From the Editor

Mar 31

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR: Unveiling Our New Name In April – The San Diego Herbicultural Society

By Aprille Phooles, (aka Karen England) for Let’s Talk Plants! April 2024. Unveiling Our New Name in April – The San Diego Herbicultural...

Apr 3, 2023

EDITOR’S LETTER: April Fool’s Game

By newsletter editor-in-chief Karen England, for Let’s Talk Plants! April 2023. Ever play the game Two Truths and a Lie? According to...

Apr 1, 2022

EDITOR’S LETTER: Yet The Lilac With Mastering Odor Holds Me

By Karen England, for Let’s Talk Plants! April 2022. When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d - By Walt Whitman When lilacs last in the...

Jan 1, 2022

NEWS: Saying Goodbye To Two Longtime Sponsors & One Horticulturist Of The Year

By Karen England, for Let's Talk Plants! January 2022. Some of the sad news of 2021 is that the SDHS and the San Diego community at large...

Jul 31, 2021

MEMBERS GARDENS PHOTOS: July 2021

Edited by Ken Gland. President and newsletter editor-in-chief, Karen England, asked at the last meeting for members to send in current...

Jul 1, 2021

EDITOR'S LETTER: Miss American Green Cross of 1928 Pleads "Help Save Our Trees"

By Karen England. Historically the Green Cross has had many different iterations from meaning "First Aid," or a "Medical Marijuana...

Apr 30, 2021

EDITOR'S LETTER: You Heard It Here First … Roses Are Easy To Grow

By Karen England. First published in 2012 on edgehillherbfarm.blog. The rose was the Herb of the Year™ for 2012 and when folks find this...

Apr 1, 2021

EDITOR'S LETTER: I'm just an April Fool . . .

Well, I can't resist posting just one more April Fool's Day Botany article, even though I tried using restraint by only posting one such pr

Feb 1, 2021

EDITOR'S LETTER: Tomatoes, Worthy of the Mania

Like all events everywhere, the Vista Garden Club's May 2020 Annual Flower Show and Plant Sale was canceled. And, as a result, the plant sal

Dec 1, 2020

EDITOR'S LETTER: The Garden in the Carols

For a very long time now, decades really, I have been working on an idea for a gardening book called “The Garden in the Carols", all about t

Nov 1, 2020

EDITOR'S LETTER: Come Into The Garden, Cook

During this pandemic I have been chipping away indoor and out at my home projects list, comfortingly it turns out, much as I have been doing

Sep 30, 2020

EDITOR'S LETTER: The "Set" (Song) List from the Horticultural Concert

Will the roses bloom where she lies sleeping Will the flowers shed their petals there Will the dewdrops fall upon the roses Where my darling

Aug 31, 2020

EDITOR'S LETTER: Dos and Don'ts of Power Pole Gardening

Do you have a power pole in your garden? I do. And, for the last 19 years I have successfully gardened around mine. I say successfully becau

Jun 30, 2020

EDITOR'S LETTER: Dogs in the Garden

One of the unexpected outcomes of the Covid-19 quarantine is the remarkable number of pets that have been rescued from shelters worldwide. M

May 31, 2020

EDITOR'S LETTER: Quarantine Snailpocalypse

While the rest of the world learned to make sourdough bread with little or no ingredients or started a victory garden with a clay pot that t

Apr 30, 2020

EDITOR’S LETTER: Smartphone Gardening - There’s an App for That!

I am never without my smartphone because it is how I communicate with my invalid mother who lives with me. She texts me when she needs somet

Mar 31, 2020

EDITOR'S LETTER: Gardening Boom Comes From COVID-19

I had a phone conversation last week with my cousin, the owner/operator of Sunshine Gardens in Encinitas about his invalid wife and my inval

Mar 1, 2020

EDITOR'S LETTER: "Irish Peony"

In July and August of 2004, December of '07 and June and July of '08 I traveled to Ireland for weeks at a time each trip, specifically to st

Feb 1, 2020

EDITOR'S LETTER: Some Thoughts on Scientific Plant Names Brought on by a Very Large Vine.

My parents were born in and I grew up to the age of 11 in Sierra Madre, California, a tiny, idyllic burg in Los Angeles County, the home of

Jan 1, 2020

EDITOR’S LETTER: Hello 2020! Are You Growing Any of the Plants of the Year?

I am a long-time member of the International Herb Association, the IHA, and we have a long-standing educational program called the Herb of t

Dec 1, 2019

EDITOR'S LETTER: December Roses.

British playwright and author, James M. Barrie, 1860-1937, is attributed with saying “God gave us memory so that we might have roses in

Nov 1, 2019

EDITOR'S LETTER: Persimmons Anyone?

I moved to Vista, CA in May of 2000 to a rental with the sole purpose of getting my husband and myself closer to where we were shopping,

Oct 1, 2019

EDITOR’S LETTER: Herbs Make the Difference.

Confession: I’m not a great gardener, I haven’t always loved it, I’m not a natural, but thankfully none of that has ever stopped me from gar

Aug 31, 2018

FROM THE EDITOR: Sharing Secrets Editor Needed

Let's Talk Plants! longtime Sharing Secrets Editor Dayle Cheever is stepping down and we are looking for a successor. The Sharing Secrets...

Aug 31, 2018

FROM THE EDITOR: Need Water Wise? Try WUCOLS

By Susan Starr. WUCOLS is the somewhat unwieldy acronym for Water Use Classification of Landscape Species. In spite of its odd name,...

Aug 31, 2018

FROM THE EDITOR: Leadership Transition at SDBG

San Diego Botanic Garden has announced that Dr. Ari Novy, currently Leichtag Foundation's chief scientist and former executive director...

Jul 31, 2018

FROM THE EDITOR: Sharing Secrets Editor Needed

Let's Talk Plants! longtime Sharing Secrets Editor, Dayle Cheever, is stepping down and we are looking for a successor. The Sharing...

Jun 30, 2018

FROM THE EDITOR: Gardens to Visit This Summer

By Susan Starr. Southern California is home to many famous public gardens, including the Huntington Botanical Gardens, Descanso Gardens,...

Feb 1, 2018

FROM THE EDITOR: Plants Wanted

By Susan Starr. At each monthly meeting, members bring in plants, cuttings, or flowers and put them in the blue bottles provided on our...

Jan 1, 2018

FROM THE EDITOR: Lilac Fire Destroys Local Nursery

By Susan Starr. Rainforest Flora’s growing grounds, located at the epicenter of the Lilac Fire, on West Lilac Road, was completely...

Jan 1, 2018

FROM THE EDITOR: Free Water Smart Workshops

After our dry fall, the San Diego Water Authority’s Water Smart workshops are particularly welcome. According to their website,...

Jan 1, 2018

FROM THE EDITOR: Coming Soon! New Education Conservatory at the San Diego Botanic Garden

By Susan Starr. The San Diego Botanic Garden’s Dickinson Family Education Conservatory building is now being erected (by large cranes) at...

Oct 31, 2017

FROM THE EDITOR: Garden Gratitude: Lend a Hand in Garden Restoration

By Lisa Marun. As SDHS members, we are all part of a greater gardening community that's bound by a love of and appreciation for plants....

Oct 1, 2017

NEWS: New Volunteer Coordinator for SDHS

SDHS welcomes a new board member this month. Karen Krugman has joined the SDHS Board as our new Volunteer Coordinator. Karen moved to...

May 1, 2017

FROM THE EDITOR: Behind the Scenes at the Flower Fields

By Lisa Marun. A Story About Family, Science, and Hard Work Now on the must-do list for San Diego visitors and locals alike, the Flower...