The secret is out

Coral Wilson

Like a secret garden, many visitors to the Spring Perennial Sale this

weekend at UC Irvine were discovering the school’s arboretum for the

first time.

“I didn’t even know it was here, and I’ve been in the area for 50

some years,” Frances Royce of Costa Mesa said. “It’s so pretty.”

While many people often have lunch in the gazebo and artists paint

in the gardens, nursery manager Laura Lyons said that it remains

unknown to the general public.

“We are Orange County’s best kept secret, it seems like,” she

said.

The arboretum’s many plant sales and festivals draw a lot of

newcomers who soon become regular visitors.

A poinsettia sale about five years ago was what attracted

volunteer Andy Kempler of Corona del Mar. He has been volunteering

ever since.

“It was during a huge storm,” he said. “People were skidding off

the road but people just came out anyway. They came out from

everywhere and the poinsettias were so beautiful in red, pink and

white.”

This year, the sale also started out with rain on Saturday. It was

raining heavily at 10 a.m., Lyons said. But by 10:30 a.m., the sky

had cleared up and the crowds started coming soon after, she said.

Much of the sale’s attention centered around the proteas

(pro-TEE-ah), an unusual plant that resembles sunflowers and is

native to South Africa. On Sunday, people were still asking and

looking but Lyons said they were all sold out.

“Now I am going home empty-handed,” Bud Guillot said.

It is a hard plant to find, said Guillot who had driven from

Huntington Beach just to replace a large dead protea in his garden.

Frances Royce and her daughter-in-law, Patty Royce of Costa Mesa

also came looking for the protea. Hardly disappointed, they ended up

buying a columbine and geranium instead.

“We couldn’t resist buying some more things,” Frances Royce said.

More like best friends than family, they said they like to garden

together on the weekend.

“It is my first time here, it is really neat,” Patty Royce said.

“I’ll come again.”

The arboretum features a number of different gardens: the Channel

Islands, Baja California, California Native and South Africa.

“South Africa is in the same south latitude as we are in the north

latitude,” Lyons said.

The climate and weather patterns are almost identical and the

plants grow easily with low maintenance, she said. The arboretum has

a conservation program for endangered South Africa and native

California species.

Pointing out the green and deep purple foliage on the Creeping

Cape lilac, Lyons said people are even more amazed when it blooms

with small purple flowers.

“Usually a plant out of bloom is a hard plant to sell but this

plant sells well, no matter when,” she said.

Running on a limited budget, the plant sales fundraisers are

essential in keeping the arboretum going, Lyons said. Volunteers are

the other critical component, she added.

“I drive the carriage, but the volunteers are the ones to make it

go,” she said.

Students also work for the arboretum which maintains close ties

with the university. Teachers hold classes and conduct research with

their students in the natural setting. Student Jaysen Lee was ringing

sales as a part of his field studies program through the school of

social ecology.

“It is a nice break from the congestion [of school and the city],”

he said. “You know, it’s quiet here.”

Pointing out the new development and construction in the sweeping

view of Irvine, Kempler said the arboretum is something to be

appreciated.

“It is a secret -- a secret garden,” he said. “We are getting

inundated with all these buildings. That is why it is so important to

have something like this.”