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A bouquet is nice on Valentine’s but why not present your sweetheart with a plant that keeps on giving? Here are three suggestions for the perfect blooming gift:

The First Love® Gardenia (Gardenia jasminoides ‘Aimee’ ) - a perfect gift choice even if it’s not for your first love. This Gardenia is wonderfully fragrant and it’s just as beautiful indoors as it is outside in the landscape.

There’s a reason the rose is the ubiquitous symbol of Valentine’s romance. Ancient Greeks and Romans attributed the rose to several goddesses, most notably Aprhodite/Venus, the goddess of love and beauty. There’s no denying the rose is anything but beautiful, so why not offer your love a plant that brings nearly year-round blooms? The shrub rose is a delicate workhorse in the garden, providing trusses of blooms without the need for hours of maintenance. One of our favorites is the Blushing Knock Out® Rose (Rosa x ‘Radyod’ P.P.# 14700

).

Gold Heart Bleeding Heart (Dicentra  spectabilis ‘Gold Heart’) - what could speak of love more than a heart-shaped flower? This new Monrovia introduction blooms in spring with traditional heart-shaped pink flowers dangling from long wands above the leaves. It has the added benefit of golden foliage.

Happy Valentine’s Day from all of us at Monrovia!

Crimson & Gold Flowering Quince (Chaenomeles japonica ‘Crimson & Gold’)

Monday marks the first day of Lunar New Year, or Chinese New Year, one of the most important traditional Chinese holidays. Celebrations last 15 days and are marked by visits to family and friends where gifts are often given - commonly fruits and sweets. Red envelopes holding chocolate coins and money - and often accompanied by mandarin oranges - are given to children and unmarried young adults.

In Chinese and Asian communities around the world, going to the seasonal flower market to purchase plants and flowers is a popular way of ushering in the New Year because it is believed that flowers bring luck and prosperity.

Particular flowers are favored for their auspicious symbolic meanings. Some of our favorites thought to help gardeners yield good health, prosperity and luck are:

Kumquat and Mandarin: symbolize prosperity and peace

Flowering Plum Tree: invites and creates love

Camellia: symbolizes wealth and is associated with royalty

Peony: a lovely symbol for value and power. In full bloom, it is also a sign of peace.

Flowering Quince: often a stand in for peach and plum blossoms during New Year celebrations, the flowering quince is a symbol of luck.

Michelia champaca: widely appreciated for its positive symbolism and for its profuse, fragrant blossoms in early spring. In Chinese, the name means “subtle, timid smile.”

We hope your garden and year is filled with good health and success. Gung hay fat choy! (May prosperity be with you)

On New Year’s Day, Monrovia’s New Plants Director, Nicholas Staddon, appeared on NPR’s All Things Considered in their “Forecast for 2009” story {listen}.  Nicholas declared “small is the new big” and introduced ATC host Melissa Block to Agapanthus orientalis ‘Baby Pete’.

An improvement over existing dwarf Agapanthus (Lily of the Nile), ‘Baby Pete’ is a new Monrovia exclusive. Originally from Australia, Baby Pete’s compact habit, darker flowers, and extended bloom period make this an outstanding pick. This variety is notable because it does not produce unsightly seedpods. A prolific bloomer, you’ll also enjoy the mauve-blue blooms as cut flowers.

Measuring in at just six to eight inches tall and 12 inches wide, its compact size makes it ideal planted along a pathway, grouped at an entryway, or combined with other perennials in a container. Baby Pete Lily of the Nile is hardy to USDA zone 8. If you live in a colder climate, you can still enjoy Baby Pete - simply treat it as you would any other annual color.

 Mark Twain is often quoted as saying “Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.”  At Monrovia we actually do a lot about it.  Preparation starts more than a year in advance when we plan for the overwintering supplies that will be needed 12 months or more in the future.  Production plans are examined to be sure that we have enough room in greenhouses and other overwintering structures for the plants we plan to grow in the coming year.

Plants are usually damaged more by a sudden drop in temperature over a period of a couple days than by a gradual decline over a period of weeks.  Therefore, most of our winter preparations focus on allowing plants to acclimate naturally to the cold weather according to the normal cycle of the seasons.  Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a “normal” winter, so we have to prepare contingencies for what Mother Nature throws at us.

