UC Santa Cruz Arboretum Will Introduce New ‘Tasman Hybrid’ Leptospermums At Annual Spring Plant Sale On Saturday, April 21

SANTA CRUZ, CA–The UC Santa Cruz Arboretum is holding its annual Spring Plant Sale in conjunction with the California Native Plant Society (CNPS) on Saturday, April 21, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The sale will take place at the Arboretum Eucalyptus Grove on High Street near the intersection with Western Drive.

This annual event brings gardeners and nursery buyers from as far away as Sonoma and Santa Barbara. The UCSC Arboretum and CNPS, both well-known horticultural organizations, have held joint plant sales for several years, enabling them to offer a wide variety of interesting and unusual plants.

This year, the Arboretum is introducing its Tasman Hybrids, four new Leptospermum hybrids (commonly known as "tea trees") resulting from a breeding project led by Ray Collett, director emeritus of the Arboretum. Collett crossed Australian Leptospermum cultivars with ones from New Zealand to produce these medium-sized shrubs with small leaves and abundant flowers. The new hybrids, called Tasman Wine, Tasman Lilac, Tasman Ruffles, and Tasman White Star, require minimal care and can be trained as standards or pruned to shape. Leptospermum cultivars in general are drought-tolerant once established and are cold-hardy to around 20 degrees. The major blooming period for most is during the month of May, but Tasman Wine blooms primarily in November.

Two other new Australian plants will also be available for the first time at the Arboretum sale. One is a prostrate Calytrix tetragona with light pink flowers. This plant makes a wonderful low ground cover and requires good drainage and partial to full sun. It is frost-hardy and drought-tolerant once established, blooms in the spring, and responds well to a light pruning after blooming. Austromyrtus dulcis, also known as Midgen Berry, is a small, spreading shrub that grows to about one foot tall and two feet wide. It does very well in a coastal environment. White flowers give way to white-speckled edible berries that taste like Chilean guavas. It can be grown in a variety of soils and does best with weekly watering during warm, dry periods.

The Arboretum specializes in plants not readily available in nurseries. Several of Sunset magazine’s "best of the new plants" have been selections made or imported by the Arboretum staff. At the Arboretum’s plant sales, the public has the opportunity to buy selections that may be on the "best of the new plants" lists several years from now. Several local nurseries, such as California Succulents, Monterey Bay Nursery, Sierra Azul, and Suncrest Nursery, often donate additional plants to the sale.

The sale will be open to Arboretum and CNPS members only from 10 to 11 a.m. and to the general public from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Nonmembers may join the Arboretum Associates on the day of the sale.

Visitors are welcome to tour the gardens and see the abundant hummingbirds while they are at the Arboretum. The Arboretum is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day. Norrie’s Gifts is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. The Jean and Bill Lane Horticultural Library is open Wednesday through Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m.