美国 Greenwood Daylily Gardens – 加州萱草鸢尾天竺葵育种苗圃

苗圃概况

Greenwood Daylily Gardens（格林伍德萱草花园）由 John 与 Cynthia Schoustra 夫妇于 1989 年在美国加利福尼亚州文图拉县（Ventura County）Somis 镇创办，是一家专注于萱草（Daylily）、鸢尾（Iris）、天竺葵（Pelargonium）与地中海气候多年生植物育种、筛选与销售的家庭苗圃，宗旨是”寻找、育种与培育适合加州景观专业人士的区域优势植物品种”。苗圃的客户群以加州景观设计师、景观承包商和园艺师为主，同时面向发烧友零售；苗圃现址位于 Somis 镇 Balcom Canyon Road 一带，2024 年曾遭 Mountain Fire 山火影响，植物多数幸存，基础设施与有机鳄梨果园受损，目前正在募款重建。Greenwood Daylily Gardens 由 Cynthia 与 John Schoustra 夫妇自 1989 年起拥有并运营，是一家家庭式植物育种与筛选苗圃。John Schoustra 自幼对植物有浓厚兴趣——9 岁时挨家挨户推销 Burpee 种子，青少年时期即开始设计与建造景观项目，后毕业于加州大学伯克利分校（UC Berkeley）景观建筑专业，并于 2018 年获南加州园艺学会（Southern California Horticultural Society，SCHS）”年度园艺家”（Horticulturalist of the Year）荣誉；Cynthia 在教学岗位退休后接管办公室事务，专注于新植物的介绍文案与命名。苗圃创建初衷是为了解决一个持续至今的问题——从中西部、东海岸或欧洲苗圃目录邮购的多年生植物在加州表现普遍欠佳（粉萱草开成米色、褶瓣花苞不开、鸢尾不开花、矾根直接枯死），根源在于加州长生长季、夏夜凉爽且无严冬的气候与传统育种区差异显著；为此苗圃测试了数千个现有品种在加州的表现，并自主启动育种项目，培育能在加州景观条件下”自给自足”的品种。苗圃的工程项目覆盖从加州到拉斯维加斯赌场、马里布豪宅、迪士尼乐园，乃至北卡罗来纳州公路与一座沙特宫殿。

植物种类

苗圃的核心植物线涵盖四大类别。一是萱草（Daylily, Hemerocallis）——苗圃最知名产品，自育品种包括 ‘Frankly Scarlett’、’Lady Rose’、’Mahogany Whispers’、’Nile Queen’、’Bahama Butterscotch’、’Black Suave’、’Blushing Summer Valentine’、’Old Adage’、’Quannah’ 等；苗圃萱草耐旱、耐涝、耐火、耐寒与抗物理损伤，萱草锈病（Puccinia hemerocalloides）自中美洲传入加州时苗圃曾一次性销毁逾 40 万株最易感品种以集中精力保留抗锈品系，目前在售品种在加州均具锈病抗性；按花期与常绿性分 Evergreen（E）、Semi-evergreen（Sev）、Deciduous（D）三大类，按重复开花性分 Re（重复开花）与 RR（每年 3-5 轮花期）。二是鸢尾（Iris）——苗圃主推高有髯鸢尾（Tall Bearded）系列（4 轮/年花期、银灰绿叶、可在加州无严冬条件下稳定开花），无髯鸢尾则按加州具体生境选种：太平洋海岸杂交（PCH）由 Iris douglasiana 等原种选育、不耐南加州反射热，可换用 ‘Grandma’s Purple Flag’、’Nada’ 或 ‘Great Grandma’s Purple Flag’；Spuria 鸢尾耐热耐旱；Louisiana 鸢尾喜湿甚至可种于池塘；Siberian 鸢尾大多不适应南加州，仅 ‘Caesar’s Brother’ 表现稳定。三是无髯毛茛目：天竺葵与老鹳草（Pelargonium & Geranium）——苗圃按用途划分为 Species Hybrids、Scented（芳香）、Ivy（藤蔓）、Unique、Angel（”Mini Regals”）、Zonal（带深色环纹）、Regal/Martha Washington 七个栽培组，加州气候下尤其推荐耐旱抗锈的 Species Hybrids 和 Unique 类。四是球根与开花灌木——含 Agapanthus dejaTm ‘Sky Blue’（PP#14989，能在加州夏冬两季持续开花）、低需冷量丁香 ‘Snowy’ Beach Party™ 与 ‘Rosy’ Beach Party™（南加州 Laguna、Huntington、Long Beach 到 Malibu、Ventura 都能稳定开花）、Salvia ‘Love Child’（克利夫兰鼠尾草 × 紫鼠尾草的园中自然杂交种）、Drimia maritima（海葱）、Amaryllis belladonna（”裸女”孤挺花）、Hippeastrum papilio（蝴蝶朱顶红）以及抗病病毒美人蕉品种选育等。

