Landscape Horticulture Updates for Southern California

Our population of urban trees is shrinking! You can help turn this around by protecting your own trees and by planting new ones recommended for your climate and the conditions around your home.

Landscape trees provide shade, cool urban heat islands, reduce interior energy use and related costs, provide habitat for pollinators and wildlife, and beautify our communities. They also help clean our environment by absorbing carbon dioxide emitted by vehicles and other producers of fossil fuels.

As 2020 comes to a close, I'd like to express my deep appreciation and thanks to all of our UCCE San Bernardino County Master Gardener volunteers who have given the gift of their time' to provide credible information to the gardening public.

With only a few short weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas and two very similarly looking plants, you may be wondering whether the gift a loved one gave you for Christmas is a Thanksgiving cactus or a Christmas cactus.

Welcome to another New Normal! Due to climate change resulting in hotter, drier conditions and reduced snowpack, the occurrence of a fire season which traditionally occurred from May through October is becoming a misnomer, with fire occurring throughout the year.