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  • SWTostada01
    Recipes From the Garden: A Taste of the Season

    The key to summer salads is fresh ingredients. So, whether you head out to the garden or the local farmer's market, be sure to sample the bounty of summer's harvest. The following salad recipes are inviting you to make some new additions to your summer...

  • Feature 1 - Grant - Pic 1
    The Champions Behind the 20-Year-Old UC Davis Arboretum All-Stars

    Ellen Zagory was Director of Horticulture of the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Gardens, fondly referred to as the Arb, when the Arboretum All-Stars plant list came to be created in the early 2000s. Ellen was working in her tiny office space alongside...

  • Plants of the Season Fig 3
    Plants of the Season

    As summer arrives in full swing, gardens burst into life with a dazzling array of vibrant, sun-loving plants. From bold blooms to lush foliage, the summer season offers an abundance of botanical beauty perfect for creating a stunning, thriving...

  • From the Garden Fig 1
    From the Garden—Early Summer Harvest

    Being out and about in the cool, morning summer air can be a great source of joy and surprise as we encounter sudden beauty in our gardens. The slow-to-ripen strawberries and cherries suddenly are ripe all at once. Landscape flowers seemingly out of...

  • Help Desk Figure 2
    Help Desk

    Question: A few of my rose bloom stems have curled downward and I wonder what causes this? This is not an uncommon phenomenon to see in the rose garden and is usually caused by a pest, the raspberry horntail, Hartigia cressoni. Rose cane tips...

 

 


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UC Garden Blogs
  • A crab spider lies in wait, as a honey bee nectars on a lavender blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
    The Spider and the Bee

    A crab spider,  family Thomisidae, lies motionless in a patch of lavender, waiting to ambush a honey bee.    So here I am, a crab spider, as hungry as can be Does anyone out there feel sorry for me? "Yes," say the...


    By Kathy Keatley Garvey
    Author - Communications specialist
  • A blister beetle (family Meloidae) eating pollen from the Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
    The Secret Life of a Blister Beetle

    Blister beetles (family Meloidae) are so named because they emit a poisonous chemical, cantharidin, that can blister your skin. Don't even think about touching them! Blister beetles can infest alfalfa hay, and are toxic--even...


    By Kathy Keatley Garvey
    Author - Communications specialist
  • A honey bee nectars on lavender in a Vacaville garden. The soft pastel colors almost resemble a painting. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
    Our Buddies in the Garden

    When you venture into your pollinator garden, look for the beauty, color, diversity and the intensity that surrounds you. You will be astounded. A honey bee nectaring on lavender in a soft-pastel scenario. A katydid nymph crawling (backlit) on a...


    By Kathy Keatley Garvey
    Author - Communications specialist
  • These three entomologists were trained directly or indirectly by Jerry Powell (1933-2023) of UC Berkeley. From left are Dan Rubinoff, John De Benedictus and Paul Opler (1938-2023) at a gathering of lepidopterists in 2019 at the Bohart Museum of Entomology.  Powell and Paul Opler (1938-2023) co-authored Moths of Western America, published in 2009. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
    Meet 'The Moth Man' at Bohart Museum's Moth Night

    Meet "The Moth Man." If you attend the Bohart Museum of Entomology's annual Moth Night celebration, affiliated with National Moth Week, you'll meet John De Benedictis, better known as “The Moth Man.” The indoor-outdoor event, free...


    By Kathy Keatley Garvey
    Author - Communications specialist