VOLUME 28, NUMBER 1 SUMMER 2020 Resilience and Recovery PLANT CULTIVAR A SPRING 2019 INTRODUCTION PROGRAM | WITHOUT VISITORS | IMPACT REPORT IRONWOOD Volume 28, Number 1 | Summer 2020 ISSN 1068-4026 Editor: Becky Curtis Editorial Team: Eileen Becich, Rita Boss, Heidi Whitman Designer: Kathleen Kennedy Contributors: Rita Boss, Denise Knapp, Ph.D., CONTENTS Caitlin Lam, Scot Pipkin, Stephanie Ranes, Bruce Reed, Joe Rothleutner, Heather Schneider, Ph.D., Emily Thomas, Steve Windhager, Ph.D. Ironwood is published biannually by the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, a private nonprofit institution founded in 1926. The Garden conserves 3 Letter from the Executive Director California native plants and habitats for the health and well-being of people and the planet. The Garden is a member of the American Public 4 Designed for Resilience– The Garden’s Gardens Association, the American Alliance of Museums, the California Association of Museums, Plant Cultivar Introduction Program and the American Horticultural Society. ©2020 Santa Barbara Botanic Garden. All rights reserved. 8 Science in a Physically Distant World Santa Barbara Botanic Garden 1212 Mission Canyon Road Santa Barbara, CA 93105 12 A Dozen Ways to Derive Strength sbbg.org from Nature GARDEN HOURS Sun-Sat 10AM - 5PM Members Only 9AM - 10AM 15 A Spring Without Visitors PHONE (805) 682-4726 REGISTRATION Ext. 102 GARDEN NURSERY Ext. 112 16 Budding Botanists DEVELOPMENT Ext. 133 EDUCATION Ext. 160 18 2019 Impact Report MEMBERSHIP Ext. 110 VOLUNTEER OFFICE Ext. 119 22 Donor Roll Call BOARD OF TRUSTEES Tom Craveiro, Chair Gil Garcia Valerie Hoffman, Vice Chair Elaine Gibson 26 Giving Back Kathy Scroggs, Treasurer Sarah Berkus Gower John Parke, Secretary William Murdoch Samantha Davis Gerry Rubin 27 Rare and Endangered Mark Funk Warren Schultheis John Gabbert Jesse Smith LEADERSHIP TEAM Steve Windhager, Ph.D., Executive Director Heidi Whitman, CFRE, Director of Development & Communications Joe Rothleutner, Director of Horticulture & Facilities Denise Knapp, Ph.D., Director of Conservation & Research Scot Pipkin, Director of Education & Engagement 4 8 15 Kathy Castaneda, Manager of Volunteer Programs Need more Garden news? Sign up for our biweekly Garden Gazette ON THE COVER Canyon snow iris (Iris douglasiana e-newsletter at sbbg.org and follow us ‘Canyon Snow’); bred for its resiliency, a dependable on social media for the latest updates native cultivar iris of the Pacific coast. from the Garden. @sbgarden @sbbotanicgarden Santa Barbara Botanic Garden 2 Ironwood SUMMER 2020 DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE For all of us, this has been a spring like no other. Not since the Jesusita Fire of 2009 has the Garden closed its gates for more than a month, but this year COVID-19 had other plans for us. We closed on March 19th and it was not until two months later that we were deemed an essential Santa Barbara business (which y’all knew all along!). We reopened to members on May 22nd and to the general public on July 10 – still with very limited capacity. Our new Health & Wellness partner, Cottage Health, helped us as we charted out new policies and measures to keep our visitors and staff safe. It is a good start toward allowing people to be able to safely reconnect with the Garden and its beautiful California flora, but we hope to increase the number of people in the Garden as it is safe to do so. Despite not being as closely watched, nature did not skip a beat in the Garden or in the field this spring. We’ve been working behind the scenes all the while tending to our mission to conserve California’s native plants and habitats. With more than 75 acres of gardens to maintain, our grounds team worked safely throughout the temporary closure to keep the Garden in top condition. This is no easy task even in the best of conditions, but our team did not stop there. We took advantage of the empty Garden to improve our grounds where major projects would otherwise disturb the visitor experience. We continued our work in the field and from our homes and we incorporated new safety measures for work that could only be done in our Pritzlaff Conservation Center. Eager to continue to share the Garden and our important work, our staff filmed videos of exciting Garden moments, while conducting fieldwork in Carrizo Plain, and even a few takes from our own backyards. We created online environmental education resources for naturalists of all ages and even started a nature journaling club that meets virtually. You may notice that this edition of the Ironwood doesn’t include a calendar of upcoming classes and events. Due to the uncertainty of our ability to offer in-person classes and field trips right now, we have not scheduled any for the summer or fall. We hope to offer small, in-person classes as soon as it is safe to do so. The best way to stay up to date is by checking our “Classes and Events” webpage and our bi-weekly Garden Gazette e-newsletter. This break