Volunteer, Our Chapter Needs You!
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
NONPROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID GUALALA CA PERMIT the P.O. Box 577, Gualala, CA 95445 $5.00 per year, non-members Volume 2006, Nov-Dec 06 CALYPSO Printed on Recycled Paper NEWSLETTER OF THE DOROTHY KING YOUNG CHAPTER CALIFORNIA NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY PROGRAM – Annual Meeting Peter is a resource ecologist with the State Department of Parks and Recreation, and our local & Holiday Potluck Luncheon state parks keep him very busy. He is a past Sunday, December 10, 12:00 Noon for Luncheon, president of the Milo Baker Chapter of CNPS and is 1:30 PM for program, Greenwood Community Center, very active in the California Invasive Plant Council. Hwy 1 in Elk. Speaker: Peter Warner Program: A Dose of Spring, 'Til the Real Thing – A sampling of local and state wildflower photos. Our Potluck Luncheon and Annual Meeting will be held on Sunday, December 10 at the Greenwood Community Center in Elk. Not only is this a fun meeting, but it’s also our Chapter Board Election, so Volunteer, our chapter be sure to show up and vote. Wine is allowed, so needs you! let’s get merry! Two excellent new books will be on sale at reasonable prices: Native Treasure – Gardening PRESIDENT’S CORNER by Lori Hubbart With California’s Native Plants by M. Nevin Smith (this sold out at our plant sale), and Ceanothus by Our chapter plant sale is turning into a popular local Dieter Wilken and David Fross. Native Plants for the event! People showed up as much as an hour early, Garden by Bornstein, Fross and O’Brien will also be clutching plant lists in their hands. After the sale we for sale. Buy a gift for someone special or treat even sold “surplus plants” that had not been brought yourself to a book. to the sale. Please bring a main dish, salad or dessert to share, Gail Hamilton created a very classy flyer for the sale, plus dishes and flatware if possible. The Community featuring artwork that she obtained permission to use. Center is at the south end of Elk, right off Highway 1, The plant sale has a following now, and we have on the east side. We’ll try to have a CNPS sign out something to live up to. Our chapter will be looking front. for ways to keep the sale organized and get enough Our speaker has a lifelong love affair with California’s plants grown. We do buy in plants in 4” pots and indigenous plants and wild places. Peter Warner is a grown them on to larger sizes. However, it is determined plant keyer, who won’t quit the field until important to provide plants that originated in our local area, which means doing our own growing. the last plant trickster has been properly identified. Go on one of his campouts and you are likely to be Growing local plants: does it entertained by Peter playing guitar and singing wistful ballads. Peter is also a renowned weed basher, matter? Instead of growing native plant cultivars working hard to make room for native plant from places like San Francisco or Monterey County, communities to restore themselves. we could be growing gorgeous, home-grown versions. A cultivar is a cultivated variety of a plant, Letters to the Editor? usually grown from cuttings taken from one particular plant. Nurseries and botanic gardens have introduced Questions about native plants? some cutting-grown cultivars from our area. A The above discussion about local plants (reviewed by mounding coyote bush, ‘Al’s Blue’ (from near Point botanist, Teresa Sholars) was inspired by a question Arena), and creeping manzanita, ‘Emerald Carpet’ from a chapter member, who also suggested that the (from Haven’s Neck), are just two examples. Calypso could print letters to the editor and questions Many of the plants at our plant sales are grown from from chapter members. If you have a question or propagules of local plants, though not necessarily comment, please send it to our editor, Julia Larke, from “special” plants. In gardens, local plants are [email protected] or P.O. Box 1631, Fort Bragg, CA likely best adapted to our particular climate and soils. 