As winter approaches, preparations for cold weather start in earnest:  Fertilization is reduced to help the plant material harden off, some plants are moved into protective structures, plants left outside are grouped together and the pots wrapped with foam insulation, teams of craftsmen start covering hoop houses and greenhouses with plastic, and greenhouse heaters are serviced and tested.  This is a big task, but we know it has to be done on time or plant material can be damaged.  Complicating matters is the fact that the hoop houses and green houses cannot be closed-up too soon.  On a sunny, warm November day, an enclosed green house can get very warm and the plants will not acclimate to cold weather.  Therefore, we have to keep the houses open as late in the season as possible so that the plants are not damaged by a sudden cold snap.

You can bet that we watch weather forecasts very carefully during this time of year to anticipate sudden changes in temperature.  Right before the cold weather actually hits, the nursery goes into action again covering plants that are out in the open, closing up the houses, and fastening everything down (because cold weather is often accompanied by high wind).  Irrigation lines have to be drained so that the pipes don’t freeze and burst, and the heaters are checked again.  Then we are ready for the freeze.  At our Oregon and Ohio locations we hope for a few inches of snow before the very cold weather as the snow provides a layer of insulation.  Sometimes the cold weather is accompanied by dry windy conditions and we have to consider an irrigation to re-hydrate the plants as soon as temperatures get above freezing.

This year winter came early and hard to many parts of the country.  Our Oregon and Ohio nurseries experienced many days of freezing temperatures even before the official start of winter.  However, all the preparations paid off as all of the tender plant material was covered and protected from the cold.  Although the weather in Oregon and Ohio has been frightful, conditions at our Georgia and North Carolina nurseries have been, well, delightful.  Days have been warm and sunny with temperatures in the 60s and 70s, but we know that could change literally overnight with an arctic blast from the north.  So plans are in place to spring into action should the weather forecast change.

Strategies to protect your plants from the cold will differ depending on where you live.  In southern climates, plants can be covered with plastic, tarps, or old blankets or sheets during the coldest nights.  If you are using plastic and are planning to leave it on for a number of days, it’s better to use opaque white plastic instead of clear plastic.  Clear plastic creates a miniature greenhouse that can heat up too much in sunny weather.  In colder climates, straw or wood chip mulches can be applied around the crown and stems of the plants late in the fall to provide insulation.  As an added benefit, this mulch will add organic matter to the soil next year.  In all climates avoid excessive fertilization and hard pruning late in the growing season as these practices can encourage young, tender growth.  And be sure that your plants are well watered to prevent desiccation during cold, windy weather.  The web sites below from Florida and Minnesota give more details regarding cold protection for southern and northern climates, respectively.

Stay warm and have a happy holiday!

Florida:  http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/MG025

Minnesota:  http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/DG1411.html

My fingers are purple and sore. They are purple from a species of Lindera I have just cleaned that smells like a rip-off of Joy dishwashing detergent, yet born from a lovely, rounded, evergreen shrub with glossy linear leaves that reeks of elegance, growing in the hardiness zone of 7,000′.  My thumbs are sore, and will be for several days, from two hours of inducing the birth of seed of Illicium (star anise) from its premature fruit.  

With said sore and stained fingers, I am carrying about town and from my room to the hovel where I clean my collections, rather stylishly I am told, a three dollar, pirated Louis Vuitton case. In this, I am carrying my computer, Ziploc bags, strainers, sieves and a novel (Knowing Frank) that I have not opened for over two weeks.  

I am in northern Vietnam, in a once-small hill station transformed now to Kathmandu with a profoundly proud minority and refined French cuisine.  It’s my sixth time here. Tomorrow I leave for a trek into new territory called Five Fingers and I feel much like Frodo might have felt before his departure from Middle Earth to Lothlórien.  

Minority tribe women on the Chinese border carrying daily fuel back to their homes. The forests here are substantially denuded because of the reliance on wood for cooking. 

It has now been five weeks of travel and hard hikes and of collections, cleaned and recorded at night. My companions are now or soon will be home again, insulated by the loft of love and home fires. I miss having them here with me. Yet without them, and the delightful distractions that such company brings, I can again write. Too bad for you, dear reader. 

Scott McMahon and Ozzie Johnson during one of our ’sunny’ hikes. 

