Garden.

September/October 1982

Los Angeles County Department of Arboreta and Botanic Gardens

STUDENT INTERN PROGRAM
ie WAS A SUMMER Of learning, hard
work and fun for the 10 students
who advanced their horticultural
skills at the Los Angeles State and
County Arboretum during the 1982
internship program sponsored by
he California Arboretum Founda-

on.

Michael Kerry summed up the
students’ attitude when he said, “In
school you can learn a_ certain
amount of it, but you can’t say
enough for practical experience.”

And practical experience is what
the intern program was all about.
The interns, Kerry, Brenda Pudwill
and Ron Rindone from Mt. San An-
tonio College; Lynndelee Sharpton,
Paul Youngren and Amy Drooks
from California Polytechnic Univer-
Patricia Smith, Roz-
and Margo Patterson
from California Polytechnic Univer-
sity, San Luis Obispo; and Louis
Randall from the University of Cali-
fornia, Davis, were exposed to as
many aspects of the Arboretum’s
gardening procedures as possible in
10 weeks.

Major projects and improvements
undertaken with the direction of
John Provine, superintendent,
cluded the construction of a retain-
ing wall along the sidewalk north

in-

of the Hall of Environmental Edu-
cation, installation of a drip irriga-
tion system in the old-fashioned rose
garden and renovation of the jungle
garden. General maintenance work
included propagation and green-
house management, soil preparation,

watering, fertilization, pruning,
weeding, clearing, planting and

mowing.
The interns got valuable practical
experience while they provided the

Laurie Schenden

manpower necessary tq, complete
these time-consuming projects that
the small garden staff could not find
time for.

Each of the interns had some pre-
vious horticultural work experience
before their internships, but all
agreed that it was an exceptional
opportunity to work in such diversi-
fied areas.

“There’s much more
Lynndelee Sharpton said.

variety,
“And we

»

al

Gordeiins interns get a ride to their next assignment Wee Bill Neuauie
of t

member » Arboretum s

staff. During
the interns w or in most sec i of the Arboretum.

their 10-week training program,

Regional edition of Garden

LASCA 1

LuAnn B. Munns

were able to ask questions, not just
be expected to do it and not ask
why.”

The were instructed
each area by a supervisor, usually
the crew chief, on the work to be
done, methods to use and safety pre-
cautions to take.

“It’s just as much for the meee
visors,” Mr.
learning process for them to oe
with the interns and instruct them,
not just leave them with a job.”

The first week, supervisor Ralph
Gutierrez instructed the interns on
the practices and procedures of the
tree crew, demonstrating tree climb-
ing equipment, chain saws, hand
saws, a chipper and safety.

In eight days intermittently spent
in the nursery, the interns learned
from Bill Hawkinson about propa-
gation and greenhouse management.

ere are so many different and
unusual plants here,” said Amy

interns in

rovine said.

as
pele]

ee

Ma zal “Paterson (left) eas the types of plans
tl Youngren are carryin

(cen ter) and Pati
in the South A elo Section.

Drooks. “They just stick with the
basics in school.”

The second week began with the
interns splitting into groups of five.
The group in the rose garden re-
moved the obsolete drip irrigation
system, then reworked and updated
it. Finally, they installed used brick
in sand for access walks. The other
group dug a trench next to the side-
walk along the Hall of Environmen-
tal Education, laid bricks and built
the wall of railroad ties.

They also extended the flagstone
walk, begun by interns last year,
along the north side near the dye
plants section of the Herb Garden.

Tony Gonzalez, a senior gardener,
supervised other work in the Herb
Garden including irrigation proced-
ures. The interns learned the cor-
rect use of a soil probe, a hollow
pipe which extracts a 3-foot deep
soil sample, and the specific sprink-
ler heads used for different areas.

ts that Louis Randall
g to the students’ landscaping project

Joe Erby, another senior gardener,
taught the interns corrective pruning
techniques and methods for deter-
mining when to prune in the various
geographical sections to make room
for nursery plants ready for the field.
He also demonstrated fertilizer types
and application rates for different
plants.

