Crescent Hill Nursery October E-Newsletter 2013 The CHN e-newsletter is our show of gratitude to the loyal market customers at our many events around

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Crescent Hill Nursery October E-Newsletter 2013

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Chinese Lantern (Abutilon 'Tiger Eye') and its luxurious hummingbird attracting blooms!

The CHN e-newsletter is our show of gratitude to the loyal market customers at our many events around the Central Coast. It will serve as a site for seasonal updates, "plant of the month" specials, the "ask a nurseryman" section, links to our partners, and a whole lot more. New for 2013 will be a "project" page which offers ideas for weekend garden activities, and more in-depth coverage of some of our recent landscape installations. The e-newsletter is a way to stay connected with our thriving and knowledgeable garden community. Please send us your comments on how to make this e-newsletter more useful to all, and don't forget to pass along the link to a friend!

Happy Planting,
Nathan Krupa (owner/grower)

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Cape Rush (Chondropetalum tectorum) and its exquisite brown banding shows how truly beautiful drought resistant grass-like plants can be.

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Flowering Maple (Abutilon 'Souvenir de Bonn') gives blooms all year long on a brightening variegated scaffold.

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MONTHLY BULLETIN

Ahhh, the gentle Autumn that we Californians are lucky enough to enjoy is finally upon us! Cool nights with clear skies give way to sunny days free from cloud cover and fog. We all know that the rain and wet weather is yet to come, but thankfully the maritime climate allows us a few more months of gardening delight. Warm fall color tones in the red, orange, and yellow hues especially shine as the sun's arch becomes lower in the sky with the season. Grasses, Restios, and other spiky plants also give their best color at this time of the year. And don't forget that Halloween comes later this month; the perfect time for the Bat Faced Cuphea and the rest of the Crescent Hill Animal Collection featuring Kangaroo paws, Lion's tails, and Tiger Eye's. Please join us this Saturday at the De Anza College Flea Market in Cupertino, where we will be showcasing the absolute best color fall gardening has to offer. The following weekend, October 11-13, we will be displaying at the California, Home, Garden & Design Show in the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds. As many of the Crescent Hill clients that we saw at the previous Home Show in September can attest, this is a well run event and features innovative ideas and quality products/contractors from all arenas of home improvement. It is a great event to see our plants in an indoor venue, and provides you with free parking and admission! For our North Bay and San Francisco gardening family, October 18-20 finds us at the Total Home, Garden & Harvest Festival in Fairfield, Ca. If you can't find a reason to drive out to this event, you must not have a pulse! More than 200 select exhibitors will be accompanied by everything from a pumpkin patch/haunted house/games for the kids to wine tasting/live music/cooking demonstrations/beer garden for the adults. Maps and directions to all events are available on the CALENDAR page of the website linked below. www.crescenthillnursery.com

New for 2013
Crescent Hill is pleased to announce that we will be accepting credit/debit cards at all of our local garden markets. Thanks in advance for your patience as we navigate the waters of the new process.

Please don't forget to check out our constantly changing color collage on Facebook. The frequent updates feature a who's who of the present bloomers at the nursery, plus special updates and promotions. Find us at www.facebook.com/pages/Crescent-Hill-Nursery/207330655953337)
or click on the link below on this page.

In response to the numerous requests by our gardening family and partners, we are pleased to announce that an E-NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE link is now available on our website www.crescenthillnursery.com. Please take a moment to check it out, and also tour the newly updated PLANTS section and increasing content of color photos for all our selections!!

Nursery tours are encouraged. Please come out and see our 2 acre facility in Watsonville. With over 250 varieties grown, the growing grounds are turning into a little botanical park. Please call for an appointment. Groups are welcome.

Please remember Crescent Hill recycles all 1,2, and 5 gallon plastic containers. Drop off available at all markets, or here at the nursery. Thanks again!!

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PLANT OF THE MONTH

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Heuchera 'Caramel' and its beautiful fall foliage.