Vietnam has again been exceptional with territories and plants that had thus far remained unseen. Our first trek was filled with lucid days and idyllic breezes and, at night, skies of galactic infernos; we traveled through hummocks of Hydrangea chinensis as well as what I refer to as Hydrangea indochinensis. The latter has become a holy grail, of sorts, to have firmly established in cultivation.  In this matter, it has been stubborn.  It is an evergreen species with linear leaves to five inches, undersurfaced with a heart-rending pigment of over-ripened plum. Bleddyn Wynn-Jones and I first saw it here in 1999 and I have yet to have plants firmly planted in cultivation.  This time, things will change. 

A sensational evergreen Hydrangea species here with deep purple backing to the foliage (aff. Hydrangea indochinensis).  

Scott, Ozzie, Shayne and I took our first voyage to Y Ty. I am obliged to Bleddyn for sorting out this location during our second visit in 2002 and who has, subsequently, done important collection work here.  He braved an enormously long day-trip for only minutes of collections while Sue and I cleaned seed prior to our departure.  He and our late friend, Peter Wharton, returned last year with rave reviews, having recollected a long forgotten epiphytic lily that seemingly sang from every moss covered tree we came upon. Far from untroubled by human culture, the plants are rich, albeit slightly lower in altitude than I would hope.  Loropetalum subcordatum, Magnolia, Lindera, Stauntonia, Hydrangea,  Schefflera bodineiri, Schizophragma, Viburnum, Acer, Asarum, Paris, Arisaema and Impatiens made themselves known, along with a host of subtropicals that speak in accents with which I am both unaccustomed and intimidated by. 

A lovely Magnolia species we collected near the Chinese border, with fruit that suggested it was once classified as Michellia. 

It was exciting to see what I believe to be Schefflera bodinieri, with long and elegantly narrow leaflets, near the Chinese border. 

Here, in a steady rain, we hiked to higher lands while negotiating a filmy-coated water pipe that was at times our only foot hold.  A misstep by Ozzie pierced his right bicep that was, as unpleasant as it appeared, made more palatable than a direct hit to more cosmetically conspicuous features.  We were grateful it was not a more serious injury, which it could have been. The rain fell hard upon our descent, however, we were grateful to have experienced this area on the restricted frontier with China. 

Our porters, all H’mong, along our trek on the back side of Fan Xi Phan. Their clothes are woven from hemp and dyed with indigo; one set of clothes per year. 

On Scott’s last day, we negotiated a trail leading from Trom Tan Pass, a now popular trail that leads to the summit of Fan Xi Phan, a peak rising nearly to 11,000′ and the highest in Indochina. The trail revealed yet another surprise from the trees that tower above in an indecipherable blur of leafage.  Co-mingled with the obscenely large ‘acorns’ of Lithocarpus were the more obscenely obtuse nuts of Aesculus wangii, each approaching the size of respectable grapefruits. It is a rare species of horsechestnut in Asia with imposing erect candles of white flowers in spring.  I gratefully received seed of this from Bleddyn last year, however, a glitch at the USDA in Seattle preempted its welcome.  My seed collections of this fine species, will now, hopefully, be enjoyed by visitors to the University of Washington Botanical Garden in years to come. 

Three seeds of the rare Aesculus wangii growing near Sa Pa. We witnessed some of the few remaining trees of this species in the area being cut for timber.

During my fourth time on Emei Shan (will it be my last?), I saw it for the first time. There are several reasons but most obvious is that we arose on our first morning in Emei Village to crystalline blue skies.  With a direct hit of sun, there it appeared at last: the enormous golden Buddha on the summit far, far above.

Next up was one of the purposes I had been assigned to on this trip to China: to assimilate in my mind’s eye the essence of plant compositions on this very mountain. The opulently rich flora of this awkwardly shaped peak will be showcased in one of five bio-geographical recreations, known collectively as Pacific Connections, at the University of Washington Botanical Gardens, Washington Park Arboretum.

And thirdly, in the eight years since my last visit, I have seasoned as an observer. I am no longer dazzled by the obvious – a succulent orange-red head of Arisaema consanguineum or the firey autumn tones of Acer davidii – but, instead, I am attempting to decipher the more subtle differences of green upon green.

