It’s May, and that means . . .
flowers!
Home
gardeners are still relishing the heavy rainfall earlier in the spring that
gave the valley soil a good soaking. Now it’s time to get out the spades,
trowels, planting mix and fertilizer. And, of course, it’s also time to select
the plants that will bring blooming color to yards throughout the community.
One
retail outlet that has stocked plenty of flowering plants is Western Nursery,
at 950 Alamo Pintado in Solvang. Owners Richard
Pollard and Dale Bostron have been operating the
five-acre garden center since buying it in 1996.
“It’s
been here since 1975, when the prior owner started it,” Pollard said.
He
and helper Bianca Hernandez tended to the needs of customers one day last week
as they came in and out, under the watchful eye of Grey, the nursery’s large
male tabby cat. Grey, looking a bit bored and a bit hostile, managed to show up
wherever Pollard went in the nursery’s main building or among the rows of
plants outdoors.
“We
sell to people doing their own landscaping,” Pollard said, “and wholesale to
gardeners and other nurseries.” Western stocks plants suited to the area’s mild
climate, “stuff that’ll grow in the valley,” Pollard said.
He
added that the plants in stock are Mediterranean for the most part and not
California natives. “Mediterranean has color and vitality,” he explained.
“Natives just end up looking like the brush on any hillside. I have some
California natives. If you plant a lot, they wind up looking kinda weedy and chaparral – y,” he said, gesturing to a
nearby knoll. But, he admitted, “That Cleveland sage smells very fragrant.”
Color
bowls, terra cotta planters with varieties of brightly-hued petunias, violas,
impatiens and daisies, lined the walkways to the greenhouse, where a variety of
houseplants are kept under cover. Outside, there are rows of bedding plants,
shrubs and many young trees.
“We
have four seasons here in the valley,” Pollard said. “It gets cold up here. It
doesn’t snow, but it certainly gets frost. It also gets pretty hot in the
summer. It gets over 100 sometimes. We’re Zone 14 in the Western Garden Book.
Santa Barbara is Zone 24, and the top of the Sierra is Zone 1. That gives you
an idea. We’re right in the middle.”
The
variety of plants stocked by the nursery is keyed to the seasons, Pollard said.
“We have four seasons, so we keep the palette such that it will look right
summer and winter,” he said.
Victoria
Elliott, a customer and resident of Solvang, came in looking for flowers to plant.
“It’s time to fix up my yard,” she said. “It’s nice to come around in the
spring. I love seeing the snapdragons; they did great last year.”
“Now
is the time to plant, past the frost,” Pollard said. “Grapes got damaged four
days ago when we had a frost. But now is the time to plant color. Plant vegetables and herbs. People who already planted
tomatoes, their tomatoes got fried in the last frost.
They’ll have to start over.”
Western
Nursery stocks environment-friendly products, such as containers of live
ladybugs. When they are let loose in a yard or garden, the ladybugs eat harmful
insects. The nursery has an Old West
façade with a bleached-looking steer’s head.
“It’s not a real cow’s head,” Pollard said. “We did the cement thing.”
He also repeated the California gardener’s mantra: “Water a lot in summer.”
Then,
Pollard dusted his hands together, smiled and said firmly, “Now’s the time to
get out there and get your hands dirty.”