The Ultimate Rhododendron and Azalea Experience. Right Now is the Time

If beautiful flowers warm your heart, if you are the kind of person who can be mesmerized by flowers of vivid color, nascent, perfectly formed, and not just a lath house of them, but ACRES of them, I know a place in Sebastopol that is definitely your kind of place called Sonoma Horticultural Nursery.  And NOW is the time to go there because it is bloom time.  There are 8 acres of land that make up Sonoma Horticultural and part of it is lath houses and a retail rhododendron and azalea operation. 

The other part, what they refer to as their “eight acres of demonstration gardens”, has been intensely planted with rhodies, as rhododendron lovers often refer to them.  Not counting state parks, such as Kruse Rhododendron State Natural Reserve -- http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=448 -- only in Eugene, Oregon’s famous Hendricks Park have I seen acres of rhododendrons in bloom, similarly lining paths maintained for no commercial purpose, only to provide the public with a few weeks of rhododendron and azalea hypnosis.

In what we commonly think of as a nursery, we might see a few dozen rhododendrons and azaleas in bloom, in rows, organized by color and type, ready to take home and plant.  Sonoma Horticultural has this also, but in the 8 acres, along the lush, exotically planted trails and paths, some of which become part of the shores of the little lakes they have, there are virtual rhododendron TREES, with hundreds of blooms.  Fancy the sight of vivid purples, intense and deep hues of magenta, pink, white, red, yellow, orange, with hundreds of flowers per plant, some with the height of  pretty tall trees, and HUNDREDS of them, everywhere you go on the paths, you walk around a corner and think you have stepped into the middle of a silent fireworks display.

You end up punch drunk from vivid color and never forget the uplift. 

Sonoma Horticultural Nursery is one of Sebastopol’s true character components, part of what makes the whole Sebastopol area abuzz with creativity and a passion for quality.

You can read about how they came to be the amazing place they are and see stunning photographs of flowers at their web site:

http://www.sonomahort.com/index.htm

Please comment at this blog site, with your rhododendron experiences, recommendations and anything you would like to chime in with, and, if you go to visit Sonoma Horticultural, please let me know what you think.

Richard von Sternberg

Richard.vonsternberg@cbnorcal.com

Strolling through the lush vegetation along a path at Sonoma Horticultural

Nirvana for Pastry Lovers in Sebastopol

If you are not fond of chocolate or other sweet treats, what I have to say may not evoke any beautiful memories or stir any latent chocolate curiosities in you.  If, on the contrary, you count yourself among those who have a “weakness” in that area, listen up.  There is a place to go in Sebastopol to experience taste bud exhilaration and cultural high aesthetics at the same time:   Patisserie Angelica.

Once, when I was little, my family took a vacation with a petite trailer set up for cooking things.  Every morning on our trip my Mother would make hot chocolate with ingredients I was far too young to understand or appreciate.  I remember sipping that hot chocolate so well, that it has left permanent memories of the refreshing surprise that was my Mother’s concoction.  Until La Patisserie there has been for me no tactile equivalent, no sip of anything that put me right back in the middle of my memory.

The day I discovered Patisserie Angelica, I asked the owner how “French” in the item on their menu called “French Hot Chocolate” distinguished it from others.  I did not know that she was the one of the owners or that she had mastered her craft in France, Belgium and England so it did not occur to me what kind of tactile memories were stirred inside her in associating the name of her menu item with all she had accomplished in Paris and my having asked.  She offered to serve some French Hot Chocolate up, inviting me to learn by doing.

In this case, of course, sipping.  And sip I did.  The whipped cream atop the chocolate treat introduced the experience as an all real one.  The chocolate drink beyond the layer of wispy, buttery, sweet cream was rich beyond anything I had ever tasted in the medium of hot chocolate drinks in all the decades I have enjoyed them.  The chocolate is intense without being overwhelming, but on the border of overwhelm, an absolute peak experience in cocoa. This is taste you can feel as is spreads from your palate backwards, enriching you, leaving aftertastes that are like small aftershocks of the deeply satisfying sipping experience.

Wow.

Everything they make is, well, superior.  Condra and her sister, Deborah, the partners responsible for the elixir that hooked me on La Patisserie, have brought centuries of European refinement in the art of dessert-making to our country and deliver art you can eat and lull yourself into “Oh my, my, my…..ummmm”.

They have a web presence that has people ordering their tasties from all over. They have a walk-in retail establishment operating on Fridays and Saturdays only.  It would be worth driving there from Ohio to sample their wares.

Their web address:  http://www.patisserieangelica.com/

Imagine, Deborah and Condra took a moment to teach me their craft.  I decided my best way to be of help is to EAT and ENJOY what they make.

Richard von Sternberg
http://www.richardvonsternberg.com/