99 Gallons of Kiwi & Other Fun Facts
We have 123 Volunteers who contributed 15,058 hours at an economic value of $438,037.22 .
We gave 31 Children’s Tours to 1033 students and 21 Group Tours to 616 adults. The majority of the student groups were third graders studying local history.
We created the Garden Bed Sponsorship program which brought in $7,970 and provided focused attention for twelve beds including groundcover and new roses for the Rose Garden, mulch and tomato cages for the Dahlia Bed and new plants in the Alstromeria bed, the Sensory Garden and the Calla bed.
We hosted several events this year. Melissa Etcheverry, an SSU student, created a “Week of the Young Child” program that included photography by pre-school children, later displayed in the Greenhouse. As part of our new “An Afternoon with…” program, we also used the Greenhouse as a gallery for Amber R. Turner’s artwork in conjunction with a talk she gave on the history and current applications of botanical artwork. She used her own study of our ‘Paradox’ walnut as part of her talk and display. Our other “An Afternoon with…” program involved Rachel Spaeth, our Garden Curator, giving an extensive garden tour in July.
The kiwi arbor has produced 99 gallons of kiwi which have been shared with Volunteers, visitors and local food banks.
Both of our annual community events – the Mother’s Day Plant Sale & Chosen Spot Expo and Holiday Open House – were well-attended and well-liked. Mother’s Day was a little cool and gray, but Holiday Open House was clear and crisp, just what you want for a California winter event. Speaking of community events, we also took part in the Sesquicentennial party in Old Courthouse Square in September.
We hosted seven weddings in 2018, as well as numerous photo shoots for senior portraits, quinceañeras and engagement/wedding photos.
With the cooperation of the City of Santa Rosa, the dry fountain in front of the Tupper Street gate was turned into a large planter. We had a tree-planting ceremony there on Luther Burbank’s birthday, March 7th.
During our winter season when the Gift Shop and Tours are not offered by Volunteers, we have started providing mini-tours of the Home and Gift Shop open by request when staff is available. We gave 102 mini-tours in 2018.
The Santa Rosa Ave gate and white picket fence suffered damage in March 2018 when a small pickup spun out of control and hit the fence and gate. The fence was replaced almost immediately and the gate was stabilized, before being finished (in the rain) in early 2019.
In cooperation with the City of Santa Rosa and the Sonoma County Library, our archive of Burbank photos, cards & postcards has been scanned and is available online as part of the Sonoma Heritage Collections.