Campus & community, Campus news

Practicing (drought) tolerance at the Botanical Garden plant sale

By Kathleen Maclay

This Venus flytrap may be carnivorous, but it's easy to grow and easy on water consumption. Photo courtesy of the UC Botanical Garden.
This Venus flytrap may be carnivorous, but it’s easy to grow, and light on water consumption. (Photo courtesy of the UC Botanical Garden)

The care and feeding of plants for personal enjoyment may require a little more planning during a drought like the one California is experiencing, and the UC Botanical Garden (UCBG) is making that task a little bit easier by focusing on water-wise horticulture at this spring’s plant sale on Sunday, April 27.

The 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. sale will feature a wide assortment of drought-tolerant plants from the garden, which has one of the biggest and most diverse plant collections in the United States. Garden staff and volunteers will be on hand to offer tips about plant selections and to provide water-smart gardening tips as well. A sale for garden members will take place from 4-7 p.m. on Saturday.

This Venus flytrap may be carnivorous, but it's easy to grow and easy on water consumption. Photo courtesy of the UC Botanical Garden.

This Venus flytrap may be carnivorous, but it’s easy to grow, and light on water consumption. (Photo courtesy of the UC Botanical Garden)

The UCBG, located at 200 Centennial Dr. in the Berkeley hills, places an emphasis on plants from Mediterranean climates, such as California, the Mediterranean Basin, Australia, South Africa and Chile. It also has a wide assortment of  plants such as rare cycads and palms, carnivorous plants, cacti and succulents, and dry-growing Mexican and Central American plants.

To better accommodate plant-sale shoppers, there will be free parking available in the small lot directly across the street from the garden entrance, and three free shuttles will run continuously during the sale from the upper parking lot at the Lawrence Hall of Science.  Directions to the garden are online .

Finally, amateur gardeners who tend to take a misstep or two in their early going with new plants may want to mark their calendars for the garden’s next monthly Sick Plant Clinic, set for Saturday, May 3. Click here for details.