What's Blooming
Text by Jean Alexander
Photographs by Michael Clark
There are literally thousands of interesting individual plants in the Arboretum's collections.
At any time of the year there's something blooming, and there's always plenty to see.
To help you decide where to start, we present some of the specimens that are currently worth seeking out. To help in your quest a map of the Arboretum can be found here.
TELOPEA OREADES
TELOPEA SPECIOSISSIMA
(Common name Gippsland,
Victorian, or Mountain Waratah)
From the Slosson Garden beside the Horticultural Building, take the first path off to your right, which will bring you (just before you get to the large, rocky mound with the log railing) to our collection of telopeas – the Aborigine name waratah means, very appropriately, “seen from afar” This member of the proteaceae family is a shrub which grows up to ten or more feet tall, and at this time of year puts on a spectacular display of red blooms to light up that corner of the Australian Garden. Each bloom is actually composed of tightly-clustered flowers compressed together to form a showy red bloom between 3 to 5 inches across.
Telopeas spread by underground lignotubers, from which regeneration can occur after bush fires. They are not presently on Australia's list of endangered plants.
LEPTOSPERMUM SCOPARIUM
(Common name Manuka or Tea tree)
The tea trees are looking particularly impressive just now in the New Zealand Garden. This member of the myrtle family is an evergreen scrub-type tree found throughout New Zealand, but particularly common on the drier east coasts of both the North and South Islands. Several varieties are in bloom, with flowers of red, shades of pink or white, including "Martini", shown here,
The Maori use parts of the plant as natural medicine, and manuka oil has strong antibacterial and antifungal properties. Parakeets use the leaves and bark to rid themselves of parasites. Manuka sawdust apparently imparts a delicious flavor when used for smoking meats or fish.
You will find these colorful trees throughout the New Zealand Garden.
The California Native Garden
The California Native Garden, to the right of the lower parking lot, is now brimming with color, with wild irises forming carpets of purple; coreopsis and lupine splashing their bright yellow, and several species of ceanothus making mounds of misty color ranging from white to dark blue.
Watch out also for the deep pink of Salvia spathacea (Hummingbird Sage). Ribes sanguineum is also in bloom, with blossoms ranging from light pink to red.
If you follow the lower grassy path past the rocky mound and almost to where it joins the path to the New Zealand Garden and Eucalyptus Grove, on the left you will see a small tree with pink blossoms; this is Cercis occidentales or Western Redbud, a deciduous shrub native to the dry slopes of the coastal ranges and Sierra foothills. In its early stages the flowers usually emerge before the leaves, but as it progresses you'll see both leaves and flowers together, and once it has bloomed it will be hung with attractive purple pods.
The Australian Rock Garden
Now is the time to visit the Australian Rock Garden, which is putting on a marvelous display of color and texture at the far side of the Banksia Field opposite Dr. Ball's Redwood Grove.
From Western Australia we have Darwinia lejostyla, a profusion of pinkish-red bells, and Darwinia collina (Yellow Mountain Bell), a rare plant covered by Australia's National Recovery Plan, with its striking greenish-yellow bells.
Darwinia collina (below)
Also from Western Australia, Lechenaultia biloba (above), a dwarf shrub with fleshy grey-green leaves and brilliant blue flowers, and Lechenaultia formosa (below) with its vivid scarlet flowers, make vibrant splashes of color among the rocks.
From Victoria and New South Wales, the Phebalium stenophyllum (Narrow-leafed Phebalium), below, lights up the rocks with its brilliant yellow star-shaped flowers.
HYMENANTHERA DENTATA
(Common name: Tree Violet)
This is a rain forest tree, but adaptable to our Santa Cruz climate and habitat. A woody member of the violet family, it has a multi-trunked, spreading formation, and grows to around 20 feet . The branches are covered by small, dark green leaves, and pendulous, heavily scented flowers, giving way to white berries which can produce a purple dye.
If you look carefully, you will also see that the tiny flowers grow directly out of the trunks of the tree in places. (See photo, right.)
To find this unusual tree, follow the Humming Bird Trail beside the Hort Building for a few yards to the burl bench. To your right you will see a stepped path for a few yards, cross over the next path, and the tree will be about 10 feet in front of you.
