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BOTANICALS: White alder
These trees are useful in problem areas such as spots that are nutrient-deficient or have poor drainage.
General: White alders (Alnus rhombifolia) are appealing for their distinctive white bark, upright shape and contrasting, deep green foliage that covers slightly weeping branches. These fast-growing trees are used as shade trees, windbreaks and background trees as well as trees to control for erosion along waterways. Alders are found where the soil is deep and constantly moist. They tolerate temperatures as low as minus-10 degrees, but they also thrive in temperate zones.
Size: 25 to 40 feet high, 40 feet wide
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Southern California's desert cities offer budget travelers much to do and see this winter
Many veteran Southern California desert vacationers prefer some of the newer cities within a short drive of Palm Springs.
Enclaves such as Desert Hot Springs, Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage and Palm Desert tend to attract a wealthy crowd of celebrities and retirees, but budget travelers will discover some unusual finds.
Exploring is most convenient by car. Or day trips from Palm Springs are possible via the Sunline Transit Agency's SunBus (www.sunline.org).
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Bam-boo!
Sean Bigley knows bamboo can be scary, the stuff of backyard nightmares.
Like something out of a horror movie, the world's fastest-growing plant can creep along underground and pop up uninvited, again and again and again. One little root can sprout a forest. Bamboo can swallow up space and make the rest of the backyard simply ... disappear.
"Bamboo has this reputation," Bigley says. "It can go crazy and get out of control. I'm working to change that concept of bamboo as an instant nightmare."
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Response about nuclear
In response to the Oct. 18 letter by Nettie R. Higginbotham, who challenged those who wish to build a nuclear power plant in the Valley to do three things:
Buy 1,000 acres of land and put the plant in the middle: We are doing that.
Have all investors live on such acreage: A new nuclear power plant emits about one millirem a year of radiation. You get 10 times that with a dental exam or a breast exam and you get 10-15 millirems a year if you smoke cigarettes.
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Like a hungry teen, life on Earth had big growth spurts
Twice in the Earth's history, living creatures underwent astonishing growth spurts, and each time, new organisms emerged that were a million times larger than anything that had existed before.
Scientists say that's the way life on our planet expanded from tiny single-celled microbes billions of years ago to the ponderous whales and lofty sequoia trees that are today's biggest living things.
Rather than a gradual increase in maximum body size, as scientists used to think, they now think that growth was a two-step process. The first spurt happened about 1.85 billion years ago, and the second about 580 million years ago, long before dinosaurs walked the Earth.
Sago palms are a valuable addition to Japanese-style landscapes, tropical gardens, courtyards and containers for porch and patio.
General: Sago palms (Cycas revoluta) are a geologically ancient genus, dating to the times of dinosaurs -- the Jurassic Period. Young sago palms are single-trunked, but with age, they can branch out into multiple trunks. Their feathery pinnate fronds are blush-green when immature; they eventually crown the fibrous brown trunk with four-foot fronds that become a rich dark-green color. Under ideal conditions, a single plant can have more than 100 stiff, decorative leaves. Remove dead or damaged fronds as needed. Propagate from seed or detached offsets. Few diseases or insects seriously affect the sago palm.
Size: The clumping plant can grow 4 to 6 feet tall.
Cultivation: Plant any time of the year in mild climate areas or in spring after the last frost, from 1-, 5- or 15-gallon or specimen-size containers, and use them singly or in groups of three. Construct a watering basin three times the diameter of the original container, and mulch with 2 inches of humus or compost. Sago palms tolerate high temperatures, drought, wind and cold weather down to freezing. They require full sun or partial shade in deep, well-drained soil with a pH of 6.5 to 7.0.
-- Source: "California Gardener's Guide" by Bruce and Sharon Asakawa (Cool Springs Press, $24.99)
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