Next, the interns supervised DPSS
workers for the two weeks spent
clearing and replanting in the jungle
garden. The jungle garden work
also included amending and _pre-
paring the soil, grading, installing
the watering system and repairing
fence.

As part of a long-term project the
interns located, labeled and charted
plants and trees on the Arboretum
grounds. Each intern also spent a
day in the Herbarium identifying
plants from various manuals and
monographs and pressing and
mounting them.

he Arboretum benefits from the
intern programs, not only because
of the extra manpower, according to
Mr. Provine, but because it is an
opportunity to find new employees.

Several students from last year’s
program have gone on to jobs in re-
lated fields or further study. Carla
Hawke quit her job as secretary
after her Arboretum internship to
major in horticulture at Cal Poly,
Pomona. Denise DePew works full
time at Stewart’s Orchids in San
Gabriel, one of the largest orchid
growers in the world, and Mamie
Mitchell is employed at the South
Coast Botanical Nursery in Redlands
while working on her master’s de-
gree.

The intern program has been pat-
terned after the practical work re-
quirements for an American Associ-
ation of Botanical Gardens and Arbo-
reta horticulture diploma. By setting
objective standards, the AABGA di-
ploma recognizes the importance of
both training and experience in de-
veloping capable professional gar-
deners.

2 LASCA

NEW CAF OFFICERS

Be CALIFORNIA ARBORETUM Foun-
dation elected a new slate of

officers headed by John Shepherd

as president at the annual meeting

June 17.

John S. Shepherd

Mr. Shepherd, a member of the
CAF board of trustees since 1979,
has built his career around plant
related activities. He is president
emeritus of Calavo and is emeritus
director of the California Avocado
Society where he currently serves as
publications editor. His continuing
involvement with California agri-
culture includes acting as consultant
to several other agribusinesses.

During his term of office, Mr.
Shepherd plans to lead a team effort
to sharpen the focus of CAF. “The
Foundation has grown to a consid-
erable size,” he said. “Now it’s time
to bring a business orientation to it
in the interest of better serving the
Arboretum.”

Mr. Shepherd believes that the
difficulty of operating an arboretum
during financially stressful times
makes extensive long-range planning
necessary.

“We will have to decide where
and how we go,” he said. “The or-
ganization must develop a pattern
so the public interests will be best
served.”

Mr. Shepherd, a third generation

Californian, lives in Altadena with
his wife. They have two grown
children.

Other CAF officers elected at the
meeting are Nancy (Mrs. James)
Anderson, first vice-president; Ce-
celia (Mrs. John) Grivich, second
vice-president; and Kirk Evans, sec-
retary-treasurer

After the meeting, each member
received a coleus cultivar or a Lag-
erstroemia faurei shrub for the
annual plant distribution.

SOUTH AFRICAN
INTERPRETIVE CENTER

HE MAY COMPLETION of the new

South African Interpretive Cen-
ter and various landscaping im-
provements in the last two years
has changed what was once barren,
open ground into an exotic South
African garden.

he framework that houses the
colorful displays and_ informative
guide to the unique trees and plants
of South Africa was built by the

Laurie Schenden

Galbraith Construction Company.
The wood-beam structure, funded
by the Hancock Park Garden Club
and the California Arboretum Foun-
dation, harbors four 4 by 8-foot glass
covered viewing panels, each show-
ing different plant forms and
selected drawings and photos.

Visitors to the South African sec-
tion can explore over 200 varieties of
plants that provide year-around
color while learning from the Inter-
pretive Center more about the con-
tinent they represent.

Featured on the west panel are
gazanias, colorful perennials that
bloom intermittently throughout the
wild poppies; and geraniums.
These represent groundcovers, per-
ennials and annuals from South
Africa.

