FALLBROOK: Small sampling of international trees planted at La Paloma Elementary School

Four continents represented in new grove

By TOM PFINGSTEN - Staff Writer | Monday, November 17, 2008 5:08 PM PST ∞

FALLBROOK ---- In the middle of an elementary school campus near downtown Fallbrook, a manicured stand of young trees and drought-tolerant shrubs has local gardeners and educators excited about what they've dubbed an "international" grove of saplings.

Students have participated in the school's popular after-school gardening program for years at La Paloma Elementary, where the Fallbrook Garden Club recently planted six trees from four continents on a triangular piece of land between classrooms.

The project essentially transformed a patch of dirt and weeds into a sitting area for students and teachers, and provided a valuable opportunity to tie in science and geography lessons with a little bit of worldwide botany, Principal Lea Curcio said.

“It really has taken a piece of our campus that wasn’t so pretty and made it very unique and beautiful," Curcio said, adding that there will be benches and informational plaques added in the near future. "When it’s done, it will be a beautiful place where our students can go.”

Funded by a $5,000 grant from the American Society of Landscape Architects, the project includes three species from Asia, such as the "Chinese fringe tree," as well as a "strawberry tree" from Greece, the "Queensland bottle tree" from Australia and the "eastern redbud" representing North America.

Garden club co-president Sandy LeMasters said she likes the idea of introducing youngsters to trees from around the world.

"When the kids in fifth and sixth grade are studying geography, for example, these trees would be part of their curriculum," said LeMasters. "Before they were put in here, this was weeds and dirt. It adds so much to the appearance of the school."

The international grove sits around the corner from a plot of land that serves as the school garden, where volunteers from the garden club teach students the fundamentals of backyard gardening. The program has gained popularity with students in recent years, Curcio said.

Garden club member Barbara Mhyre said the saplings in the international grove were at least three years old when they were planted.

"We got the largest specimens we could find, because there were funds to do it, and they're less susceptible to damage," Mhyre said, adding that the club chose species that won't grow taller than 25 feet, but will provide a good deal of shade when they mature.

She said it took a while to find a tree seller that carried the rarest species of the bunch, the Australian bottle brush.

"We finally found it in a nursery in Escondido, and there were only two of them," said Mhyre.

Each "continent" in the grove is isolated in its own planter, and "even the shrubs are continent-appropriate," she said, pointing out a Greek shrub called dwarf myrtle decorating the ground near the Greek strawberry tree. "On the island where this comes from, the brides would wear the flowers in their hair."

"Drought tolerance was a consideration, too," said Mhyre, since hardier plants will last longer, and "in the end, that's what stays looking good."

For the students, the grove will soon be a shady place to read or do homework, but for the garden club, the stakes are a bit higher.

The bottom line, said LeMasters, is "to get young people interested in gardening."

"It's important for our future," LeMasters said.

Contact staff writer Tom Pfingsten at (760) 740-3516 or tpfingsten@nctimes.com.