Ten years ago, several cohorts and I hiked the Pilgrim’s Path; from the summit to the first intersection with a road, we traveled some 18 km by descending a very steep stone staircase (some knees were never the same).  It is precisely this same trail that Ozzie, Scott and I walked up. In the hours that unfolded, I realized precisely how much of this mountain’s inventory, and its essence, had been lost on my youth.

During this trip, I was struck again and again by the richness of the Laurel Family and with one species of Lindera in particular appearing a cross between Cinnamomum and Hamamelis mollis, with plump, rufous-colored buds and broad, parallel-veined leaves of matte green, undersurfaced with brilliant white. Present here were two evergreen Stachyurus in large quantity (obviously, someone had, ahem, planted there here since my last visit).  Stachyurus salicifolius is a favorite, with linear bamboo-like leaves to 7″ while the ovate-foliaged Stachyurus yuananensis took on a pleasing platinum-like sheen to its leaves.

Though I was smitten by seeing a few specimens of Hepatica yamatutai in 1998, I was not at all prepared to see the sheer quantity of them now, brandishing sensationally variegated leaves in tones of silvers and purples.  It is a lovely, early-blossoming species with charming white flowers emerging as early as January in the Pacific Northwest.  Ditto with Epimedium acumintum, whose populations had assuredly exploded during the past ten years; some specimens reached 2.5′ in foliage with spent panicles of seed rising further above.

At our end point at 7,300′, when fading light called for a hurried retracing on slippery steps, we marveled at specimens of a climbing Hydrangea relative known as Schizophagma megalocarpum.  Each tear-shaped, papery-bract surrounding the flower heads (themselves to 15″ across) was up to 4.5″ in length.

Emei Shan will remain at the top of my list as a hallmark of a rich flora, as well as where I have been in my pursuit of good plants and where I might go.

-Dan Hinkley, Tao Yuan, Northeast Sichuan Province

Like meeting an old friend, I came upon the very same specimen of Clematis repens from which I collected fruit in 1996; it is well and still productive. This is a rare species of Clematis that was lost to cultivation for several decades. A clone of my origianl collection, known as ‘Bells of Emei Shan’ is now available in the trade, primarily in Europe. Notice the very long flowering stems, to 7 inches in length. 

The Macaque of Emei Shan are indigenous but decidedly adapted to human presence; they are the dominate primate on this mountain and warnings to not hike alone are well heeded.

The Elephant Wading Pool temple on the upper reaches of Emei is, from a distance, elegant and well proprotioned. Centureis old, iti s undergoing extensive reparis due to the recent eqrthquake.

Schefflera delavayi makes a splendid evergreen tree or large shrub in cultivation in the Pacific Northwest, tolerating temperatures as low as 15 degrees farenheit. As it is an autumn blossoming species, seed was not present during our time spent in Sichuan.  

Firstly, it must be noted that I have at last seen Sargentodoxa conspicua.  A member of the Lardizabalaceae, i.e. Akebia, Stauntonia etc; it is indeed conspicuous, appearing a cross between other members of the Lardizabal family, in particular, Holboellia and Sinofranchetii, with rampant growth cloaked with large trifoliate foliage, possessing a similar gestalt to that of Kudzu.

What is remarkable about this encounter – although I have yet to find any of its seed – is that I most certainly have hiked collectively for months in Asia with this species at every bend, having never visually acknowledged it before. This is often the case.  Plants have the most remarkable ability to not speak until spoken to, despite the number of unspeakable things we do to them.

My plans of a daily log posting have been dashed due to the unavailability of internet services.  We are currently in a remote valley of the Yi minority near a newly created botanical reserve, about 250 miles southwest of Chengdu. It is, this week, the National Day Golden Week, a seven-day-long celebration that has emptied half of Chengdu into the hills and hotels of the western mountains replete with copious quantities of locally brewed rice liquor; my most valued asset during the past four nights has been my overused pair of United Airline business class earplugs and Advil PM.

Remembering my promise to be concise, I will insert here my collection notes of the last four days, beginning at the base of Erlang Shan at 9,000′ and ending last night with a short return foray along the entrance to Black Bamboo Reserve.  It has been, thus far, a sensational botanical foray.

Lesson number 1:  Don’t stand behind the Jeep when it’s stuck in the mud.    

