Wednesday, October 21st — doors 7:00pm, program 7:30pm
Fellowship Hall, Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church
909 N. La Cumbre Road, Santa Barbara, CA 93110
Our speaker this month is Marlene Simon on The Weird, Rare and Wild Plants of the UC Davis Botanical Conservatory.
The UC Davis Botanical Conservatory is one of the largest teaching collections in the U.S with roughly 4,000 plant species. Included in this are critically endangered species, carnivorous plants, a variegated Welwitschia and even a venomous plant. This talk showcases the conservatory’s diverse collection focusing on the unusual, rare, bizarre, as well as our growing techniques for each plant.
Marlene started gardening at the age of six when she would have her parents order bulbs off the backside of Parade Magazine. She continued her gardening experience with internships at Sunset magazine in their test garden and as a gardener at the Winchester Mystery House while a student. She is currently living her dream as the curator of the UC Davis Botanical Conservatory. It’s here where Marlene grows and cares for over 4,000 specimens of the world’s most exotic, strangest and rarest plants and flowers. In addition to years of practical experience, Marlene earned her degree in Horticulture at UC Davis. Her classroom is now her backyard sitting on 40 acres where she grows all sorts of plants. When not at the Conservatory she can be found bi-monthly on Good Day Sacramento where she is known as “The Plant Lady”. She is a former garden writer for the Sacramento Bee and has a podcast called Flower Power Garden Hour where she talks with guests on all things plants and gardening. She also lectures frequently on all aspects of gardening. In her spare time, she and her husband run a non-profit cat sanctuary (45 cats and counting)- Lost Paws Feline Farm.
Read more in the October 2026 newsletter. Our meetings are open to the public — see you there!