The trees and shrubs panel de-
scribes the Cape chestnut, a_ tree
with large lilac flower clusters, and
the Senegal date palms located at
the Arboretum entrance gate. The
unique baobob tree or monkey-
bread tree, called “a carrot planted
upside down” by David Livingstone,

year;

A peacock perches on a wooden bench, part of the rugged framework that
supports sing slatted roof and display panels of the South African Interpre-
tive Cer

LASCA 3

is sketched in the detailed display.

Calla lillies, gladiolus, hemanthes
sparaxis, watsonias and pregnant
onion (Ornithogalum caudatum) en-
hance the South African section with
colorful blooms and unexpected
shapes, described on the bulb and
bulb-like plants panel.

The fourth panel contains a color-
coded map of South Africa and mis-
cellaneous South African plants such
as the bird of paradise, the official
flower for the city of Los Angeles,
and cycads, the most primitive seed
plants.

Between the four panels are shad-
ed benches built into the structure
for visitors to relax and enjoy the
serene beauty of the secluded South
African surroundings.

Laurie Schenden

the many Sot
the new Avenue etive center.

The plants, trees and groundcov-
ers throughout the garden are label-
ed for easy identification. Some are
very conspicuous, such as the aloes.
Tree form aloes are planted on and
around the mounds east and south
of the Interpretive Center. Ground-
hugging forms with stalks of bright
orange-red flowers grow as a
groundcover south of the center
along the tram road.

The attractive foliage and interest-
ing forms of podocarpus trees stand
out south and southwest of the cen-
ter. African daisy (Osteospermum)
cultivars near the garden entrance
along the east tram road flaunt a
variety of colors, many striped with
different shades of orange, yellow,
purple, blue or brown. Also near

Aloes aia ilies of the-Nile pms sp.) are among
1 African native plants that grow arounc
Display panels help visitors

the entrance are __ lily-of-the-Nile
(Agapanthus) with round clusters of
blue or white flowers nodding on
stems to five feet tall.

Two of the newly planted ground-
covers on the mounds around the
Interpretive Center are brilliant ice
plants (Lampranthus) and gerbera,
an elegant and sophisticated daisy.

The plants in the South African
section adapt well to Southern Cali-
fornia’s climate and can withstand
drought better than most plants in
the other geographic sections of the
Arboretum.

The South African Interpretive
Center is the third of six planned
centers that will provide visitors
with a guide through the plant col-
lections of the Arboretum.

idertiond these pee | that are so W ell adapted to the
Southern California climate

4 LASCA

(LASCA continues after page 32)

Leonid Enari

Liriodendron:
the tulip tree

ILLIONS OF vistrors to Mount

Vernon, the home and tomb
of George Washington, have passed
beneath a magnificent 120-foot high
tree, unaware of its name and its
history. It is a tulip tree (Lirioden-
dron tulipifera) and it was estab-
ished more than 200 years ago on
February 28, 1785 along with the
Declaration of Independence. Rec-
ords tell us that George Washington
transplanted the tree to its present
location from a nearby woodland as
a young sapling nine or ten years
of age.

The tulip tree or tulip, yellow
poplar, white poplar, popple, canoe-
wood or whitewood, as it is some-
times known, is at home throughout
the eastern United States from New
England west to Michigan and
south to central Florida and Louisi-
ana. It is most abundant and
reaches its largest size in the val-
leys of the lower Ohio Basin and on
the mountain slopes of North Caro-
lina, Tennessee, Kentucky and West
Virginia. It also occurs naturally in
southern Ontario, Canada.

For non-botanists it might be
difficult to understand that the tulip
tree and the southern magnolia are
related, but they are. Both have the
same number of sepals, petals, sta-
mens and pistils in their flowers.
Both have their pistils of one carpel
and both have much elongated re-

ceptacles (the flower part to which
sepals, petals, stamens and _pistils
are attached). Tulip trees belong to
the genus Liriodendron and are
members of the magnolia family,
Magnoliaceae. In addition to the
American species, Liriodendron tu-

The tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera) is easily identified by leaves that
look as if their tips had been snipped off and by flowers that resemble tulips.

lipifera, there is another species, L.
chinensis, in China. It differs from
its American cousin only in small
details.

