News from the Garden

Issue 24 I November 2024

November twists and turns.

We have to admit – November was a bit of a blur – hence the December 1st newsletter date…. Still, the leaves showed off their stunning fall display indifferent to national and global events. The canopy soothed frayed nerves as we moved through the election cycle. And the rains filled our ponds and our hearts with possibility as we continue to plan for the future of this legacy garden property.

Thank you for being part of Western Hills’ story so far. We hope to see you in the garden soon.

During the month of December we will be open for day visitors on Saturday and Sunday from 10-4pm, and by appointment. We just set up our wreath- and swag-making station and have tons of gorgeous material for you to create with. You could also gather a bouquet of greens to display on your mantel or table.

We’re excited to announce we’ll be doing a wreath-making pop-up downtown Occidental from 12/12-12/15 from 11-4 (weather dependent). Come by and say hi if you’re in the area!

They say communication is the key to understanding. When I first started here, I'd talk with staff and volunteers about the location of a particular plant by saying things like "it's by the Chilean wine palm, next to the runnel, west of the anchor tree." Fifteen words, and they still had trouble finding it!

Enter our new Bed Numbers map. We've mapped out every planting bed (over 100!) and assigned each one a unique ID number. Now, taking the example above, I can just say "it's in M22". This is standard practice in most botanical gardens, but I believe it's a first here at Western Hills.

The map will also help us with documenting our entire plant collection, a big project that is currently underway. By the way, have you seen the Camellia sasanqua showing its pretty pink flowers right now? Come check it out, it's in L9A!

Western Hills fans who use social media may have heard there’s been a recent mass exodus from Twitter/X over to a platform called Bluesky. It’s good! (For now at least.) The discourse is smart, civil, and often quite funny. Unlike X and Facebook and Instagram/Threads, Bluesky isn’t controlled by an algorithm that feeds you only what it wants you to see, and it isn't (so far) glutted with ads.

Online communities are springing up fast around subjects like gardening and plants and trees and nature and horticulture and botanical sciences—lots of scientists! There are delightful user-created feeds and hashtags such as #bloomscrolling (for people posting flowers in bloom) and #ThickTrunkTuesday (for photos of nice fat trees—we just contributed a shot of Eucalyptus Rubida, our “white whale.”)

This is all to say we're now on Bluesky at WesternHillsGarden.bsky.social and gaining followers rapidly—nearly 600 in the first week! If you sign up (see https://bsky.app), please follow us and tag us when you visit and post photos from the garden. We will repost the best ones, especially if you include some info on your photo subject—we like to include stuff for the plant nerds in addition to just folks who casually enjoy nature and gardens and walking around outside on a nice day.

We’re also posting regularly on Instagram at @WesternHillsGarden, so follow us there, too. We look forward to seeing all of you, online and in person.

We went into Occidental for some dinner supplies and ended up at Neon Raspberry’s stunning gallery show of work by Rosa Jerez. The colorful felted creatures are both silly and serious. The small red flowers growing on this skull made us smile and soften. The show ends December 2nd, but founder and owner, Mahea Campbell always has other thought-provoking work on deck. Her curated shop adjacent to the gallery is full of great gifts that welcome all. Her vision of serving the community as a hub for inclusivity and conversation comes through. It’s a must stop if you are visiting Occidental. In the meantime, follow along on Instagram.