Hide Article Text (OCR)
The rose, centuries-old queen.ol flowers, outdoes itseU in the Southland.Long Beach-grown gladioli are beau-tiiul. Flower i« South Airica native.Camellias come from China, do well in their adopted country, the Southland.California gardeners have accmplished miracles with dahlias from Mexico.Long Beach is anGardenLONG BEACH and its environs is an international garden. Here you will find thousands of plants from more than 100 different countries. A trip around this area, for the gardening enthusiast, is like a trip around the world.Ornamentals from practical-. ly every nation on the globe have been transported to the Southland. Many of them, even after living here in their adopted country for several decades, still retain their native garb, and others have been so dolled up by local hybridists that they appear to be only a distant relative of their former self.Southern California’s plant life is heterogenous, if nothing else. Probably nowhere else in the world can you find such diversity of flora from so many different countries. The fact is that many nurserymen in this area make their living simply by Introducing foreign importations.The origin or history of our better known plants is certainly one of the plant world's moat interesting stories, The unparallelled growing conditions of this area account for what is often considered a miracle of horticulture. A cool wind in summer and a warm wind in winter combine to give the Long Beach district one of the world’s most envied climates.The queen of flowers is, of course, the rose and the history of this plant is one of the long-By Bob Gilmoreest known, reaching way back into antiquity. The Chinese have cultivated the rose for countless centuries and bouquets of this ever-popular bloom have been taken, in preserved form, from Egyptian tombs of ancient times.tffcNE OF the Southland's v most prolific plants is the individual seedlings of Kentucky blue grass. There are millions of seeds in a pound of Kentucky blue grass and this variety is favored as the main ingredient in all high quality grass seed mixtures.Kentucky blue grass is not a native of Kentucky at all. The seed was first brought to this country by the early English colonists. It became more or less naturalized in Kentucky and took on the name of that state, But today Missouri produces more Kentucky blue grass seed than Kentucky. Another interesting point about Kentucky blue grass is that the grass is green, not blue.The chrysanthemum, the queen of autumn flowers, is another ancient plant. It was held in high esteem by the Chinese several hundred years before the Christian era. Somewhat later it was introduced into Japan where it inspired a national holiday and very much later it was brought to England and then to the United States.. Tulips, which soon ‘ will be raising their gay-colored blooms, are natives of Russia and Asia, They were introduced into Europe about the middle of the 16th Century. Ever since the 17th Century Holland has specialized in the growing of tulip bulbs and her tulip mania of 1634 almost wrecked the country. A single bulb at that time was worth $3000; today you can buy a better bulb for a nickel.|^LADIOLUS, natives of South Africa, are certainly a long way from home when , grown in Long Beach. Yet much of the hybridizing on that plant has been completed by California gladiolus growers. California today is one of the country’s leading production centers for gladiolus corms, millions of them being grown here annually.Zinnias and dahlias, to complete your international garden picture, come from Mexico; petunias from Africa, narcissus from southern Europe, lily of the valley from Asia, cotone aster from Formosa, portulaca from Brazil, primroses from England; and while some poppies are natives of the Alps and the Mediterranean, don’t forget that the final touch to your international garden would be a few plants of California's own and glorious golden poppy.A River ConqueredThe Colorado River cut thi* channel when it changed course and slashed into rich Imperial Valley farmlands in 1905. Note size of automobile in circle.The high water mark of a once-great inland sea may be plainly seen on slopes near Route 99 in Imperial Valley. Fossilized sponges show in left foreground.Though natives of Russia and Asia, tulips bloom no more beautifully anywhere than in Long Beach.@mmANGLEBy The Shutterbugof the sea—as much as 300 lives, the river struck out organized for the fight, and,EVERY camera fan wants to have an effective picture story of his or her home town. They are the pictures that mean so much in later years. I recently met a young camera fan who had an extremely Interesting collection of home-town pictures, and so I asked him how he had happened to start his series. He said that he has been visited by friends from out of town, and he took his camera along as he showed them his city. The resulting pictures were so successful that he immediately became enthused about doing a more complete job in covering the whole community.He decided to begin a new album, entitled Home Town— 1930,” and to follow that up with later series, so that he would actually have a record of the growth and changes over the years.He started by making an outline of the places in the city that he felt he should cover In his picture story. The first item was his home, of course, and he then.added some general views of the business district. He selected the important buildings in town, and the industries forlandmarks that were tourist show places, and he pictured the homes and how people live on “both sides of the track.” And his final group included the scenic views, the bridges, parks, and an over-all view of the city from a near-by hillside.When he had finished shooting, he found that he had gathered quite a collection of pictures. But before mounting them in the album, he decided that it would be smart to do some careful editing. He weeded out a few shots, eliminated the duplications, and even decided to reshoot a few scenes. When he finally mounted the collection, it turned out to be a most interesting and enlightening story of his home town. His friends were all envious of Ills fine work, and he was justly p:jud of a job well done.It is the simplest thing in the world to start such a series of home-town pictures. But the “before” shots, which make the interesting “before and after” combination in picture albums, must be taken now, before the changes occur. In later years, you’ll be mighty glad you started shooting now.NEXT WEEK: The Shutterbug will discuss darkrooms and develonme of oictures hv
Newspaper Details
Independent Press Telegram Southland Magazine
Long Beach, California, US
Sun, Feb 19, 1950
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
CA, USA 06 Jun 2025
Other Publications Near Long Beach, California
Independent Long Beach
Independent Press Telegram
Press Telegram
Independent
Long Beach Press Telegram
