Create one-of-a-kind planters at our Hypertufa pot workshop led by Steven Gerischer. Hypertufa is composite material that your plants will love to live in — it has many of the same benefits of stone pottery but is much less heavy. This is a great opportunity to get your hands dirty. Each participant will bring home[…]
Hypertufa Workshop
By Gerald Wachovsky Nov 18, 2017
Beginning Birding for Teens
By Jennifer Rice Epstein Oct 28, 2017
This fall to spring program will offer monthly bird walks led by California Naturalist and Audubon member Randy Hardwood. We will stroll through the grounds of the historic rancho and watch both resident birds and seasonal migrants. Participants will also listen to the calls and songs, and potentially observe nesting as the seasons progress. Meet[…]
Stories from the Garden: Australian Plants
By Gerald Wachovsky Oct 21, 2017
Randy Baldwin, from San Marcos Growers, will discuss Australian plants and their journey from the Southern Hemisphere to Southern California.
Plant of the Moment: October
By Rancho Staff Gardens, Long Beach Oct 03, 2017
Apache Plume, Fallugia paradoxa, is October’s plant of the moment. Our is located in a pot by the Visitor Center. An evergreen shrub native to the deserts, this member of the rose family displays lovely white flowers that look like a mini version of an old-fashioned single rose. Rather than developing a typical rose hip or even[…]
Stories from the Garden: African Plants
By Gerald Wachovsky Sep 16, 2017
Plant expert Frank McDonough visits the Rancho from his home base at the Los Angeles Arboretum to discuss African Plants. Learn about these warm-weather plants’ journeys to California.
A Sonoran Bumblebee Buzzes Through our Long Beach Gardens
By Rancho Staff Gardens, Photos Sep 15, 2017
We were recently visited by a Sonoran Bumblebee (Bombus sonorus), a fuzzy insect native to the Sonoran desert and much of the western United States. Typical ground dwellers, the female workers forage for pollen and nectar to take back to the nest for storage as food for the young. Like many North American bees, the population[…]
Bird Walk
By Jennifer Rice Epstein Sep 14, 2017
Everyone is invited to join Carolyn Vance, of the El Dorado Audubon Society, for a bird walk. September has given us some of our highest species counts over the years. It should be ripe time for our fall migrants to pass through and stop at this wonderful garden, lovingly kept by RLC horticulturalist Marie Barnidge-McIntyre.[…]
Plant of the Moment: September
By Rancho Staff Gardens Sep 03, 2017
Osage Orange, Maclura pomifera, is September’s plant of the moment. Native to Arkansas and eastern Texas, this unusual tree first came to Rancho Los Cerritos in the 1840s, when it was planted by John Temple. The Osage Orange was brought west by early pioneers, but what attracts visitors’ attention today is the peculiar-looking fruit that drops[…]
Plant of the Moment: August
By Rancho Staff Gardens Aug 07, 2017
Crape Myrtle, Lagerstroemia indica, is August’s plant of the moment. These two trees were added by the City of Long Beach, which owns Rancho Los Cerritos, circa 1960. Hot summer temperatures encourage the best floral display, and with this summer’s heat, we are experiencing a spectacular bloom. Other plants in bloom in our Long Beach garden[…]
Plant of the Moment: June
By Rancho Staff Gardens Jun 05, 2017
Cleveland Sage (Salvia clevelandii) is our plant of the moment. These sages form undulating mounds of fragrant silver leaves and are currently covered with the periwinkle blue flowers. The flowers are attractive to hummingbirds, so not only do you get to enjoy the showy flowers, but the aerial demonstrations as the “hummers” vie for territory[…]