CARAMEL CORAL BELLS'
Heuchera 'Caramel'

To us here at the nursery, no plant captures fall color better than the Crescent Hill October Plant of The Month. This Coral Bell, aptly named Caramel (PP16,560), showcases golden apricot to bronzy amber foliage with red tinged undersides and new growth. Although a vibrant eye-catcher year around, the hues of the scalloped foliage virtually scream autumn and especially shine as the sun moves in its abbreviated fall arch. Caramel, like most Heucheras, is a clumping evergreen perennial in the Saxifragaceae plant family. It was discovered as a seedling in the Pepinieres Delabroye Nursery in Hantay, France and is believed to be a descendant of Heuchera villosa 'Autumn Pride'. The Southeastern US native villosa sect of the Heuchera clan is significant due to its tolerance of more heat, sun, and humidity than the average coral bell. The villosas also generally produce more robust growers than many newly released hybrids in this constantly expanding genus. Our research in planting out Caramel in local gardens has proven both of these statements to be true. This Heuchera is definitely tolerant of more sun, especially on the coast, but still prefers protection from hard inland afternoon heat. The distinguishing characteristic of the villosa parentage is the vigorous growth pattern Caramel has shown in both container and landscape plantings. Where many of the newly created Heuchera hybrids look great in flower catalogs and Sunset Magazine, they often fade in both color and toughness once they hit the actual garden soil. Caramel is by far one of the strongest, hardiest, and most stable Heucheras we have ever seen, making it a perfect choice for both experts and novices alike. The tidy foliage clump reaches 8-12" in height and 18-24" in girth, with flower stalks maxing out at 18-24". These dainty spikes of cream colored blooms will bring both butterflies and hummingbirds to the garden, and are generally late bloomers which emerge in mid to late summer for California gardeners. Although the blooms add a certain airiness/lightness to the garden texture, the real distinctive quality of Caramel is the brightening contrast color the leaves lend to any planting or mixed arrangement. This dramatic foliage pops even from a distance, and extends the garden from the walkways all the way to the windows for year around viewing pleasure. It is hardy to USDA Zones 4-9, and will thus tolerate winter lows of up to -30 degrees F. Its toughness also allows it to flourish in conditions of salt spray, and like most Heucheras can even thrive in the understory of the Black Walnut Tree due to its resistance to the toxin Juglone, which the trees emit from both roots and foliage. In the landscape, the compact Caramel is often used along borders, where clusters of warm color can pillow over and soften edges. These pocket plantings are especially effective in mass, and can act as a mid-sized ground cover with incredible impact. Additionally one can only imagine the multitude of uses for both color and texture in mixed patio arrangements/planters. Caramel pairs nicely with other shade dwellers like Ferns, Astilbes, Brunneras , or Astelias. It makes an especially striking partner with red/maroon foliage plants like Chinese Fringe Flower (Loropetalum) or Lobelia 'Queen Victoria', where the red hues of the leaf undersides are pulled out by the darker foliage. For this same reason, Caramel companions flawlessly as an understory filler for our many forms of Flowering Maple (Abutilon), where the blooms of the lanterns are supported by the vegetation of the Heucheras. So if you are looking to fill a shade nook with a tough and rugged shade plant with picture perfect fall color, look no further than the Crescent Hill Nursery October Plant of The Month!!

Special E-Newsletter Price: $7 per 1-gallon container!! Compare at other nurseries for $10 and above.

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The red tinged leaf undersides add depth and texture to the scalloped foliage.

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The "coral bell" blossoms bring butterflies and hummingbirds in late summer to early fall.

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PARTNERS

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In this quarterly section, we introduce our industry partners that may be of interest to the Crescent Hill gardening family. Focusing on local innovative entrepreneurs and institutions, the PARTNERS section seeks to highlight whats new and exciting in the Central Coast gardening world. Below we given our partners the forum to introduce themselves to our readers. Don't forget to let them know where you heard about them!!

