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The MGS Event in Santa Barbara March 14-15 included members from all three California Branches, and as always at MGS affairs, many old friendships were renewed and new ones established. Weatherwise, it was a gorgeous weekend. The Northerners complained a little of the heat—it hit 80 in Ojai on Saturday afternoon--but otherwise everything was as advertised, or better.Friday morning we congregated at a park in Montecito to carpool to Lotusland, where we broke into several small groups and enjoyed engaging tours by exceedingly well-informed docents. The next stop was San Marcos Growers, a well known and superbly organized wholesale nursery that specializes in Mediterranean plants, where we were greeted enthusiastically by manager Randy Baldwin, and where many members managed to increase their plant inventories!
Then, a visit to a private garden above Mission Santa Barbara with a dramatic view of the Channel Islands, and finally that day, a stroll in the Alice Keck Park Memorial Garden, a public park near the mission, with the landscape architect who designed it 30 years ago, and has been keeping the city on track with it ever since.
The rest of the day was consumed by visiting four very different private gardens in Ojai, each interpreting the possibilities of that inland chaparral location in various ways. And then the frosting on the Pavlova was a lengthy visit to Jo O’Connell’s Australian Native Plants Nursery, where, after the plant-buying frenzy abated, Jo entertained us with tales of her personal adventures in plantsmanship and the Australian Outback.
A great time! Many thanks to the organizers, especially Patricia Cullinan, Central California Branch Chair, and from our own Northern California Branch, Branch Chair Bracey Tiede and Stitch Boyle.
-- Nancy Swearengen
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