Lycium barbarum ( SOLANACEAE) Goji, Wolfberry, Matrimony Vine
Grown by Madeline Bakarich:
Madeline brought material for anyone who wants to try starting cuttings of this sprawly, deciduous, woody shrub that grows about 6’ to 9’ tall and wide. This is one of the latest super foods to come on the scene. The fresh fruit spoils quickly so it’s sold commercially as juice, powder, and dried berries. Most of it comes from plantations in north-central China. It’s easy to grow in full sun with regular irrigation and good drainage and is hardy to about 10°F. It blooms with small, light purple, funnel-like flowers starting in late spring. The bright orange-red, ½“ long, oblong fruits start ripening in late summer and are best when sun dried.
NOTE. Be diligent about picking the fruit. It can be very weedy and wildlife can spread the seeds widely. It has escaped cultivation and naturalized in several California counties. 

Olea europaea ’Arbequina’ (OLEACEAE) Arbequina Olive
Grown by Jon Craig in Corralitos: 
This is an old olive variety from Catalonia, Spain. It’s said to have originated from trees taken to Spain from Palestine in the 1700’s by the Lord of Arbeca. Its reputation has surged recently and it has become the most popular olive for planting new plantations in Argentina and California. It’s a dwarf variety that slowly grows to 15’ to 20’ tall with a rounded, somewhat weeping canopy. It is self fertile and begins bearing fruit at a young age. It sets an abundant crop of small fruits that begin to ripen in mid November. It makes an excellent table olive but is grown primarily for its high content of high quality oil that is described as fresh and sweet with notes of artichoke and almond. It tends to have a short storage life however. Olives are native to the Mediterranean and grow well for us if given full sun and kept away from lawn irrigation.

Poncirus trifoliata ‘Flying Dragon’ (RUTACEAE) Flying Dragon Bitter Orange
Grown by Kerry Barrs in Woodside: 
‘Flying Dragon’ is a dwarf selection with contorted stems and scary, 2”, curved thorns. It makes a 6’ to 10’ tall shrub or small tree with a dense, spreading crown. In spring, just before the leaves appear, it blooms with white, single flowers that have a nice orange blossom fragrance. The 2-inch, compound leaves are shiny, dark green with 3 leaflets and winged petioles. They turn yellow before dropping for winter. The small fruits, the size of golf balls, are slightly furry and ripen to yellowish orange in early fall. They are very fragrant but inedibly bitter with about 30 seeds per golf ball. It’s easy to grow in most soils in sun to light shade and is so hardy that it grows in Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum. Poncirus trifoliata is a very close relative to Citrus and has long been used as a rootstock for grafting edible citrus to provide resistance to some diseases, improve cold hardiness, and produce more richly flavored, though smaller, fruits. ‘Flying Dragon’ rootstocks are used to produce dwarf citrus.

Ted Kipping gardens in San Francisco and brought a bouquet of colorful plants that are brightening his life right now. Many of them bloom year round in his cloud forest climate. First there was a wonderfully fragrant Erysimum with dramatic black flowers. Next was Blechnum occidentale, a small, creeping fern from Chile that grows about 2’ tall with bronzy-pink new fronds that bring color to moist, shady areas. Ted cuts it to the ground when he wants to bring on a burst of color. Begonia fuchsioides is a shrub-like begonia from Venezuela and Colombia that produces abundant, dangling sprays of small, deep pink flowers set against shiny, dark green leaves. It blooms year round and has grown 6’ tall in Ted’s garden. He showed an orange-flowered Thunbergia that looked like T. gregorii, an evergreen vine to 10’ with bright, pure orange flowers all year long. Salvia karwinskii is a winter-blooming sage from Mexico and Central America. It blooms in whorls of rose-red flowers from dark red calyces. It’s reasonable to expect this sage to grow about 8’ tall, but Ted’s has reached 16’ or 18’. He had a Schizostylis coccinea, now Hesperantha coccinea, with soft pink flowers. This is a fall blooming iris relative from South Africa that blooms with 6 to 12 flowers on a 12” tall stem. It needs a constantly moist site with good drainage. Abutilons have been growing and hybridizing in Ted’s garden for a long time. He has about 30 different colors now, all growing about 18’ tall. Even though I was taking notes as fast as I could, I know I missed some gems that Ted showed us. I hope you had a chance to talk to him about your favorites.