Posts by:

Christa Weston


Southern California has a wide range of winter holiday celebrations that are reflective of the diverse peoples, cultures, and communities that make up the US. Some of the holidays celebrated at Rancho Los Cerritos before it became a historic site were Christmas and New Years. Las Posadas and Hanukkah are some other winter holidays that[…]

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Rancho Los Cerritos is happy to provide internship opportunities to college students every semester. Meet our latest cohort of interns! Nikkita Lynch is the Getty Marrow Undergraduate Intern this summer in the curatorial department. Mostly, she has been working hard on an important project related to our recently digitized oral history recordings. These recordings will[…]

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Red Bird of Paradise or Poinciana (Caesalpinia pulcherrima)

Plant of the Moment: Red Bird of Paradise or Poinciana (Caesalpinia pulcherrima). The forecourt is a blaze of color as this West Indies native comes into bloom! The Red Bird of Paradise so impressed the 17th-century Spanish explorers when they saw it in bloom that they imported it to Europe, where it has been gracing[…]

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A big thank you to eight devoted Rancho Los Cerritos volunteers who showed up on the hottest day of the year thus far to toil in the garden! It takes many hands to keep the site maintained for our community to enjoy, but this was an especially amazing group of people! If you are interested[…]

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National Pollinator Week! National Pollinator Week, a worldwide celebration, is from June 21-27 and is initiated and managed by Pollinator Partnership. The sole purpose of this week is to celebrate and encourage others to learn ways that we can protect pollinators. Many pollinators are increasingly being affected by the possibility of extinction and National Pollinator[…]

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Juneteenth National Independence Day has just been made a national holiday. It is celebrated on June 19th to commemorate the ending of slavery in the United States. The holiday dates back to June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas with news that the Civil War had ended and that enslaved people were free.[…]

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Plant of the Moment: Justicia carnea – Brazilian Plume Flower. Located in the backyard’s shaded planter beds to the east of the wisteria arbor, this delightful perennial generally has two, and occasionally three, waves of brilliant color in the summer. And it’s not just a pretty flower! Scientists have been looking into its medicinal qualities,[…]

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Plant of the Moment: Romneya (Matilija Poppy). They are scattered throughout the California native garden, the flowers of this perennial started to pop up in mid-April. They are primarily native to Ojai, with scattered populations found as far south as Baja California. The Matilija poppy’s preferred habitats are dry washes and canyons where its underground[…]

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Plant of the Moment: the Wisteria sinensis. The Wisteria, which is native to the eastern half of China, is blooming and just about at its peak. So, if you have not been to the Rancho yet this spring, now is the time to schedule a visit. There is an abundance of blooms around the site,[…]

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