Upcoming Gardening Events and workshops in Butte County

Gardening resources/links

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PHOTO OF THE MONTH: each month the club donates an arrangement or plant to the Chico Library as a way to say thank you for letting us book the meeting room. Here is an awesome patriotic succulent container celebrating Veteran's Day, donated by member Dan C. ❤️ 🤍 💙 🪴

Updated December 2025 🎄 🕎

Happy December! 🎄 🕎 🥳

Now is a great time to do the following:

• sprinkle seeds around the garden that need chilling before growing and blooming next year: Shirley poppies, breadseed poppies, California poppies, Nigella ("love in a mist"), California bluebells, and several others

• the cut back chyrsanthemums if desired (through February)

• cut back sedums if desired (through February)

• take cuttings of tender plants to root and grow indoors over winter: coleus, impatiens, most begonias, etc.

• rake up leaves from sidewalks, patios, and driveways, but "leave the leaves" on beds and borders. They provide valuable habitat for insects and invertebrates and they suppresses weeds. Eventually they break down, nourishing the soil.

• prune dormant trees and shrubs (through late January)

• divide dormant or mostly dormant perennial plants (hostas, daylilies, asters, peonies, etc.)

• spray peaches, nectarines, and apricots with a dormant fungicide (usually containing copper) to avoid leaf curl disease

• prune grapevines when dormant; pruning in spring or summer causes them to bleed sap

• start reading the latest seed catalogs (you can request catalogs from their websites or just order directly from their websites too). Some favorites are Burpee Seeds, Park Seeds, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, Select Seeds and Plants, Johnny's Selected Seeds, Pinetree Seeds, and many more.

• purchase and enjoy holiday cacti: keep coolish and in bright indirect sunlight (no direct sun) and water once every 7-10 days.

• purchase and enjoy poinsettias: provide them with very bright indirect light or partial sun, and keep soil barely moist. Avoid overwatering and avoid cool or hot drafts.

• plant garlic and onions (last chance!)

• plant perennials, trees, and shrubs

• plant cool weather veggies like kale, Swiss chard, spinach, peas, cilantro and lettuce

• prune roses if desired (through early February)

• plant seeds of sweet peas outside--they'll sprout now, grow slowly all winter and will explode in to growth/bloom much earlier than spring-sown sweet peas

• remember to reduce watering most houseplants when days are short and cool--they use less water during winter

• Pot up paperwhite narcissus indoors for sweet smelling flowers for the holidays. Do a few bulbs in a pot each month or so. After blooming they can be planted outside in Chico for flowers in future springs

• Purchase and pot up amaryllis bulbs (Hippeastrum) which will flower 6-8 weeks later. After flowering, they can be planted outside in Chico (or grown in pots as patio plants) for future blooms.

• Propagate tender plants that you want to keep for next year. Some plants that can't tolerate frost can be propagated in a glass of water then potted up as houseplants for winter and then planted outdoors in early summer (coleus, begonias, impatiens, plectranthus, Persian shield, etc)

Updated December 2025! 🌟

We had a terrific tour of the University Farm greenhouses for our November 2025 meeting. Our speaker was Angie Handy (in red hoodie) the Greenhouse Technician.

We heard about the Ag Studies program and projects, plus all about the plant propagation and sales. We also had a nice tour of the brand new University Farm Store, which sells plants, cheeses, beef, pork, rice, honey and branded merchandise (click thumbnails for a closer look)