In the Cretaceous period, the
genus Liriodendron with several
species was widely distributed in

LASCA 5

North America and Europe. During
the Tertiary period it continued to
exist with one species extending
over eastern North America and
Europe until the advent of glacial
ice restricted its range in America
and destroyed it in Europe.

Tulip trees grow under a variety
of climatic conditions. Tempera-
ture extremes vary from moderately
severe winters in southern New Eng-
land to almost frost-free winter
months in central Florida. Within
its range, the average annual mini-
mum and maximum temperatures
vary between —20° and F
Rainfall in the same area varies from
30 inches to more than 80 inches in
restricted areas of the southern Ap-
palachians. It prefers moderately
moist, well-drained, loose soils where
it is usually associated with other
species requiring the same growing
conditions. Trees growing with tulip
trees in various locations are bass-
wood, white ash, American beech,
yellow birch, cucumber tree, black
cherry, bald cypress, flowering dog-
wood, American elm, black gum,
sweet gum, eastern hemlock, hick-
ory, red maple, sugar maple, south-
ern magnolia, northern red oak, rec
oak, white oak, Virginia persimmon,
loblolly pine, sassafras, black wal-
nut, and some others.

The tulip tree is one of the largest
and most beautiful trees of the
North American forests. It some-
times obtains, under favorable con-
ditions, a height of 160 to 190 feet,
with a straight trunk eight to 10
feet in diameter destitute of branch-
es for 80 to feet from the

The leaves of the tulip tree are
squarish in shape and with two or
three pointed, paired lobes on each
side. They are pale green when
appearing in spring,
color in summer and finally turning
into a rich, rejoicing gold before
falling in autumn.

deepening in

The showy, large, cup-shaped and
tulip-like flowers are borne singly

at the end of the new growth in
spring. Their color is yellow and
light green or orange and light
green. Each flower has three sepals,
six petals, many stamens and many
pistils. The petals are in two sets.
The pistils, each formed from one
carpel, are closely arranged around
the axis. The flowers are the fav-
orite source of nectar for honeybees,
and it has been suggested that the
number of viable seeds is directly

LuAnn B. Munns

This fine ee tree renee TaileeEES J pansy of the Research

is 45 fee

related to the number of bees visit-
ing the flowers. A mature tree yields
up to four pounds of one of the most
flavorful of honeys.

The fruit is an elongated cone
composed of many dry, one-seeded,
winged fruits called samaras_ by
botanists and seeds by horticulturists
and gardeners. Although the tulip
tree is a prolific seed bearer, only a
few seeds per cone are fertile; the
rest are empty, nonviable seedcoats.

building

6 LASCA

Lack of fertilization because of in-
effective pollination is believed to
be a principal cause for empty seed-
coats. As the cones dry, the indi-
vidual seeds are scattered by the
wind to distances equal to four or
five times the height of the trees.
The cones mature from early August
in the northern part of the range to
late October in the South.

The tulip tree is seldom, if ever,
propagated other than by seeds.
When the seeds are sown in autumn,
they generally come up the follow-
ing spring, but when they are sown
in spring or the beginning of sum-
mer, they remain a year in the
ground before germinating. Seed
stored and sown in the spring need
pregermination treatment to over-
come this dormancy. Cold, moist
stratification of seed in bags of peat
moss or sand and peat moss for 60
to 90 days has proved to be most
satisfactory.

The wood of the tulip tree is light,
soft, easy to work and is used for
making boxes, crates, sashes, doors,
shelving, furniture, musical instru-
ments, veneer, etc. It also makes
good hat blocks in the hat industry,
because it does not absorb moisture
present during the steaming process.
The pioneers used tulip tree logs for
building houses, wells and canoes.
The canoes were made by hollowing
out logs to extreme thinness. Such
a canoe, 60 feet long, was made by
Daniel Boone. He then piled his
family and his gear into it and sailed
down the Ohio into Spanish terri-
tory away from ungrateful Kentucky
when his fortunes there ran low.

