the subject of my newest tattoo which was done January '06 by Judy Parker in memorium of his bright spirit and the plight of these amazing creatures]; Peaches, female Molluccan (neck burrowing, nymphomaniac and devastating flirt). Our 4 newest rescues are Hepzibah Hermoine Tidbit Crawford (a tiny evil female cockatiel), GirlieBirdie, another Sulfer Cretsed 'Too. Precious and sweet she's bonded to the Girlyboi. She's got a lil chest plucking problem and a BIG screaming problem (but we're working on those) and only one foot; and a breeding/bonded pair of Double Yellow Headed Amazons.

Then there are 4 dogs, Tammette's "Soul Man"...Solon, her baby boy, and my "Sexy Beast", a talking, firewood chewing brindle pit-bull that we adopted in Sept.04; also Junior-son of The Beast, and Crissy-mae, shar-pei. 3 indoor cats, (twins born in the same sac, Castor and Pollux), and the second recent incarnation on my Nightmare; 1 outdoor wandering stray Mouser named Lucifer (for his beautiful Golden eyes).

We are in the process, a labor of love, of repairing and remodeling and cleaning up the Family Ranch; 40 acres of creosote and sagebrush, snakes and scorpions and vinegaroons in the High Desert. We are working on getting the main house right, (electrical, insulation, sanding the hardwood floors, installing drywall and ceramic tile, etc.), and landscaping the environs immediate to the house and outbuildings, and repairing the outbuildings to use as various art and craft studios.

We have aproximately 4,000 square feet of Gardening enclosures, where we grow the most delicious organic veggies and fruits to feed ourselves, our FIDS and our friends and family.

And yes....we're busy gals!

Hi, being new on this thread, I'd thought to hop on the bandwagon. I saw the one from Clovis, which is probably the closest to me. Visalia is about an hour south of Clovis,so we go up there to shop often. Any GREAT nurseries there? Well, since wer'e introducing, We have 4 boys(our newest is 6 weeks) who all like to help me collect seeds. The oldest (11) is very useful for helping with digging and planting.But, of course they each have their own shovel! I haven't done much yet this year, but I think this weekend will be great weather for getting some new plants in, and trimming the dead off the Cannas. Hope to talk with some more folk from the central valleysoon.

Hi Neighbor. . .saw your post on another thread and thought "how did I miss seeing you before now?", but it seems you've been a bit busy. Congrats to you, new Mom and welcome to the forum. Are you tired of this rain or what?? I'm ready for some drier, warmer weather. I get down to Visalia occasionally. I really like the downtown area for a small town, lots happening, kind of like stepping back in time to what it used to be here in Fresno/Clovis. My DD & husband have a car lot in downtown Visalia and they live in Kingsburg, right down the road from you. Nursery wise up here, there are some nice ones. If you're looking for statuary or water features, Willow Gardens is a good one, way out north of Clovis on Willow, nearly out to Millerton Lake. Another mile or two north, at the foot of the dam, there's a topiary nursery, Finch's Zoo, that has some neat stuff (proud parents of the snowboarding Olympian, Andy Finch). Up by River Park, 1/2 block west of Blackstone on Nees is another really nice nursery with beautiful grounds, if you shop out there (seems to have taken over as THE PLACE TO SHOP NOW!!!) The name escapes me right now. Nice to see you here on our California forum. . .8-) Janet

Check out this thread too right here in our CA forum:
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/493887/

Good Morning All, My name is Sherry, Calif born and raised with a few forays to Arizona, Iowa, Hawaii, Whidby Island, but always end up back in Calif. There's not one area of California that I don't have some form of nostalgia for, have lived in Whittier, Seal Beach, Laguna Beach, Venice, Martinez, Pacheco, and now Fallbrook for quite a few years, though we are feeling the need for a new adventure, which will probably be out-of-state. Bought a 2-ton flatbed to move all my plants to Washington State, love anything growing, but have finally this year become disciplined enough to have given away everything that I didn't really have room for planting. Focusing now on cottage type plantings, everything's always kinda wild and messy,( seem to have a problem with things looking too neat and orderly). So now I don't get things just because I "have to have that, too", Where does it end?
The thing that slows me down the most is planting virtually everything in wire, have never experienced the gopher problem that we have here, been on this property quite a while now and it has been a gradual thing, I "really" hate making all those wire baskets!! It's great fun to hear what others are planting and doing and I've already become addicted to checking this site with my morning coffee...

Hello from so cal... where is fallbrook????

Hi all, noticed a mention re: wild turkeys from Pot Em Up, this may have already been covered elsewhere that I haven't come across yet, but.....we go to Julian very, very often (it's such a fantastic drive from our house), but about a year ago I first noticed the wild turkeys. I don't know how I could have missed them before or how long they've been there, but now they're the first thing we go looking for. Got curious, looked up on line and found that Fish and Game started a release program some years back. Apparently there are those who are not happy with having them around, but I would love to see them on my property. Be happy with what you have!

Hello Sherry and a big welcome to DG,

As you can see from under my name, that I live in HB, so you are familiar with my area for sure. I've been a member here for over 5 years and have learned so much about gardening and have met some fantastic gardening friends too.

I just want you to be aware of our SoCalif get together that we have every year and our next one in on July 8th in Temecula. Here is a link to read about it. http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/559332/
We have had a great time in all the prior ones, and I have hosted 2 of them also.
Here are some pictures from the roundup last year. http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/524248/

I hope to see you around the forums and also at our SoCal RU.

Donna

Hey Sheran, Fallbrook is down near San Diego, but inland. Hope you can make the RU this year too.

Hi Sherry, Stella from Cambria but recently moved here from Laguna Beach. I just thought it was interesting that you mentioned the wild turkeys. We have a bunch in Cambria too, and I think it's thrilling! My friend had them traipse across his lawn on Christmas morning, how cool is that? I just had a conversation two days ago with a visitor from Laguna about them. He told me about the Fish and Game release and that's the first I'd heard of it. So they're in Julian too. And apparently San Jose. I agree with you. They are wonderful. Welcome to DG.

Hi Sheran! I am in LA as well.