Tags: 2018, Geraniums, John Schoustra, Meeting, pelargoniums, Season 2018-2019

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For our September event when John Schoustra presented Out of Africa: Pelargoniums (Geraniums) for California Landscapes.

Who are Gary’s Nebula, Queen of Orange and Veronica Contreras? They’re floriferous California-bred Geranium hybrids derived from tough South African natives, perfect for our climate. Nurseryman John Schoustra introduced a whole palette of pelargoniums (Geraniums), from ground covers to shrubs that provide year round color and fragrance. A plant sale followed the presentation.

Nurseryman John Schoustra was awarded the Horticulturist of the Year award for 2018 in recognition of his accomplishments in the field and continuing service to horticultural organizations.

John is the owner of Greenwood Daylily Gardens in Somis, California, and has served as president of the All American Dayliliy Selection Council, as regional vice president of the American Hemerocallis Society, as well as being a current and long term board member of the Southern California Horticultural Society and the Nursery Growers Association (NGA.) Others know him from classes he has taught at the Los Angeles Arboretum and South Coast Botanic Gardens, and from his popular speaking engagements, both local and national.

Upon his graduation from the University of California at Berkeley with a degree in Landscape Architecture, John cofounded a landscape construction company that for 10 years designed, built and maintained projects ranging from small residential to entire campuses for several mental hospitals, hotels and office parks. This experience led him to found Greenwood Daylily Gardens in 1989, which he owns and operates with his wife Cynthia, and whose mission is to find, breed and grow superior daylilies for California landscape professionals.

In recent years, he has also been breeding irises, clivias, pelargoniums and other flowering perennials, as well as continually improving Greenwood’s environmental impact. He composts thousands of tons of waste materials into potting soil, provides habitat for wildlife on his property, and has contoured the nursery grounds to detain, clean and percolate millions of gallons of stormwater runoff annually.

John has served the industry as Chief Horticulturist at Rancho Los Alamitos Historic Site and Gardens, where he developed an archival horticulture and arboriculture approach to caring for historic landscapes, presented at the 1997 Sustainable Tree Care Conference at UCLA; negotiated with the State Water Quality Board while serving as president of the NGA, resulting in the creation of the Los Angeles Irrigated Lands Group and quadrupling NGA membership; and introduced over 30 cultivars to California horticulture. Notable selections include ‘Frankly Scarlett’ the 2003 All American Daylily, ‘Love Child’, a native sage, and over a dozen pelargoniums.