At the Los Angeles State and
County Arboretum, Liriodendron
tulipifera can be seen in quadrats
1/3, 1/4, 1/7, H/8 and L/6. All these
trees were planted in 1963. L. chin-
ensis in quadrat H/6 was planted in
1953.

Dr, Enari recently retired as senior
biologist at the Arboretum after a
-year career with the Department.

Southern California
Flora and Garden
EXPOSITION

OCTOBER 30 through NOVEMBER 7, 1982

10. am: to 5 pm.

20,000 square feet of exhibit space
filled with floral displays,
garden settings,

AND
a nursery trade show

ADMISSION: $3.50 per person

(Price includes admission to the Arboretum and Exposition)

PREVIEW NIGHT RECEPTION
Friday, October 29, 1982 - 6:00 to 9:00 p.m.
$7.50 per person (Free to CAF Members)’

LASCA 7

Bill Ross

Members of he Southern Colferma: Gardex aa cele-
Oth anniversary during a meeting
June Il in the Sunset Demonstration Home Gardens

brated the group’s

representatives

meets nine times a year
formation for future Sunset magazine articles and books.

at the Arboretum. This advisory group of plant industry

to provide in-

LOS ANGELES STATE AND
COUNTY ARBORETUM, Arcadia

SEPTEMBER 10, 11, a
. to 4:30 p.m.
Cactus eee Succ salent tee
Valley Cactus &

to a
; Concert and Picnic
$8.50 for adults, children under 12

Arcadia Rotary Club
SEPTEMBER 18, 19 —

Hd Show
American Ivy Society
SEPTEMBER 25, 26 —
10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

rece Show
Akebono Bonsai oat Mae So. reo
OCTOBER 9, 10—9 a o 4:3
auisnalbate Tuber ‘Sale
Southern Ca lif. Hemerocallis &

o9p
att Fork and

ate nb aw to 4:30 p.m.

Ik sit Hoseki K
OCTOBER 30 THRU NOVEMBER 7—
o5 p.m.
fog Garden
garden settings,

Southern California Flom a

Exposition Exhibits

ae Rama plo

vents sponsored by Coons
a ase Foundatio

CALENDAR

SEPTEMBER, OCTOBER, NOVEMBER
1982

DESCANSO GARDENS, La Canada
NO SEPTEMBER EVENTS
OCTOBER 1 THRU NOVEMBER 12 —
a.m. to 4 p.m.
Art Show

Ne paintings “2 canvas by
Charles Knec
OCTOBER 16, 17 —9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
nnual Plant Sale
,17— = a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

tique Ca
Horseless Patines pes of So. Calif.
OCTOBER 30, ae 9a to 4:30
Chrysanthem

Glendale Chrysanthemum ey
Events sponsored by Desc
Gardens Guild

SOUTH COAST BOTANIC

GARDEN, Palos Verdes Peninsula
SEPTEMBER 1 .m.
Dahlia Growi Demonstration

Dick Kohlschreiber, dahlia expert

gaa tbat 19—2p
Talk — Shade Plan
Speaker from Are Goren
en 26 —
— Cool Season "Flow ers
Dan " Zilla from Elwood Nursery

Pam Miesel from Crest Nursery
ae ls —2

Demonstration — Pine Cone &

ese iaed _ ths

uzy Seaman

OCTOBER 17 —

Demonstration — Bias

Arrangem

Silver tig ne Club
OCTOBER 24 — 2 p.m

Slide show on world- famous

Flower
OCTOBER 30, 31—10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Bonsai Show

South Coast Bonsai Association
NOVEMBER 6, 7 — Sat. 12 to 4:30 a

Sunday 9 a.m. to 4:30 p

chid Show
Scare Bay Orchid gees

fragt versenee 4—2p
alk — — Bawcialls
enic

Joe Cithins
cai ated 28 — 2 p.m
alk — Winter — in Local Gardens
in Morton, Palos des
Audubon Society
Events sponsored ss South Coast Botanic
Garden Foundatio

8 LASCA