Author: LBH&G

From the Gardens

17 Jun, 2022

A Fond Farewell to the Burbank Chestnut

It is with very mixed emotions that we must announce the removal of the Burbank Chestnut which has graced us with its elegance, shade, and carbon storage since 1931 on the south side of the portico at the Santa Rosa Avenue entrance.  This tree is badly infected with Oak Root Fungus (Armillaria mellea) and must be removed for the safety of all who enjoy our beautiful park.  This fungus is a common killer of older trees in California’s landscape, and is prevalent in the downtown area of Santa Rosa.   We don’t know exactly when Luther Burbank bred this tree, but...

Burbank Potato vs Early Rose Potato

Recipes

21 Jun, 2019

Recipes from “small potatoes” cookbook

Burbank potato salad This original recipe was created especially for the Burbank potato by Pia Micheli. Reprinted from small potatoes: a potato cookbook from the Luther Burbank Home & Gardens 8 large Burbank potatoes, cooked6 hard-boiled eggs, chopped2 TB chopped parsley1 TB chopped onion1 TB chopped radishes1/2 cup wine vinegar1/2 cup olive oil1 tsp ground horseradishsalt and pepper to taste Mash potatoes. Mix well with the chopped eggs, parsley, onion and radishes. Mix vinegar, oil, horseradish, salt and pepper. Add to potato mixture. Spoon into bowl and place in spring water to cool. Note: If you don’t have any spring...

Volunteers

10 Apr, 2019

Volunteer Extraordinaire – Jerry Thoman

By Claudia Silkey I was happy to have my spirits lifted by our first sunny, rain-free days—preceded by ‘torrential rains!’  I headed out for LBH&G to interview Gardener, Jerry Thoman.  Jerry is being honored as our Volunteer Extraordinaire for April. I arrived at The Carriage House to prepare for our interview.  I had never met Jerry, but I saw a man planting a new rose; I thought that had to be him and It was. (That rose is a climber, called “Joseph’s Coat.” It will head up and over one of our lovely arbors.)  Jerry was born in Stockton; however,...

Kiwi fruit on vine

Miscellany

10 Apr, 2019

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...

Rose Arbor with 'Fourth of July' Rose

From the Gardens

10 Apr, 2019

Garden Bed Sponsorships 2018

This time last year we created a new program – Garden Bed Sponsorships – and asked local businesses and individuals if they’d like to sponsor a specific garden bed for the year. We are very grateful to the following businesses and neighbors who took us up on the offer.  With their help, we have: completed the first round of plant replacements in the Rose Garden (plants, like people. eventually grow old) cleaned up and replanted the bed just outside the Tupper St gate (extra thanks to the women from Bank of Marin who contributed “sweat-equity” on this project) mulched and...

Events

10 Apr, 2019

Arbor Day 2019

The morning of March 7, Luther Burbank’s birthday/Arbor Day was lovely! Well, the weather could have been sunny, but not a drop of rain fell to dampen the celebration. The new ‘Santa Rosa’ Plum tree sported white blossoms and suited its new home in the former fountain site near the Tupper Street gate. The remarks to the gathering were welcoming and brief, before Rachel Spaeth invited the guests who wished to plant little Shasta daisy plants to grab some gloves and a trowel to randomly plant them to surround the tree. They will spread out and be beautiful. I didn’t...

Multi-Grafted Mania

From the Gardens

28 Mar, 2019

Multi-Grafted Mania

Meandering around the Gardens in late March and Early April results in finding hidden treasures if you know how to look for them. This is the time when some of the more intriguing experiments on the property show their colors. If you wander by the demonstration bed with the story about the 20,000 prune trees and look closely, you’ll see that some of the almond rootstocks have been multi-grafted. One of these little trees has a peach, a pluot, and an almond all flowering at the same time! Hopefully we’ll get to see some very different fruit forming on each...

Events

7 Mar, 2016

Luther Burbank’s Birthday Un-Party

Luther Burbank would be 167 years old this year! Rather than throw him a party, we’re throwing him an un-party! UPDATE: March 8th. Thanks to your generosity, we’ve raised over $1000!  

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Luther Burbank Experiment Farm
Sebastopol, CA