Field Trip—Our next meeting Monday, February 13 will be a field trip to Roger’s Gardens in Corona del Mar. This popular destination continues to delight the public with its beautiful foliage, flowering plants, herbs and vegetables, fountains, pottery, and outdoor furniture and accessories.
We have table reservations at Roger’s Gardens Farm- house for a Valentine’s Lunch, starting at 11:45 a.m. Seating is limited, so if you didn’t sign up at the January meeting, please email Lydia Reese, Garden Club President, at lydiashappy@gmail.com. If you wish to carpool, please meet us in the Niguel Shores Clubhouse parking lot. If you prefer to drive yourself, the address is 2301 San Joaquin Hills Road, Corona del Mar 92625. Watch for a reminder email sent ahead of the field trip with details about the car- pool and the meeting at Roger’s Gardens itself.
Water Conservation—In their Winter 2022 Drought Update Report, the South Coast Water District announced that landscape irrigation was to be limited to one day per week through to March 2023. As of this writing, California has gone from extreme drought to extreme flooding in a matter of days. But it appears that these winter storms will not completely reverse the exceptional drought. We still need to conserve water. We fervently hope that our regional water supply gets replenished over the next few winters.
Looking Toward Spring—With February marking the last month of winter, we can anticipate the appearance of wildflowers in places like Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. While the first wildflowers can pop up across the desert around mid-February, blooming usually peaks from mid-March to late April. For more information about this season’s wildflower bloom, please call the Anza-Borrego Wildflower Hotline at (760) 767-4684 or the State Park Visitor Center at (760) 767-4205. Hopefully this winter’s rain will gift us with a wildflower superbloom.
Monarchs—On a positive note, the number of mon- arch butterflies spotted in California’s overwintering sites has exceeded 300,000, according to the Xerces Society’s Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count (November
2022). The conservation organization says this number of monarch butterflies hasn’t been seen since the fall of 2000. 2020 marked a low point, with only 2000 butterflies counted across the entire state. 2022 marks the second year of increasing numbers! The report is seen as positive, but researchers say that the monarch population has declined significantly since the 1980s, when numbers were in the millions. Monarch butterflies were counted at 183 over- wintering sites across California; the largest individual count of the 2022 season was about 34,000 butterflies at a private site in Santa Barbara County.
Plant Sale—Please remember our annual fundraiser: the Garden Club Plant Sale on Saturday, March 25! Our members and generous local nurseries will be contributing plants and garden related items for sale.
—Ann Strauss
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