95437. We’d love to hear from you, and we are lucky For wildlife, local plants often do the best job of to have a number of botanical and horticultural advisors to respond. Fire away! providing food and shelter. Local plants also embody a “sense of place” to make FAREWELL TO FRIENDS a landscape look like the “Mendonoma” coast, rather Two people who were valued members of the DKY than some random place in anywhere U.S.A. We are Chapter passed away in October 2006: Marion working to offer a blue-eyed grass with white flowers, Perkins and Ray Van de Water. white Douglas iris, low-growing coyote bush and a low, creeping California fuchsia from the Gualala Marion Perkins: One of our longtime members, River – all propagated from local wild plants. Marion Perkins, died in October. Older members may recall holding Board meetings at the Perkins home on What about the local plants issue on a larger, the dunes, in Manchester Beach State Park. Marion, ecological scale? This has been discussed and ever a gracious host, would invariably provide a lunch debated within CNPS and among scientists. People and we were treated to a sweeping view of the ocean ask, “Since plants move around naturally, why the from across the rolling dunes. concern about plants moving from one part of the state to another?” The short answer is that natural movement of plant species usually happens slowly enough for ecosystems to adjust. However, many plants, including some native species, have been transported to new areas by humans, so the impact is quite sudden. Sometimes one species can have dramatic effects on an ecosystem. When people bring in yellow bush lupine to an area beyond its natural range to stabilize dunes, the local plants and animals do not have time to adjust. This lupine not only stabilizes dune ecosystems that are based on moving and shifting Marion Perkins, left, Clare Wheeler-Sias with Bob sands, but it also fixes atmospheric nitrogen in the Perkins holding camera at a 1996 camping trip. Marion soil, providing too rich an environment for native had embroidered a shirt with Calypso orchids for Clare. plants while nurturing invasive, non-native weeds. These weeds tend to be poor providers for the needs Marion and Perk were enthusiastic campers with our of local wild animals. DKY Chapter in bygone years, and were close friends with Clare Wheeler-Sias, our former Camping Some people believe that with all the problems Chairperson. One of Marion’s talents was in getting caused by development, over-grazing and climate us started on a sing-along around an evening change, our actions at the local level don’t matter campfire. On flower walks she always demonstrated much. Why, then, should we try to do the right thing a very competent, convivial knowledge of the plants as individuals and as a CNPS chapter? Because we and it was a pleasure to accompany her on the walks. can – because it is one small area over which we have some control. It can be hard to see the whole She was always up for a good political discussion, picture, so we must act on the best information we too. Knowing that she grew up in Canada I’d bait her have, hoping for the best. a little about the Queen and Britains continued occupation of Northern Ireland and shed give me 2 November-December ’06 back a few salvos. She had a quick, open mind, groups. He will always be remembered and greatly though, and we could hold some very reasonable missed. discussions on the topic. In time, she became a Ray is survived by: his wife, Florence, now in a sympathetic Republican--Irish that is, not the GOP nursing home in Davis; his four children and their here! In fact, she was very informed on global politics mates, Marian and Kenneth Brown, Margaret Tarver through her reading of foreign affairs journals. She and Dave Twomey, Richard and Roberta Van De will be sorely missed. Water, and Mark and Judy Van de Water; seven She is survived by her husband, Bob Perkins, or grandchildren; and one great grandchild. A gathering Perk, who is currently in an assisted living home to celebrate Ray's life is planned for Saturday down south; and by their sons Frazier and Tom afternoon, Nov. 25, from 2-4 PM at Ken and Marian Perkins and their wives, and six grandchildren. Brown's, 38570 Coral Court in Gualala, next door to Ray Van de Water: He and his wife Florence were Ray and Flo's house. You can contact Marian Brown at 909-624-6488 in Claremont, CA. both active for many years in CNPS and they were an inspiration to our coastal community. PROFUSE THANKS TO OUR OUTGOING SECRETARY Rich Shimbor has decided not to run for re-election as DKY Board secretary, and he will certainly be missed. He did a superlative job taking minutes and turning them around rapidly. Rich has also been an astute and alert board member, working to assure that our actions were supported by sound information and conducted in a businesslike manner. Thank you, Rich, and we hope you will continue to enjoy native plant gardening and jubata grass bashing! RECORDING SECRETARY NEEDED! Our chapter has many needs, but we Ray and Flo Van de Water really need a recording secretary now! We have Before Ray and Flo retired to Gualala, he had worked been holding board meetings during the day in Point in San Francisco and commuted from the family Arena, with the date variable, according to board home in Danville, CA.