On Sunday October 2, we took our first field trip in a long time as a club. It was about more than 6 months in the planning but, all the details worked out. You do not know the complexity of putting a field trip together until you put one together. But, I must say it was all worth the work.
So the plan was to be on the Grapevine by 7:00am. Which meant some poor souls leaving from Inland Empire had to get on the road by 5:40am! Yes, I'm not a morning person and it was still dark as I got out of the house when all adventure began. Then, we got to Pasadena hub to pick up the rest of our caravan around 6:10am. We ran into a small bump waiting for a single soul. But had a great time having a powwow in front of Big Joe's house. We did get over the Grapevine around 7:15am but no ones counting.
Our second stop on our trip was a human refueling stage. Denny's in Northern Bakersfield along the 99 Highway and 65 Highway interchange was our stop. Great location, its out of the way and easy access to the 65 Highway. Everybody had breakfast here and Ken Bishop showed up too!
Driving for another 45 minutes up the 65 Highway we made it into the city of Lindsay, California. A small sleepy town that is a huge citrus grower. Picture above is a country road lined with orange trees as far as the eye can see. Oranges were not ripe yet. The last time we came through this area, the flower were blooming and the smell was just irresistible.
We arrived at Ed and Linda's Round Valley Nursery and had a short briefing on how to pull trees from the growing fields and where things were. Also, he and Linda gave personal small tours of his/her place if we needed more assistance.
This guys like the Wizard of Oz comes out from a shade structure and asks, "What took you guys so long?" I have to say, Peter has dedication to his hobby. He drove straight not from his house this morning but from Las Vegas at 3am!
After talking to Peter briefly, everybody scattered like cockroaches looking for that tree they want to bring home. Here is Gus running down lanes of Japanese Maple looking for the one calling his name.
Greg did the same thing. Here are some Japanese Maple "Kandy Kitchen" on the left, from the scaled picture these are not just sapling but old trees.
Of course Ed and Linda has over 3 arces of stuff to go through. Even as the second time here, I still did not have enough time to examine all the trees with a good eye.
Lindsay was spying on some field grown Trident Maple in the ground. It was hard to see the trunk with canopy still intact. We will need to make another field trip when the leaves and dropped to truly have a chance to examine the trunk lines. So maybe next time?
This photo comes from Shirley, again Ed gave time to everybody that day asking questions about every single plant. I believe this is one of his shade structure near the front of his property where it houses 5 gallon rare Japanese Maples.
The best part about visiting a grower is that they also have their collection on display for everybody to view and ask questions. Its always amazing to see trees from raw stock into a bonsai pot directly. Ed has many examples of that type of pathway here.
On example is this raft style Redwood. Ed has about 8 of these in the back and some of these trees are almost ready to go straight into a bonsai pot. Of course I had to ask Linda pick a tree to pose around and she went straight to this beauty!
A pretty sight to behold. Future black pine in the making. But like all trees here they are all for sale!
I think Shirley had the best time of all. She was one of the lucky visitor today to actually dig a tree out. She picked up this beautiful root over rock Trident Maple from the ground. I can not wait to see what is below the pot!
Of course no one could out do Lindsay. If he could by more he would have that day. He literally fulled a whole SUV up all by himself that day! Then again, we were just spoiled by Ed's quality of material he had for sale.
This photo is near the end of our shopping craze. You can not tell from this photo but there is about another 30 or so trees on the floor behind and around me!
Remember Gus's first photo in this post? This is the tree that called his name. Lindsay is doing some quick trimming work so it may fit inside the SUV for the trip home.
No trip is complete without a group photo! The only two souls not in this picture is of course me and Marissa, Peter's wife! Well, Ken is missing too because he had to leave early. So fine 3!
We are planning to do another field trip in late Winter or early Spring. You too could join us next time to Round Valley Nursery! Until our field trip!