September 28 - Spent the morning walking down valley from our cabin along the road, staying above 6500′.  We did take a side loop trail up and over a small hill along an extremely slippery rock surface, though we found the area mostly degraded by grazing and cutting. Rodgerisa aesculifolia, Paris sp.(aff. thibetica), Blechnum sp., Dipelta sp., Ilex perneyi, was common.  Met with our guide Gary and Liu the driver at 11:30 and decided to drive to the tunnel at the base of ErlangShan on the Tibetan highway and walk the old Tibet highway. 1.5 hour drive.  Started walking at 1:30, cold and drizzly, at 8650′.

This was a fairly level road and did not gain much altitude but saw amazing plants.  Most noteworthy were a Litsea/Lindera(?) with perfectly orbicular leaves, enormous flowering forms of Hydrangea longipes, solid stands of Davidia involucrata, and weeping walls of a beautiful, deep-blue pendulous Aconitum sharing territory with Ypsilandra thibetica.  Disporum bodineri, Polygonatum aff. sibericum, Schizandra propinqua also present.

Good collections and might have stayed here for a day longer (or more).  A long drive to Ya’an at day’s end, not arriving until after 9pm, yet still celebrated Ozzie’s birthday with a cake we had prearranged.

Aconitum sp., vining, with Fargesia. LaBaHe Reserve, Sichuan Province.

     September 30- After full day’s drive on 9/29/08 from Ya’an to our lodging, we left at 8:00 am this morning for a full day in Black Bamboo Forest Reserve.  The valley we are staying in, predominated by Yi Minority, is heavily denuded and quite poor. Our drive to the reserve entrance was exciting - Tetrapanax, Aesculus, Davidia, Idesia and Oreopanax were common, as well as Campthotheca and what we presume to be a Machillus.

Davidia involucrata, LaBaHe Reserve, Sichuan Province

Davidia involucrata, LaBaHe Reserve, Sichuan Province

We began hiking at 7,800’, rising to 8200’ and then dropped back to the beginning elevation at the end of the trail. False expectations were raised as the only trail in the park, crowded with tourists due to the national holiday, took us through heavily shaded woodland.  Davidia and Acer truncataum, Acer aff. elegantulum, as well as evergreen Lithocarpus were common. Hydrangea chinensis or H. scandens subsp. chinensis is here and amazingly variable, some with purple stems and others with a purple stain on the undersurface of the leaf blade. A new species of Stachyurus aff. chinensis was here as well (not seeing Stachyurus retusus as in our previous sites) as well as Sinofranchetia, Stauntonia, numerous species of Actinidia (including one with dense brown hairs on the stems). An herbaceous member of the Saxifragaceae with small angular leaves was exciting to see in the wild.

After lunch, we left the trail (the only opportunity) and walked up a dry river bed overhung with Cotoneaster aff. salicifolius in bright red fruit.  We spotted Carpinus fangiana with fruit and excitedly spent the next hour searching for seed in the river bed beneath it, after throwing my walking stick (Davidia) into the branches to dislodge the seed. This splendid species is extremely common in the area but has been devoid of any seed. The leaves are linear ovate to 8″ and the pendulous spikes of seed extend to a staggering 10″ in length. We were able to gather several seedlings from the river bed where Cercidiphyllum seedlings sprouted like garden cress, knowing these will be history after next spring’s run off.

Ozzie Johnson and Scott McMahon in front of an ancient specimen of Katsura, Cercidiphyllum japonicum.

It was a long hike made harder by the slippery stones and the method of trail construction; my left knee was disappointingly quite swollen by day’s end. My hotel room was gratifyingly moved away from the celebration area that kept me up very late last night.  The beds here are hard as rocks.

     October 1 - We drove from the hotel to an area further west of Black Bamboo Reserve, to a closed area called Rhododendron Lake.  A heavily, depressingly degraded valley through Yi Minority villages. We continued from checkpoint up to first stop at 8,636’ and then to the lower lake at 9,692’. Drove to upper lake prior to lunch at 10,279’.

The upper lake we visited in a restricted botanical reserve known as Rhododendron Lake. The area has been degraded by overgrazing and overcutting, however it is now protected and making a recovery. 

