The LCG Garden
- By the Landscape/Rose Committee -
Nothing speaks Southern California better than our stately palm trees. Known for their diversity and tremendous beauty, they are in abundance here at LCG. As you enter on Levante Street, you are introduced to the community by a dramatic column of 20 Date Palms lining both sides of the street. Phoenix dactylifera will grow up to 100 feet. Continuing past the safety kiosk, you see some 40 Queen Palms, Syagrus romanzoffiana, a native of Brazil named for Count Romanzoff. Along the center roadway divider, note a row of Pygmy Date Palms, Phoenix robellini. At...
- by Ray Holt -
What landscape planting can Glen residents find at the corner of Silverleaf Circle and Sun Cup that exists nowhere else in La Costa Glen? In one word, the answer is: “citrus!”
The “Citrus Corner” idea originated with Candice, daughter of LCG’s Landscape specialist, Susan Agonies. Working with
Executive Director Darolyn, the trio converted the corner into a model citrus orchard for the enjoyment of all Glen residents.
Selecting 14 semi-dwarf citrus trees required matching tree growth needs to coastal soil and environment. Each tree represents a different variety: orange, lemon, lime, etc. When fully grown, the trees will...
- Contributed By the Rose/Landscape Committee -
Living in California, the California poppy (Eschscholzia californica), that little four petal golden yellow beauty, has to be one of your favorite flowers. With the help of some of our residents, these are starting to grow in several areas throughout the campus.
The flowers are solitary on long stems, silky textured in colors ranging from yellow to orange and flowering from February to September. They close at night opening again the following morning. The seeds are in slender ribbed seedpods. When
they dry out they split, shooting the black seeds all over.
The California poppy is...
Did you know we are living with some plants that are actually "living fossils?" Well, as you pass the stork fountain to enter the Lakeside Clubhouse, you will see several of them in pots along both sides of the walk. These are Cycads, or by common name, Sago Palms.
Although resembling a palm, they are not at all related. Cycads deserve the qualifying title of living fossils since they reached their highest point of evolution in the Mesozoic (about 200 million years ago), before there were dinosaurs.
Later, they existed with dinosaurs and were perhaps being eaten by them. Unlike the dinosaurs,...
There are 422 rose bushes in our three rose gardens—180 in the two Lakeside gardens and 242 in the Fairway gardens. It is understandable, that with so many plants to care for, the Landscape/Rose Committee has been expanded to 19 members.
The rose year starts with pruning in January. The heavy pruning is done by Susan's crew, followed up by committee members who do the finish pruning—shaping the plant and removing all leaves and looking for suckers. Suckers are canes which spring from their rootstock, rather than from the bud union.They will not bloom true and their foliage is usually rather...
- By the Landscape/Rose Committee -
Nine-year-old William Radler fought boredom at his grandmother’s home by looking through the rose catalogs. He was captivated by the various shapes and colors of the roses.
He took his allowance and went to the local A&P to purchase his first rose for 49-cents. William still remembers the bloom of his first rose. “The first bud exploded into the most gorgeous thing I had ever seen and it was fragrant.” William soon transformed his parents’ backyard into a beautiful showplace of roses.
It didn’t take him long to realize that growing and caring for roses entailed...