Updated May 2026!
We are a group of gardeners and plant lovers who meet monthly to talk about gardening. We also share plants, seeds and cuttings, and learn from horticultural guest presenters. Most of our meetings are free and open to the public--please join us!
The two members-only meetings are our Installation of club Officers in June, and our Holiday Potluck in December, plus any road trips. Otherwise, the public is very welcome to attend!
Our next meeting will be the installation of our newly-elected club Officers for the '26-'27 club year.
We will meet at the historic Patrick Ranch Museum in Durham (10381 Midway Rd., Durham, CA 95938). The meeting will start at 11:00 a.m. sharp. Bring your own lunch or snacks and beverages. This meeting is a great way to have some extended social time for members, and to welcome and THANK our Officers for volunteering to help our club by filling these important roles.
From a member's garden: known botanically as Hippeastrum, amaryllis plants do very well in Chico. Just give them full or partial sun. Let Mother Nature do the watering autumn through early summer. Give them a good soak every 7-10 days in mid-summer, then around August or September, let them go totally dry until the autumn rains return. They need that forced dry dormancy for their huge, beautiful blooms.
PHOTO OF THE MONTH:
May gardening activities
Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins, basil and annual flowers (marigolds, cosmos, sunflowers, zinnias, etc)
Purchase and plant all of the above as transplants if desired, plus impatiens and wax begonia plants
Plant your favorite summertime vegetables from transplants: tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, squash, corn, herbs, cucumbers, etc.
Harvest the last of the winter cabbage, lettuce, peas and green onions
Plant dahlia tubers and set out plants of verbena, coreopsis, coneflower, columbine, rudbeckia, verbena and other perennial plants
Trim off faded rose flowers by cutting down to a five-leaflet leaf that points outside away from the center of the plant at the height you'd like new flowers to emerge
Prune spring-flowering shrubs as desired: forsythia, flowering quince, flowering almond, lilacs, etc.
Weed, weed, weed!
Beautiful downtown Chico, California
Fresh tomatoes from a member's garden.
Butterfly bushes (Buddleia sp.), Rudbeckia, canna lilies and zinnias in a member's summer garden.
Club members at one of several "potting parties" to prepare plants for our fund-raising spring Plant Sale