Davidia, Juglans, Pterocarya prominent at lower elevations with Magnolia, Litsea and Acer spp. were common. In particular, Acer sterculiaceum, although A. truncatum, A. pectinatum, A. caudatum and A. campbellii groups were also seen. Conspicuously absent is Acer davidii.

Pachysandra axillaris, being the second time I have encountered this beautiful species in Sichuan, created a dense carpet around the lower lake shore with Caulophyllum and Rohdea also common.  A tree-like Euonymus was splendid in pink/red fruit; however without access to web, must wait to identify the species.  A vining Lonicera with cup-shaped involucre bracts and red fruit were also striking, growing through the branches of the Euonymus.

Euonymus cornutus

Several species of Rhododendron present, as was a Malus and Sorbus, including S. suetchuanensis and S. sargentiana.  Schisandra sp. aff. sphareanthera was ubiquitous and heavily fruited, as was, at higher elevations, Clematis montana.  An enormous foliaged Arisaema was found where we ate lunch, presumably A. wilsonii.  Also exciting was a new species, to me, of Schizophragma, with coriaceous foliage, seemingly evergreen, with long narrow sterile bracts surrounding its heads of flowers. It was a splendid and gratifying day of botanizing.

Resplendent crops of fruit have been encountered on Schisandra aff. sphaeranthera. These clusters follow beautiful tangerine-colored flowers in spring. 

     October 2 - Drove from hotel back to the entrance to Black Bamboo Reserve and walked the road back, starting at 7,456’ and climbing up to 8,100’.  Mostly heavily degraded agricultural land with bits of refugia on steep slopes and inaccessible rocky outcroppings protected from goats and cows.

Observed beautiful specimens of Schefflera aff. delavayi, with deeply lobed foliage (juvenile?) that, as per prior sites, grew only on ridiculously steep, inaccessible slopes. No flowers or fruit present. I searched the area for seedlings for much of the morning, finally finding one that had been grazed. Two other seedlings were visible, however the slope was too precarious to consider attempting to retrieve them.

Rock outcroppings like these, safe from goats and other livestock, provide a refuge for plants of the area. On this rock grows Schefflera delavayi. Metapanax davidii and an unidentified species of Pittosporum. 8′200′ in West Sichuan Province. 

Goats, cows and overcutting have devastated this area and much of the remaining forest will soon be leveled to the ground.  Carpinus fangiana and Davidia involucrata is common throughout and being cut as firewood!  Machillius, Magnolia, Ilex, present and common.  Found seedlings of Lindera/Litsaea of previous collection and also seedlings of Lindera obtusiloba (of note, as no specimens of this species had previously been observed).

We returned to the hotel at mid-afternoon to get caught up on notes and processing our seeds; I finished at 11:00 pm.  Off in the morning to Emei Shan.

It is as I remembered: really wet.  Our 777 arrived in Hong Kong, a bit wobbly from an approaching typhoon, and I was jostled from a shallow sleep repeatedly during the night by a lashing storm the likes I had never before witnessed. By morning, “Canceled” and “Delayed”, in green and red, sparkled on the departure screens like a morbid holiday greeting card. One must never take bad weather personally.

All things said, I was fortunate to arrive in Chengdu relatively early; Ozzie and Scott were Shanghai’d by the same storm and had a harder slog of it . Over a quiet - make that desolate - dinner at my hotel, my taste buds and digestive tract were reunited with Zanthoxylum piperitum - so called Sichuan Pepper -  while I stared through a window spattered with succulent drops of rain.

Off we were the following morning, after the niggling details of dollar bills exchanged and the tiresome inspection by a bevy of bankers. Our route was, until the end, precisely that of my last trip to Sichuan in 2006 while shooting The Last Flower for Nova.  Across the immense, gray, industrially battered Chengdu Plain to the immense rift of mountains and valleys before the rise of vast Tibetan Plateau.  Our destination was LaBaHe Nature Reserve, recently created and surprisingly intact.

There was enough daylight and energy upon our arrival for a bit of roadside botanizing with sufficient enough interfacing with both familiar and unknown plant species to prime our anticipation for the first hike the following morning.  The rain carried on heavily through the night but the sound of which was masked by a seething river directly outside the windows of our bedrooms.

