Chinese Language Guided Tour Saturday February 7th ( 我們將在2月7日週六上午10點和下午12點的電車旅遊，提供中文解說。Frank and Diana McDonough 將是您的導遊 )

I am really looking forward to Saturday February the 7th when my wife Diana and I will be giving a tour in both English and Chinese languages. So far I've spec'd out more than 40 points of interest but I think I might have to thin that out a little. Here's a map with the prospective tour stops.
It should be interesting at the very least!

Citrus Label Society's Last Sunkist Headquarters Meeting & Fruit Tree Tour Maps & Links

Today I went to the Citrus Label Society's final meeting at Sunkist Growers headquarters in Sherman Oaks California. Sunkist has sold the headquarters and is moving to (quite appropriately) Valencia California. In honor of this last meeting at their traditional meeting place the society had a citrus tasting and label exhibit.

 Over 40 varieties ofcitrus were brought in for sampling at the meeting. Included were such exotic treats as the Australian finger lime and the Buddha's hand citron.  Also on display the hundreds of citrus labels. These labels, dating from the turn of the century up until the 1930's, represented the hundreds of independent growers who shipped citrus from California to the rest of the United States.  Many of them are quite beautiful and some can fetch high prices; for example a turn of the century label picturing an early, horse drawn float in the Rose Parade was valued at over $4,000.

Rare Rose Parade Citrus Label

Santa Anita Citrus Label Shows Location of Arboretum and Racetrack.

Fruit Tree Tour Links:

Fruit Tree Tour Map

Tour Stops

Navigable Google Map (Open in Your Smart Phone)

Purdue Crop Index (Lots of Information on Fruit Trees etc.)

UCR Citrus Varieties Pages

The History Of Grafting

More on the History of Grafting

History of Orchard Culture in California

Edible Acorns

Story on Canary Island Grape -the so called 'Mission Grape'

California Wine History

Citrus Industry in California -A History

Los Angeles Agriculture - Agriculture and Natural Resources Blogs

What Grape Was Grown By the Mission Padres?

THE CITRUS LABEL GALLERY -Hundreds of Labels Collected By Members of the Citrus Label Society ﾠ

Label Showing Santa Anita Racetrack and Sierra Madre

Fruit Growers Associations

California Rare Fruit Growers, Inc.

Fresh Fruit-Healthy Recipes: Sunkist Citrus Oranges, Lemons

California Avocados Commision

Almond Growers | Almond Board of California

California Walnut Growers

California Canning Peach Association

California Raisin Marketing Board

Western Growers

California, Arizona, & Texas Citrus

Citrus Research Board

Growers

L.E. Cooke Company -Their site is a treasure trove of information)

Dwarf Citrus Trees, Meyer Lemon, Kieffer Lime, Oranges – Order Online – Four Winds Growers (These are the growers that first developed dwarf citrus along with UCR)

Durling Nursery Inc (No Website, but follow this link for phone # and call; they'll e-mail you their availability)

La Verne Nursery

Is A Spectacular Magnolia Display Here On Its Way?

I went out to the Magnolia section today and took a look at all the flowering magnolias.  It's been a weird year, with extreme variances in temperature in the late part of the summer and early fall. We’ve had several dozen trees flowering in October. When an early bloom like this happens it can sometimes sap the food reserves the magnolias trunk and roots that it stores in fall for its bloom period in January. So I was very surprised to see great majority of the magnolias sporting a high density of flower buds.

Also, usually by this time of year most of our magnolias are blooming. Although there are a few Magnolias with some very small blooms, it seems like all of the magnolias are in bud and synced for what might be a spectacular bloom within the next several weeks.

I took picture of one of the magnolias, and as you can see it has a very high density a flower buds. Stay tuned - this should be a magnificent flowering season for the magnolias.

Flowering magnolia showing lots of buds.