2025 January 11 Arboretum Tour

Palomar College San Marcos Arboretum Trails Tour
Saturday, January 11, 2025 – 8:00 am

The Palomar College Arboretum Committee had their first tour of the year through the Palomar College Arboretum. The hike to the Arboretum was led by Anthony Rangel, president of the Friends of the Palomar College Arboretum.

Visitors were given a tour of the Arboretum and the Cactus and Succulent Garden, with details provided about many of the interesting species present in the arboretum including surprising family relationships, identifying features and conservation status.

Images courtesy of Kimberly Conklin

The Kingdom Fungi – September 17, 2011

The Kingdom Fungi
with Steve Farrar, Horticulturist
Held on Saturday, September 17, 2011
10:00 AM to 11:30 AM
San Marcos Campus in Room NS-259

Thank you to Steve Farrar for his interesting and informative lecture about mushrooms. Thank you for volunteering your time and presenting an excellent lecture.

Mr. Farrar has almost 30 years of experience in various aspects of the mushroom industry
including mushroom farm design, construction and startup; mushroom cultivation equipment
sales, cultivation of culinary mushrooms (Oyster, King Trumpet, Shiitake, Maitake, Enoki,
Shimeji), cultivation of medicinal mushrooms (Cordyceps, Reishi, Lion’s Mane, Turkey Tail, etc) for dietary supplement products; and the utilization of spent mushroom compost.

Great lecture about the remarkable kingdom of life touching upon fungal biology and life cycles, mushroom cultivation technologies, fungal biotechnology, culinary mushrooms, medicinal mushrooms, mushroom nutrition and the health benefits of mushrooms.

 

 

 

 

Steven Farrar being interviewed by Dr. Mercola:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryj7P8qhRqc&feature=relmfu
These video interviews are in 5 parts.

Cactus & Succulent Care Workshop – June 4, 2011

Cactus and Succulent Care Workshop
with Dick Henderson, Garden Manager
June 4, 2011
10:30 am – 12:30 pm
The cactus and succulent garden, located at Comet Circle Drive and Mission Road, offers about 3,000 varieties of plants from around the world. The workshop will include a tour of the garden, a discussion of the use and history of the plants and the basics of succulent plant care. Particapants were given cuttings of “easy to grow” succulents and they potted them to take home.

See pictures of the day.  CactusSucculentWorkshop2011 (pdf file)

Discover the Plants of Palomar College Walking Tour – June 11, 2011

Saturday, June 11, 2011
Discover The Plants of Palomar College Walking Tour

with Tony Rangel
10:00 am – Noon
Met in front of the Howard Brubeck Theater entrance

This tour started in front of the Howard Brubeck Theater, then Mr. Rangel walked the attendees throughout the campus, facilities greenhouse and ended the tour in the Arboretum. Mr. Rangel talked about the great diversity of the plants on campus. He touched on some history of where the plants came from, information about endangered plants, how often plants have been moved or trimmed and the reasons for having such a diverse collection of plants on a community college campus.

Thank you Tony Rangel for his informative and interesting tour of the plants on our campus and Arboretum!

The Ins & Outs of Growing Tomatoes

Saturday, May 21, 2011
The Ins and Outs of Growing Tomatoes
(and other veggies)
with Richard Borevitz
9:00 am to 10:30 am
Patron’s Friendship Pavilion in the Arboretum – San Marcos Campus

The Gardening Guru answered your deepest veggie questions.
Mr. Borevitz concentrated on tomatoes for this lecture. (varieties, disease resistance, pruning, staking, watering, fertilizing and tomato pests)
With a little help, you can be on your way to a beginning in growing many of your own vegetable crops.

Mr. Borevitz is the owner/operator of Gourmet Gardens for over 16+ years and a seed distributor for over 30 years.
Owner of Agricultural Irrigation Systems, Inc for 33 years.
Richard Borevitz: rborevitz@cox.net

 

Discover San Marcos Trails Tour

 

Discovery San Marcos Trails Tour
Saturday, February 5, 2011 – 9:30 am

The Friends of San Marcos Parks and Trails group organized an easy, 3-mile hike that was lead through the Palomar College Arboretum. The hike to the Arboretum was led by Director Susan LaJoie.

Wayne Armstrong and Tony Rangel gave the hikers a short tour of the Arboretum and the Cactus and Succulent Garden.
There were about 25 to 30 hikers.

Bamboo Lecture & Tour

Photos of the Bamboo Lecture & Tour
“The Truth About Bamboo! Planting Bamboo is Not a Crime.”
with Ralph Evans
Held on Saturday, November 13, 2010
10:00 am to noon
Lecture held in room NS-258, San Marcos Campus

Ralph Evans, owner of Bamboo Headquarters, will demonstrate the selection, planting, and care of Bamboo for local landscapes. Evans has the largest commercial Bamboo Nursery in the U.S. It is located in Vista and San Marcos. http://www.bamboohq.com  

Subjects include: selection of the right bamboo for your landscape or privacy screen, planting and care information. The PowerPoint presentation was followed by a tour and demonstration in the Palomar Arboretum Bamboo Collection.
Many thanks to Mr. Ralph Evans for his excellent bamboo lecture & tour!

Plant Classification Lecture

Photos of the Plant Classification Lecture
Held on Saturday, August 28, 2010
with Botanist Wayne Armstrong
10:00 am to Noon
Room# NS-258 (Natural Sciences Building – San Marcos Campus)

An introduction to how plants are classified, with particular emphasis on flowering plants (angiosperms).  This two hour lecture will discuss vegetative and reproductive terminology, with a brief introduction to phylogenetic classification using chloroplast DNA.  Several plant families will be used to illustrate some of the taxonomic revisions in the new revised Jepson Manual of California Plants, including Wayne’s favorite group the duckweeds, formerly in the family Lemnaceae, but now placed in the arum family (Araceae). 
For more information email: mrwolffia@cox.net
http://waynesword.palomar.edu