It's Planting Season
The rainy season has begun, and now is the time to plant California pipevine. Getting a vine in the ground with the first rains gives it the whole wet season to root. Our rescued plants are leafy and ready to go.
Pick up a plant
Come any Sunday between 2 and 4pm to the farm stand at the Gill Tract Community Farm, 1050 San Pablo Ave in Albany, and take home a rescued pipevine, donation recommended. You can reserve one on the pipevine map, and anyone can collect it for you. If Sundays don’t work, email hello@whrfund.org and we will find another way.
Already planted one?
We would love to hear from you. Tell us how many plants you took and where you planted them, or where they are going if they are still in their pots. A street, a park or a neighborhood is plenty. You can drop a pin and a photo at whrfund.org/i-planted, or email us. It helps us keep track of where the rescued vines are growing now.
Planting it
- Plant it now. Early in the rainy season matters most.
- Sun or shade both work. Give it something to climb, like a fence, a shrub or a small tree.
- Bury it deep. Bring the soil right up to the leaves so one or two leaves sit on the surface and no bare stem shows. The buried stem is where new roots form. A long vine can be coiled in the bottom of the hole.
- Build a little berm. Push up a ring of soil around the plant so water pools there, then water it in.
- Water it between rains, and through its first dry summer.
- Be patient. Pipevine puts its energy into roots first and often comes up in spring. Don’t dig it up to check on it.
The full guide, with a diagram, is in How to plant a pipevine.
Planting with our partners
We are proud of the partners putting these vines back in the ground with us. With Sogorea Te’ Land Trust we have already planted 35 pipevines on Ohlone land. On November 1 we planted 5 at Strawberry Creek Park in Berkeley with Transition Berkeley, on the same creek the vines were rescued from.
Plant with us on a creek
This season we are planting the rescued vines with local creek groups. Everyone is welcome.
- Saturday, November 14, Claremont Canyon in Oakland with the Claremont Canyon Conservancy, and Martinez with Friends of Alhambra Creek
- Sunday, November 15, Leigh Creekside Park in Lafayette with the Lafayette Creeks Committee
- Saturday, December 5, Dimond Park in Oakland with Friends of Sausal Creek
- Saturday, December 12, Old Mill Park in Mill Valley with the Mill Valley StreamKeepers
- Saturday, December 19, the Yerba Buena EcoPatch in San Francisco
We also have volunteer propagation on Sundays from 1 to 4pm, growing the next round of vines. Details and RSVPs are on the events page.
The plants are free. A $25 donation is recommended, never required, at whrfund.org/support.
These vines grew from the California pipevine UC Berkeley tore out of the Strawberry Creek bank in July. We rooted cuttings from what was removed, and volunteers potted them at the Gill Tract. Every one planted this winter is habitat for the California pipevine swallowtail, whose caterpillars eat nothing else.
Thank you,
Rosetta Wang
President, Wild Harvest and Restoration Fund