Gary, our Chinese guide who speaks impeccable English, drove us to the selected trailhead yesterday morning and gave us a rough description of how we were to proceed.  Roughly translated, he said, “be careful as I do not have a clue where this trail goes.”  As it turned out in the end, what we followed for seven hours, from 2007m to 2300m were game tracks made by a healthy population of wild deer and an ungulate that appears to be a cross between a mountain goat and a wildebeest. Ankle deep mud, thickets of bamboo, and a fiercely armed rose thwarted our forward advance.  During our retreat, covered in mud, lacerations on our limbs and noggins and shortly after Scott had found a sizable leech attached to the back of my neck, Ozzie wondered aloud precisely what had possessed us to continue.

Collecting and exploring is a remarkable metaphor to living.  It is what might be beyond the next seemingly impassible copse of vegetation or sludge that keeps us insistent on moving ahead.  Had we turned back, we would have bypassed one of the most remarkable days of botanizing in my life.  As before the day would end, I would stand amidst centuries old Cercidphyllum and groves of the fabled Dove Tree, Davidia involucrata.  Tonight I am nursing a tiredness I have not felt for many years, and too many leech bites on my ankles, hands and back to count, but I am more satiated from a day in the field than I have been in many years.

Mountain scenery in western Sichuan Province (with Acanthopanax
evodiaeifolia on left)

Ozzie Johnson with Davidia involucrata, LaBaHe Reserve, Sichuan Province

Viburnum Betulifolium, LaBaHe Reserve, Sichuan Province

Beesia deltophylla, LaBaHe Reserve, Sichuan Province

Helwingia japonica, LaBaHe Reserve, Sichuan Province

Monrovia is lucky to be collaborating with one of the finest plant explorers alive today. Daniel J. Hinkley, former co-owner of the renowned Heronswood Nursery near Kingston, Washington, is working with Monrovia to bring new and unique plants to a nursery near you. This is easier said than done - it’s a task that requires travel to remote regions using somewhat primitive collecton methods. All with the hope that what is found will flourish as an ornamental plant in the U.S.

Dan, departs today on a new adventure. His first blog entry is listed below. In the coming days and weeks all of his posts will be under his own byline. His posts will also be posted on his own site, danieljhinkley.com

Dan Hinkley will be returning to the mountains of W. Sichuan this
autumn to the same areas he traveled in 2006, when he photographed
this ladyslipper, Cypripedium tibeticum, in perfect form.

San Francisco, CA
Posting 1

Yeah, ok, I realize that.  I said ok, ok?  I know I do not write often enough and I know that when I do write, I write too much. There are always other more important things to do than to sit and write: put suet out for the birds…the birds that somehow disjointedly figure into what I was going to write about; weed the part of the garden that has the plant that I was going to write about; take a picture of the plant I was going to write about; collect its seed; remove a dead branch; clean the refrigerator — because it had absolutely nothing to do with the subject I was about to write about. You know the drill. And then, when the dogs are walked and asleep on the banquette and the most up-to-date election polls are examined, I begin to write about what I was meant to write about, at last confronting that bridge to nowhere, while attempting to create a reality that someone will be sufficiently naïve to believe.  And then I write too much because there generally is too much too say, especially so when I am saying it, and you end up on a long bridge that leads to nowhere. And sadder still, I know precisely what many of you must be shrieking when you attempt to decipher my infinite, yet, I must say, ever so thoughtful and and witty musings: thanks but no thanks.

For the next 10 weeks, I am going to attempt to get my head around blogging, if I understand at all what blogging actually is. I believe it is somewhat like emailing my mother.  I can’t use vulgar language, nor too much Latin nor dwell on disingenuous, transparent choices of running mates from Alaska. I must be concise, the language clean, the pictures pretty. Sounds easy enough.

My disheveled mountain of raingear, polypro underwear, Ziplocs, sieves, Starbucks French Roast and protein bars have been compressed into numerous cases and boxes, each assigned to either China only, China and Vietnam, Vietnam only or Vietnam and Japan. (You might notice an improvement in my writing already; in the past I would have told you that I had packed Atkins Peanut Butter and Chocolate net 2 carb bars, but in my nascent approach to clean writing, I have referred to them refreshingly as simply protein bars). These boxes will be cached across Southeast Asia for subsequent retrieval and restocking, if all goes as planned. One must be never be deprived of Starbucks French Roast nor an occasional Atkins Peanut Butter and Chocolate net 2 carb bar.

