NEXT MEETING: Celebrating The Horticulturist Of The Year 2026, Nancy Carol Carter, On January 17, From 1:30p - 3:30p At Oasis Rancho Bernardo (Upstairs In The Grand Assembly Hall)

Nancy Carol Carter Celebrating the Horticulturist of the Year for 2026 Nancy Carol Carter. Reminder, there is no meeting in December. Join us on January 17, from 1:30p - 3:30p, at Oasis Rancho Bernardo (Note: this meeting will be held upstairs in the Grand Assembly Hall and not in our regular room downstairs.) About Nancy - After a long and rewarding career in legal education, Nancy Carol Carter retired as a Professor of Law and Director of the Legal Research Center at the

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This Month's Articles

NEXT MEETING: Celebrating The Horticulturist Of The Year 2026, Nancy Carol Carter, On January 17, From 1:30p - 3:30p At Oasis Rancho Bernardo (Upstairs In The Grand Assembly Hall)

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NEXT SHARING GARDENS: December 20, 2025 - Conclude The Year And Celebrate The Winter Solstice In Mission Hills

Conclude the year and celebrate the winter solstice with a self-guided tour of Jim Bishop and Scott Borden's hillside garden in Mission Hills. Many of the large aloes and drought-tolerant plants are currently in full bloom. Their 1930s Spanish-revival style house and garden in Mission Hills offer views of Mission Valley. Scott and Jim have been cultivating the steep hillside for 24 years. In 2003, they transformed an old, cold swimming pool into a walled garden featuring a st

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NEXT SD HORT BOOK CLUB: Truffle Hound By Rowan Jacobsen, January 5, 2026, 4:30/5p On Zoom

By Karen England, for Let's Talk Plants! December 2025. Join us on Zoom for discussion of Truffle Hound by Rowan Jacobsen at 4:30/5p pacific time on Zoom on January 5, 2026. Truffles attract dreamers, schemers, and sensualists. People spend years training dogs to find them underground (or pay absurd amounts for a ringer). They plant entire forests of oaks and wait a decade for truffles to appear. They pay $3,000 a pound to possess them. They turn into quivering puddles in th

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BOTANICAL ENCOUNTERS: The Atacama Blooms - Copiapoa Cactuses

Words and pictures by Ida K. Rigby, for Let’s Talk Plants! December 2025. The Atacama Blooms - Copiapoa Cactuses Let’s continue our quest for the marvels of El Desierto Florido, the Atacama super bloom of September 2011. Along this foggy Pacific coast, ... ... as is often the case in areas that outsiders might consider gloomy, everything is colorfully painted. Fishing ... ... and mining are the two main industries. We of course enjoyed delicious fresh fish. Nature’s fishermen

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TREES, PLEASE! Urban Tree Observations: Conks, Stains, Saps And Bugs

By Robin Y. Rivet, for Let’s Talk Plants! December 2025. Turkey Tails - Trametes versicolor - fruiting body on rotting tree log. Bernard Spragg – Flickr Pro: https://www.flickr.com/photos/volvob12b/41856600312 . Urban Tree Observations: Conks, Stains, Saps and Bugs In October, I wrote about abiotic tree mishaps – especially those inflicted on urban trees by well-meaning humans. Many were preventable, so please re-read that essay if you’re a DIYer, as many of those failures

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IN SEASON: Camellias - Queens Of The Winter Gardens

By Jason Chen, for Let’s Talk Plants! December 2025. Photo credit: Excerpted from Let's Talk Plants! March 2018. " Camellia japonica , COMMON CAMELLIA (Theaceae), East Asia. Sharon Lee's dazzling display of large and small pink, white, red, and variegated Camellia blooms [at a meeting]. They were fragrant and simply beautiful to share. Some arrived in individual plastic containers, and each was displayed in its own tiny water dish. 'Nuccio’s Pink Lace', 'Frank Houser', 'Nu

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FROM THE MASTER GARDENERS: Evergreens Can Be Part Of A Sustainable Holiday Celebration

By Skye Resendes, UC Master Gardener of San Diego County. First published by the Union Tribune on December 10, 2022. Reprinted with permission, in Let’s Talk Plants! December 2025. Wix stock photo. Evergreens Can Be Part of a Sustainable Holiday Celebration Here’s how to incorporate fragrant trees and boughs, long a symbol of life and hope, and still be a green consumer. Traditionally decorated Christmas Nobel fir Christmas tree. Photo Credit: larsmarkusson. The history of de

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GOING WILD WITH NATIVES: Had Enough Wet? How About Desert Plants For Dry Areas?

By Susan Lewitt, for Let's Talk Plants! December 2025. Calscape Sicklepod rockcress © 2009 Gary A. Monroe. Okay, this is a teaser! This marvel is tiny and hard to find in nurseries, but I just couldn’t resist showing it off! This and others like it could be lost without our supporting biodiversity through the use of native plants. Left photo: "Sicklepod rockcress" by Henrik Kibak is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Middle photo: "Sicklepod rockcress" by Tom Wainwright is licensed u

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MEET TORREY NEEL: Dedicated Native Plant Advocate And Native Plant Nursery Owner

By Joan Herskowitz, originally published December 2024, in Encinitas Magazine. Reprinted with permission in Let’s Talk Plants! December 2025. Photo credit: Janine Free. Neel’s Nursery: Making California's native plants available to San Diego County. Surrounding a gazebo tucked away on a wooded lot in the Gold Coast Plaza on Coast Hwy 101, across the street from the Pannikin coffee shop, you will find an Encinitas treasure. You have arrived at Neel’s Nursery, the County’s only

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PLANT FORUM: At The November 2025 Meeting

By Susi Torre-Bueno, for Let’s Talk Plants! December 2025. For over two decades a meeting highlight was the Plant Forum, where a horticultural expert spoke about plants brought in by members. These descriptions were printed in the newsletter and were also compiled, and are available free on our website at https://sdhort.org/PlantForum . This is an alphabetical listing of over 7500 plants, including over 1600 detailed descriptions. Check it out when thinking about plants to a

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SHARING SECRETS: Garden Art

Edited by Cathy Tylka, for Let's Talk Plants! December 2025. Question for Sharing Secrets for this month… Can you share vignettes or items from your garden, in words and if possible, pictures, that are made with a sculptural element. Or maybe you can just share pottery or items you use to amuse yourself. In other words, your version of Garden Art! (Some have said this is a great question! Well, we have Ida Rigby to thank for this. If you have a question or thought, share it w

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GARDEN SURROUNDINGS: The French Lifestyle

Words and pictures by Francesca Filanc, for Let’s Talk Plants! December 2025. As a Francophile I eat outside in the garden for almost every meal and live an artistic French lifestyle . Photo credit: Francesca Filanc. The French Lifestyle Thanksgiving is just around the corner and before you know it, when you read this article, it will be December. We have had a lot of much needed rain in California this November. As I was driving down the country lane on the approach to my

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