PRESENTER FOR MARCH:  Ernesto Sandoval: “The ABC’s of Growing African Bulbs”

“The ABC’s of Growing African Bulbs,” is a very timely topic as we approach spring.  He will discuss several different kinds of bulbs and tell us how to propagate and grow them successfully.  Ernesto has spoken to us before on plant hormones and will probably bring some plants for sale from UC Davis where he is the Director of their Botanical Conservatory as well as teaching several classes.

He has been wondering and seeking questions to why plants grow and look the way that they do for a long time.  Now he explains and interprets the world of plants to a variety of ages and experiences from K-12 to professionals and Master Gardeners.  He regularly lectures to a variety of western Garden Clubs throughout the year and particularly to Succulent Clubs throughout the State and elsewhere since that group of plants is his particular passion within his general passion for plants.  He describes himself as a “Jose of All Plants, Master of None.”  Ernesto thoroughly enjoys helping others, and gardeners in particular, to understand why and how plants do what they do.

When he was about 13 he asked his dad why one tree was pruned a particular way and another tree another way. His dad answered bluntly “because that’s the way you do it.” Since then he’s been finding the answers to those and many other questions by getting a degree at UC Davis in Botany and working from student weeder/waterer to Director over the last 23 years at the UC Davis Botanical Conservatory. He’s long left the “mow blow and go” monoculture landscape gardening world and has immersed himself in the world of polyculture and biodiversity by growing several thousand types of plants at the UC Davis Botanical Conservatory, many of them succulents.  Several of his favorite garden projects involved converting lawns and or water loving landscapes to drought tolerant and diversity filled gardens!  He likes to promote plant liberation by encouraging gardeners of all sorts to grow more plants in the ground when possible. He loves the technical language of Botany but prefers to relate information in more understandable methods of communication!  By helping people to understand the workings of plants he hopes to help us better understand how to and why our plants do what they do and how we can maximize their growth with less effort.