So, here I am in San Francisco, awaiting my flight to Hong Kong, wondering what it is I have forgotten, what it is that I will find. In a little over 24 hours from now, I will be reconnecting with good friends Scott McMahon and Ozzie Johnson at the Min Shan Hotel in Chengdu, Sichuan Province.  It was from this same celebrated lodging, nearly four years ago to the day, that we had last parted company in China after one of the most exciting collection trips I had ever participated in. I am hoping for a repeat performance.  So, here we go again.  Stay tuned.

–Daniel J. Hinkley

I grew up in Northern Illinois. As a kid, I never really considered it, but I was surrounded by some of the most beautiful black soil on the planet. At 13, my family moved to Southern California. The climate of course is great, but the soil… not so great. This is especially true in any of the modern housing tracts where the topsoil (such as it is, or was) is graded, compacted, and otherwise abused during construction.

The reason that the soil near my childhood home has that wonderful black color is because of the organic matter it contains. Over the eons, plants deposited organic matter on the soil surface as a natural mulch. This organic matter slowly decomposed through the action of a whole host of microscopic organisms such as protozoa, fungi, and bacteria. Insects, worms and other animals helped to incorporate this organic matter into the soil. Over time, the organic matter was transformed to a relatively stable material called “humus”.

The relationship between the various organisms that live in the soil is sometimes called the soil foodweb and has been recognized as an important factor in overall soil health, and therefore plant health.

Soil organic matter has many benefits for plants: Organic matter is a natural fertilizer, it improves the nutrient holding capacity of soil (the so-called cation exchange capacity), it makes plant nutrients more available for uptake by roots, it improves water absorption and drainage, and supports the beneficial organisms in the soil ecosystem. Organic matter improves the water holding capacity of sandy soil and loosens heavy clay soils. Soil organic matter also benefits the environment because soils with adequate organic matter absorb and hold more water, and therefore less water runs off into lakes and streams.

In a previous posting I discussed the benefits of mulches and the types of organic materials used for mulches. Mulching is one way to improve the organic matter content of your garden soil. However, mulch is only applied to the surface of the soil and relies on the same processes for incorporation as occurs in nature. You can increase the organic content of your soil more quickly by incorporating organic materials into your soil.

Similar organic materials can be used for incorporation as are used for mulching. However, there is one major thing to consider, and that is carbon-nitrogen ratio of the product. When organic matter is incorporated into the soil, microorganisms use the carbon in the material as a food source. The microorganisms also need nitrogen to grow and multiply. If there is not enough nitrogen in the organic matter, then the microorganisms take-up whatever other nitrogen is present in the soil. Plants also need nitrogen to grow, but the microorganisms are much more effective at using the available nitrogen. So if there’s too much carbon and not enough nitrogen in the soil, the microbes will use all the nitrogen and the plants won’t get enough and will turn yellow. Eventually, the microorganisms complete their job of decomposition and there will be a net release of nitrogen which your plants can take advantage of, but this may take several weeks or months.

This may all sound very complicated, but the bottom line is that you generally want to avoid incorporating “raw” organic matter into your soil, such as sawdust or uncomposted leaves. Some of the best material to use is compost, because it has already undergone the decomposition process in the compost pile. Most high quality composts will act as a natural fertilizer in your garden and will support the community of microorganisms in your soil.

When should organic matter be added to your soil? As often as you like, but generally the most convenient time to add it is when preparing areas for planting. After the garden is already planted, it can be difficult to incorporate organic matter without disturbing plant roots. At that point mulching is probably an easier option.

How much organic matter should you add to your soil? The amount added is not that critical. Start with a layer about 2 to 4 inches deep and work it into the top 6 inches of soil. Large amounts of organic matter can generally be added to the soil with no problems. One exception is materials containing large amounts of manure. These are relatively high in fertilizer value and can burn plants if too much is used.

If you have trouble deciding what product to use, talk to your local garden center. They will be familiar with the different materials that are available and work best in your area.

So add some organic matter to your soil and improve your little corner of the world. You will be joining a long list of people that have recognized the importance of soil.

“To be a successful farmer one must first know the nature of the soil.” Xenophon, Oeconomicus, 400 B.C.