from the norm challenged us to grow and advance in ways that will long outlast this crisis. It has deepened our appreciation for the beauty and resiliency of nature, and our community as a whole. After all, it is the support of our community that makes this all possible. Like the previous small and large disasters we have faced, we are likely to emerge stronger than before, thanks to your membership, volunteer efforts, and the financial gifts from so many generous donors. It is because of that incredible support that the Garden will be able to meet this challenge and be ready to continue inspiring a love of California’s native plants for another 94 years! With gratitude, Steve Windhager, Ph.D. Executive Director Ironwood SUMMER 2020 3 Designed for RESILIENCE The Garden’s Plant Cultivar Introduction Program By Joe Rothleutner, Director of Horticulture & Facilities 4 Ironwood SUMMER 2020 The Garden’s Plant Cultivar Introduction De la mina verbena (Verbena lilacina ‘De La Mina’). Collected from Cedros Island off the west coast of Baja California by former director of horticulture, Program Carol Bornstein, this verbena is extra floriferous and has a dark purple blossom. alifornia native plant communities are resilient. Our and your neighbors can have tidy hedges derived from beautiful landscape has adapted to survive seasons of drought, ride natives. C the shifting sand of dunes, and to rebound after fire. The ability to deal with these challenges comes from vast genetic Our varied California topography and climate facilitate this diversity and selection for robust genes that help populations of kind of genetic diversity. Over generations, species isolated on plants cope. To a plant breeder and a gardener, genetic diversity islands or different mountain ranges have evolved with unique creates possibility! adaptations. By bringing those plants together in a common garden, we have an opportunity to evaluate and utilize those Plant breeders develop new cultivars by looking closely at differences. A plant from the Channel Islands might have individual plants, evaluating their merits and manageability exaggerated, large flowers, but lack the ability to cope with a of flaws. A ten-foot, airy, coyote brush appears elegant when poorly drained patch of residential garden soil. A close relative encountered on a hike in the scrub, but that same bush might from the mainland may be less visually impressive but champion seem gangly if planted in a small front yard or a more formal broad cultural adaptability and longevity in the landscape. A setting. However, if you hike a while longer and watch the plants plant breeder may cross these two species intentionally, snipping closely, you will start to notice some of those coyote brushes are with forceps to remove anthers, emasculating the seed parent, and squatter and others still may be more densely branched. It is pollinate it using a paintbrush carrying pollen from the paternal this type of variability that can be used to find or select a new parent. Months later, the fruit is ripe and seeds are cleaned and cultivar. Each seedling carries its own genetic code and, with that, ready to be sown with the hope that your role as matchmaker will the potential to be distinctly different and horticulturally more result in a garden-worthy introduction. desirable than the parent. Pick the most desirable plant and if the novel traits are maintained after the plant is reproduced through The general process of plant breeding is not overly complicated; cuttings, give your new plant a name and a cultivar is born. You people have had a relationship with plants and have been SUMMER 2020 Ironwood 5 Canyon Belle coralbells (Heuchera ‘Canyon Belle’) This hybrid coralbells was bred by former horticulturist Dara Emery. This second-generation seedling resulted from a cross between California native Heuchera elegans and nearby relative Heuchera sanguinea which gives this cultivar’s flowers their bright red color. selectively breeding since the very birth of agriculture. The feedback before the plant receives its name. Through this process, commitment comes in the form of time. It can take years to grow our Garden horticulturalists have introduced many resilient plants from a batch of seeds, choose the best plants with unique cultivars to the nursery industry over the years. character, propagate copies, and then evaluate the next generation of plants. The evaluation can even take years on its own, but it The Santa Barbara Botanic Garden has a long history of is so important. Do the intended qualities hold true? To help us introducing new plants to the horticultural trade and is uniquely answer that question for Garden introduced cultivars, the Garden positioned to continue this legacy. Our diverse collection of works with a network of other gardens and nurseries for honest California native plants is a living lab that holds genetic potential, The word cultivar is derived from the words cultivated and variety.