UCSC ARBORETUM

More than four decades of dedication, horticultural expertise, and hard work have created an extensive collection unmatched anywhere else in the world! With the largest collection of Australian and New Zealand plants outside of their native countries, the most diverse collection of eucalyptus and their relatives to be found in one easy-to-access area, an unmatched collection of conifers and other trees, and extensive representatives of South African Proteas, and native California flora, the Arboretum is home to a world-class living collection. Come and see native flora from around the globe, including California, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and Chile. The Arboretum offers many rich opportunities for casual visitors, researchers, students, members, and friends. You can find more information by visiting our About page. Our Mission is to remain a living museum and conservation center inspiring stewardship of the world's biodiversity through research, education and the conservation of rare, endangered, and extraordinary plants.

The Arboretum is open each day from 9 am to 5 pm. (Closed only on Thanksgiving and Christmas days.) Directions and information about admission can be found here.

Editor's Note: It is with great pleasure that I this month introduce this amazingly special institution and linchpin to local gardening community. If you have not yet visited the UCSC Arboretum, make plans to go, quick!! This exceptional plant collection is set on 80 acres, and houses over 10,000 unique plants from all around the world. While this makes it an obvious draw for the true plant geeks amongst us, the tranquility and scenic beauty make it a great weekend trip for anyone interested in a fun and educational day out. Overlooking Monterey Bay, the vast property's artfully constructed paths weave through its clearly labeled collections, with many of the individual plants marked with placards giving their scientific names and region of origin. Well placed benches and tables give the opportunity to rest or picnic while enjoying the bountiful offerings from the plant and animal worlds alike. Raptors, songbirds, bobcats, and deer are frequent visitors to the area, and the omni-present hummingbird's mating rituals among the Pincushions in spring are surely not to be missed. While it is always a bonus to see the "birds and the bees", the true gem is the awe-inspiring plant collection. If you think Crescent Hill brings rare and unusual plants out to the local markets, wait until you see what our plants (and many, many more) look like at full maturity. Countless Grevillea, Leucadendron, Pincushion, and other Protea-family members that we have been promoting since our inception are here available for viewing in their full grown grandeur. Some of the plants look as if they are straight out of the pages of a Dr. Seuss book, with flowers and colors so extra-ordinary you would certainly assume that they are fake. Pines, succulents, Heathers, and Eucalyptus complete the interwoven mosaic, and the overall layout provides an organic merge with the ancient marine terrace upon which it sits. If one has not learned a few new plants or picked up a myriad of gardening ideas by the end of the walk, he/she is surely not paying attention. Furthermore the diverse collection is backed by a tireless staff of professional curators and volunteers, whose wealth of knowledge and unbridled joy in what they are doing makes the experience truly special. An expansive horticultural library provides opportunities for further education, and a well-stocked gift shop gives visitors a chance to bring some of the Arboretum's treasures home to try in their own gardens. Of course as a former student, and present disciple, I must also mention the educational importance of the facility. Lectures, workshops, and tours bring the local community together with world renowned professionals with the goal of preserving, protecting, and conserving our world's natural resources. Research and plant introduction have likewise opened up a whole new palette of possibilities for gardeners in California's Mediterranean Climate and beyond. Please look for a subsequent section on the popular Koala Blooms Collection in which the Arboretum introduces new Australian plants to California through local wholesalers like Crescent Hill. So if you are up for an interesting, educational, and fun event that helps support such a worthy institution, please visit the UCSC Arboretum and introduce yourselves to all the wonderful programs they have to offer!! With admission only $5 for adults and $2 for children (5 years and under free), it is certainly an ideal way to enjoy an affordable and educational excursion for the whole family..... And it can easily be combined into a trip down to Crescent Hill!!!

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South African Native Pincushions (Leucospermum sp.) are interspersed with grass-like members of the Restionaceae plant family along one of the many pathways.

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Banksia menziesii shows off its unusual red pine cone shaped blooms in the Arboretum's Australian collection.

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Succulent gardens give great ideas for drought resistant landscaping with a shot of pizzazz.

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Banksia victoriae, in full bloom right now, is another Dr. Seuss-like specimen available for viewing at the Arboretum.

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CONTACT

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