Gathering of gardeners

Andrew Edwards

Green thumbs across Newport-Mesa will be able to indulge their

floricultural interests through the weekend as South Coast Plaza

hosts the 16th annual Southern California Spring Garden Show.

The show will be held today through Sunday in the mall’s west

wing.

Local garden enthusiasts should try to arrive today or Friday and

beat the weekend rush, advised John Bishop, horticulture manager at

Sherman Library & Gardens in Corona del Mar.

“When it comes to Saturday, the place is just packed -- there’s

just three floors of people, a mass of human bodies,” Bishop said.

Bishop, who is slated to give a talk on fuchsias Friday, started

working for Sherman Library & Gardens 10 years ago and has attended

the show since he was hired.

“The neat thing about this show, to me, is the variety of plants

that are there,” he said. “You’re going to see everything from

tropical plants to cacti and succulents.”

One of the specialty vendors set to have a display at the show is

Sebastopol-based California Carnivores, a company that grows and

sells bug-eating plants, such as the Venus fly-trap, pitcher plants

and sundews, which use sticky tentacles to capture insects.

“Maybe I have the only booth where people ask, ‘Are these

plants?,’” California Carnivores co-owner Marilee Maertz said.

For people with more conventional tastes, Ron Vanderhoff, nursery

manager at Roger’s Gardens in Corona del Mar, plans to give a Sunday

talk on Mediterranean gardening in California.

Mediterranean plants, such as lavenders and sage, are popular in

Southern California because they require less water, pesticides and

fertilizer than plants accustomed to wet weather.

“There’s a tremendous emphasis on Mediterranean- style gardening

right now, partly because it’s more appropriate to our climate,”

Vanderhoff said.

On Wednesday, exhibitors were setting up their booths as workers

from Fiesta Parade Floats -- a Pasadena company that designs Rose

Parade floats -- were putting together the show’s centerpiece

display. Orchids, bromeliads, anthuriums and ginger to were used to

decorate a treehouse occupied by straw-hat-wearing monkeys. Brightly

colored parrots, made out of flowers, perched on the display’s

branches.

The show will include lectures on English roses, low-water

landscaping and tomato growing. A complete program can be accessed at

https://www.springgarden show.com.

“Anything they want to know about any particular plant, the

experts will be there,” Bishop said.