Plant Sale at Merritt Sat Oct 2 and Sun Oct 3

Yes, the Plant Sale is really happening!
Sat Oct 2, 9:00-3:00, and Sun Oct 3, 12:00-3:00. 
Think of it as a Plant Fair also. There will be food, representatives from the various parts of the horticulture community at Merritt showing off their stuff, and plants, of course. Propagators for this sale have emphasized fall edibles and California Natives (the best time to plant them, right?) Some of the plants you will see are a large selection of California native wild flowers in 6-packs, interesting California salvias--some rather hard to come by--loads of blueberries and tree collards. Non-native plants are there too. There is alot of bamboo, lavender, restios, many salvias (every fall they are so pretty in bloom), ericas, succulents, grasses, and pelargoniums in bloom. Partial List of Available Plants

Plant Sale Poster for Merritt Plant Sale Fall 2010

For two years, Tamar Beja who works at the UC Berkeley Art Department, has made beautiful posters for us to advertise our plant sales. They are 12" wide and 18" tall. The poster for this sale highlights blueberries. If you click on the image you can see a larger size for download.

Merritt Plant Sale Fall 2010

Finches in the Late Summer Backyard

Gold Finches seem to show up about this time each year. They snack on the seed from the Salvia uliginosa, the Penstemon hidalgoensis, and communicate on the running water at the fountain. The fountain has Anemopsis californica and Lobelia cardinalis, both in color right now.

Penstemon hidalgoensis

Salvia uliginosa

Anemopsis californica, Lobelia cardinalis

Merritt Salvia Garden Before and After

It is always humbling to see what time will do to a garden. The Salvia Garden at Merritt was planted in October 2009--elsewhere I have claimed it was June, in error. By chance we have some "before" pictures and some "after" of the same plants. I have also included a few others just to emphasize how these plants grew in such a short time. 

Salvia pratensis 'Haemotodes' before at Merritt Garden

Saliva pratensis 'Haemotodes' after --in another location


Salvia argentea before

Salvia argentea after


Salvia hybrid before

Salvia hybrid after


Salvia barrelieri

Salvia officinalis

Salvia sclarea with Kia

Spring and Summer 2010 Merritt Classes

Merritt Plant Sale Poster Spring 2010

This year's poster has a different look. Tamar Beja, our wonderful poster maker, highlighted the edibles at this sale. The pretty orange flowered vine is Mashua or Tropaeolum tuberosum, an Andean root crop that grows well in the Bay Area. Corn is featured in the center.

From Merritt Spring 2010 Plant Sale

Spring 2010 Merritt College Plant Sale Saturday May 1 and Sunday May 2

The sale will be Saturday May 1, 9-3 and Sunday May 2, 12-3. On Saturday we will have the full fair event with lots of participation from the horticulture department parts--permaculture, design, plant id, and mushrooms for sure.

This year is the year of the "grow-your-own edibles". We will have edibles grown by an army of enrolled propagators, all learning about the many different tomatoes, the particulars of the huge number of grape varieties, various greens, squashes, and much more.
This year we have some Salvias for sale. And the new Salvia garden will have been in the ground one year so there will a chance to check out how the plants fared after the considerable cold we had in December. The following will be available although there might be some last minute additions.
Salvia 'Anthony Parker'
Salvia 'Bee's Bliss'
Salvia 'Frieda Dixon'
Salvia africana-caerulea
Salvia africana-lutea
Salvia cacalifolia
Salvia clevelandii 'Allen Chickering'
Salvia desoleana
Salvia guaranitica 'Black and Blue'
Salvia lanceolata
Salvia microphylla 'Pink'
Salvia namensis
Salvia pratensis 'Haemetodes'
Salvia pulchella x involucrata
Salvia roemeriana
Salvia sclarea
Salvia tingitana
Salvia uliginosa

Salvias and Plant Names in New Mexico

While visiting in Southern New Mexico, driving around I saw our California native Salvia clevelandii planted in front of banks, restaurants, on roadside city landscaped areas. It looked so familiar to California eyes. It has last year's bloom spikes still on it and has its olive green foliage. In the winter landscape this plant has more leaves and winter interest than most plants. On a quest for it, I dropped in on Sierra Vista Growers in La Union, a well-respected wholesale/retail nursery here. http://www.sierravistagrowers.net/  I called ahead to see it they had Salvia clevelandii and was told they had Chaparral Sage, would that do? I had no idea what specific plant she was talking about--I had heard Chaparral Sage as a name but did not know what plant it was. So, I decided to just give this a visit anyway. The staff person there showed me Chaparral Sage (it was indeed a Salvia clevelandii), Grammi Sage, and Autumn Sage. He said that Grammi Sage gets 4', is pink, while Autumn Sage is 3' and red. He was talking about Salvia grahami (also called Salvia microphylla) and Salvia greggi I think.

In early February at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix there were some lovely salvias in bloom. I asked a horticulturalist on staff there what their names were. One was identified as Chapparal Sage. Later I identified the salvia as Salvia dorrii.

At Merritt plant sales we have always made a point of identifying a plant with its Latin name and correctly spelling it. Often a common name will be included on a plant label, but that has been optional. After this New Mexico experience, I am more than ever convinced that the correct identification of a plant and its latin name are required and that common names are not even relevant.

As a footnote, I did buy two Salvia clevelandii to plant in the garden here. They do well here at 4,500' in commercial plantings. They can tolerate the high teens in temperature, the alkaline soil and summer rain. They are also evidently unpalatable to rabbits, the primary plant predator in this area. Who would anticipate our native California salvia would be so adaptable? And I am told that "Chaparral" is Spanish for road runner, referring to the bird--present here in abundance.