Horticulturalist of the Year Presentation
Night at the Fair
Join us at the San Diego County Fair Flower and Garden Show stage to honor SDHS 2016 Horticulturist of the Year, San Diego Zoo Horticulture Department - past and present.
Society members have exclusive access to the San Diego County Fair Flower Garden Show exhibits to enjoy the display gardens created by some of our finest local garden professionals.
Playing off the theme for the Garden Show theme, Wonderland, the SDHS waterwise exhibit is a tribute to Lewis Carroll’s book Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There.
With a climate and geography that mirror that of Southern California, the garden will feature the Wonderland plants that originate in South Africa. San Diego is at the 33° N latitude, whereas the Cape of Good Home in South Africa is at the 34° S latitude and mirrors our location in the Southern Hemisphere. Like Southern California the climate and terrain are similar with a strong maritime influence at the coast with hills, mountains, plains and deserts inland. The climate is that of the Mediterranean with wet winters and hot, dry summers. And like our own chaparral plant community, South Africa has evolved a similar shrub-land community called fynbos.
While the chaparral and fynbos plant communities have evolved to succeed in similar climates, the individual plants are entirely different. The fynbos biome, which makes up the majority of the area and plant life in the Cape floristic region, one of the six global floral kingdoms, is located in a region of the Western Cape and contains more than 9,000 of those species, making it among the richest regions on earth in terms of plant diversity.
Californians have become accustomed to growing many plants from this region that so easily adapt to Southern California but many are unaware of their South African origins. Our garden showcases the Wonderland of plants from South Africa that homeowners can so easily grow in Southern California put together in colorful and inspiring garden setting.
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Our exhibit is sponsored by the San Diego County Water Authority. SDCWA also sponsored our gardens in 2011, 2013 , 2014 and 2015. We are grateful for their financial support, and for the opportunity to help educate San Diego homeowners that low water gardens can be both functional and beautiful. |
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Check out their WaterSmart webpages to learn how to conserve water in your home. |
- No Host Bar
- Free celebratory cake for everyone!
The presentation starts at Garden Show Stage at 6:00
Members free
Guests $15 - Pay at checkin
Parking free for everyone
