September Speaker | Ernesto Sandoval

September 6th, doors open at 6:15 pm PST
Redlands Church of the Nazarene
1307 East Citrus Avenue
Redlands, CA 92374

Many years ago, Ernesto gave us a full lecture on plant hormones. This time around he will revisit hormones for an important review, but talk more about how they are involved in and used when propagating and pruning plants as well as their role in seasonal growth. (more photos and less diagrams!)

Bio:

Ernesto Sandoval has been wondering and seeking questions and answers to why plants grow and look the way that they do for nearly 40 years. Now he explains and interprets the world of plants to a variety of ages and from amateur to professional gardeners. He regularly lectures to a variety of western Garden Clubs throughout the year and particularly to Succulent Clubs throughout California. Desert plants are his particular passion within his general passion for plants. He describes himself as a “Jose of All Plants, Master of None” and loves learning from the experiences of others as well as his own. 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 learning and teaching himself 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/Manager over the last 30 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 horticultural 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.