Your Independent Neighborhood Garden Nursery

Beautiful Plants and Inspired Designs since 1954

Happy Easter! Sunday, April 9 we are open 11:30-5:00

Dear Friends of Anderson's La Costa,

Happy April! Happy Easter! We hope you are enjoying the start of the true spring-like weather we are finally receiving. There is no place like the garden to know that it is indeed spring. The nursery is looking just spectacular right now. There is so much in bloom, so many amazing colors and variety. Plants are such a wonder.

We just want to take a moment to acknowledge our wonderful staff for all they do to keep the nursery running so beautifully. Their knowledge about plants, their friendliness with everyone who walks into the nursery, their good attitudes and hard work - we are truly grateful to have such an A+ crew. Please let us know how our crew has helped you.

Thank you for joining us for our first speaker event of the season with Mia McCarville last Thursday as she informed us all about roses and more. What a delightful evening! Mia, the former owner of Cedros Gardens in Solana Beach, has continued her passion for plants by sharing her depth of knowledge with others through talks and landscape design. We were thrilled to have Mia speak to us on a beautiful, crisp evening and get to learn so much.

April Newsletter Special

20% Off

All Fruit Trees

Fruit trees are on sale! Apples, avocados, peaches, plums, passion fruit, spice zee nectaplums, weeping mulberry, all of citrus - limes, lemons, oranges, grapefruit, and so many more!

Instead of two sides of a coin, two sides of a container garden.

This year has been a rollercoaster though compared to what we’re used to, but the sunshine we've all been waiting for is not far now…it looks like starting around Easter, warmer days will be around to stay for a while. We hope. Typically, plants begin their growing and flowering cycles during this time of the year with warmer weather and longer daylight hours. All I can say is that my garden is finally springing (haha) into life this month with flowers on almost every plant. It helps that most of the garden I planted at home consists of California native plants that normally bloom this time of the year, and some nearly year-round!

California native plants are rising in popularity, as they should. There are many reasons why choosing native plants is a good option for your garden. Native plants can adapt to the many different and challenging soil types we have in our county, from clay to sand, and everything in between. Another great reason is all the different ecosystems that native plants support. The attraction of pollinators (birds, bees, butterflies, beneficial insects), and the conservation of water (ability to survive periods of drought) just to name a few. They are also very low maintenance and hardly ever have pests or need fertilizer (money savings). I've just fallen in love with the diversity of native plants and the many different types of flowers, especially this time of the year.

That being said, we have a really good selection of California native plants in stock right now thanks to a fun Marc and Steven road trip we took last week. Let's briefly go over some of the goodies we picked up...all pics following the descriptions below.

Easy growing Encelia californica (coast sunflower) and Encelia farinosa (brittlebush), also with bright yellow flowers when in bloom but with silvery-grey leaves. Malacothamnus clementinus (San Clemente Island Bushmallow) is a classified rare native plant in the mallow family. Sphaeralcea ambigua (desert mallow) is especially known for its showy flower display. Ours are healthy pre-bloom (last pic in section).

In the next set of images, Sisyrinchium bellum (blue eyed grass) has delicate purple flowers and can spread in open areas. Salvia spathacea (hummingbird sage) will develop large pink flower spikes and can take partially shaded areas. Any of the Salvia clevelandii cultivars are sure to please with fragrant foliage and attractive purple flowers. Mine blooms eight months out of the year! Try 'Pozo blue', 'Allen Chickering', 'Winifred Gilman', or ‘White sage’ for your garden.

Two natives Marc and I found on our recent excursion meant to catch your eye include these purple nightshades: Solanum xanti, and Solanum hindsianum 'Baja californica nightshade'. They are both fairly uncommon but grow well in native dirt and tough conditions. For something lower growing with foxglove-like trumpet flowers, try Penstemon Margarita B.O.P. (actually stands for "bottom of the porch").

There is also a whole collection of colorful salvia hybrids in our bedding section such as Sunset Western Garden Collection's 'Love and wishes', also 'Wendy's wish', new 'Kisses and wishes', Salvia discolor 'Andean sage', Salvia elegans 'Pineapple sage', and Salvia chiapensis 'Chiapas sage'.

This is only a brief overview so please come in to see our full natives selection, especially if you haven't had the chance to see it all yet! We hope you enjoy it!

April is the month for FLOWERS, and featured in this moth's edition is our amazing selection of roses. Roses are beginning to bud and bloom and are looking beautiful. The weather delayed them this year but now they are finally beginning to catch up.

We have a wonderful selection of fragrant roses (Julia Childs, Pope John Paul II, Yves Piaget, Perfume factory, Neptune, Heavenly scented, and more!) Also, David Austin roses (Abraham Darby, Port Sunlight, Olivia Rose Austin, Queen of Sweden, Charlotte, Eustacia Vye, Silas Marner, and many more).

Pincushion proteas (Leucospermum) are now popping out with lots of blooms and color. These incredible South African plants have flowers that last for months and one single plant can have up to 70 blooms!

Anigozanthos (kangaroo paw) are also in their prime starting this month. Try dwarf red or pink for a great lower flowering shrub, or the new Celebration series for some new colors (Masquerade is turquoise and Carnivale is purple).

Spring and summer herbs and vegetables are now in full swing. Our current stock includes many varieties of tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, eggplant, peppers, lettuce, strawberries, and more. Herbs such as basil, cilantro, chives, thyme, lavender, rosemary, and dill will be replenished on a weekly basis.

Be sure to amend your soil and replenish the nutrients to ensure great results for the growing season. Try Recipe 420 super soil, earthworm castings, and Agrowinn fertilizer to create a nice balance. Also, fruit trees are now on sale, so come on in and scoop them up!

We just got a nice re-stock of large outdoor bromeliads including the three types of Aechmea Blanchetiana 'Wally Berg', 'Orangeade', and 'Pinot', plus other genuses in the Bromeliaceae family 'Billbergia', 'Nidulariam', and 'Neoregelia' to name a few.

Clivia is in and blooming. The more shade the better for these beauties. Our cactus and succulent section is quite full at the moment and seem to be enjoying the light shade cloth at high cover. We have a very full and colorful bedding section in both sun and shade where you'll find maximum flowering per square inch. All this and we didn't even mention the abundance of tropical plants in the indoor greenhouse! We'll save that for the May newsletter.

Finally, I wanted to thank everyone who attended Mia's wonderful rose talk last week. It was great to see you all. I definitely learned a lot and hope you all did as well. Keep an eye out for the next nursery talk probably in May.

Here's to more long-awaited sunny days! I hope to see you all at the nursery very soon.



Your Local Horticulturalist,

Steven

April in the garden means warmer weather and longer days with no fear of frost. We are overflowing with flowering plants and herbs & vegetables - the selection is incredible. Anytime this month is a great time to start incorporating soil amendments, sowing seeds, and putting in transplants. The soil is finally dry enough to be worked without compacting it, the air is warm enough to enjoy working outside and the soil temperature is ideal for germinating all kinds of seeds and getting transplants growing well.

Herbs: If you haven't already, it's time to start a culinary garden with basil, cilantro, chives, curly or Italian parsley, lavender, oregano, sage and thyme!

Vegetables: There's just a little time left to plant beets, lettuce and radishes. In late April plant only the heat lovers: beans, corn, cucumber, eggplant, melons, okra, peppers, summer squash and tomatoes.

To continue reading April Gardening Tips, click here.

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