园艺实践与可持续

苗圃秉持”农业与环境能否共存”的实践理念。在山坡过陡无法放置苗圃容器的地块，苗圃改种经认证的有机鳄梨（certified organic avocados）。苗圃坚持不引外水——灌溉用水仅来自雨水与地下水，通过顺应等高线、铺设覆盖物等措施减少径流、增加入渗，已建成苗床系统可在单次暴雨中滞留、净化与渗透超过 100 万加仑径流。每年当地马场与树木服务公司送来超过 5,000 吨废弃物，苗圃将其分拣堆肥转化为苗床基质与覆盖物。苗圃与养蜂人合作，冬季有数百箱蜜蜂迁入苗圃采萱草花粉，助蜂群强健后送往加州中央谷地的 almond 园授粉，回程时为苗圃鳄梨园传粉；苗圃不喷洒果园杂草，工人选择性”刈草”避开羽扇豆、马利筋、三叶草等蜜源植物。苗圃生态记录：约 60 种鸟类、40 种加州本土植物和 20 余种动物栖息于此。2024 年 11 月，加州南部 Mountain Fire 山火袭击苗圃所在地，苗圃植物大部分幸存，但苗圃基础设施和 Schoustra 一家的有机鳄梨果园受损，目前正通过 GoFundMe 募款重建。

服务与销售渠道

苗圃每年 4 月至 6 月的周六上午 9:30 至下午 4 点向公众开放开放参观日（Open House Days），访客可在花田间直接选购部分仅在农场销售的品种；其余时段主要面向景观设计师、景观承包商、苗圃与花园中心的行业专业人士提供预约批发服务，渠道同时接入 Bamboo Pipeline 与 Green Thumb Growing Grounds 两大行业采购平台。在批发分销网络中，苗圃与加州的 Boething、Berylwood、Baron Brothers、Performance、Ventura County Nursery、Valley Growers 等苗圃相邻；面向景观维护端的合作伙伴包括 BrightView、Norman’s 与 LaVerne。苗圃同时提供巴士与团体游览预约，并可派员到客户机构开展现场讲座兼植物销售或线上研讨会。零售订单全年可通过 app.barn2door.com 在线购买后到农场自提或配送。Schoustra 一家与 Somis 社区的长期共存——经营苗圃、栽培有机鳄梨、保育加州本土植物——构成苗圃可持续实践的社区基础。

官网：https://www.greenwoodgarden.com/

Nursery Overview

Greenwood Daylily Gardens, owned and operated by Cynthia and John Schoustra since 1989, is a family-run breeding and selection nursery in Somis, Ventura County, California, specialising in daylilies, irises, pelargoniums and Mediterranean-climate perennials developed for California landscape professionals. The farm supplies wholesale trade (landscape architects, contractors, designers and garden centres) and reaches retail customers through seasonal open-house days and a year-round online store.Greenwood Daylily Gardens has been owned and operated by Cynthia and John Schoustra since 1989, growing out of John Schoustra’s lifelong interest in plants — he sold Burpee seeds door-to-door as a nine-year-old, designed and built landscapes as a teenager, earned a Landscape Architecture degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and was named the 2018 Southern California Horticultural Society Horticulturalist of the Year. Cynthia, a former teacher with a background in botanical illustration, now runs the office and helps name and describe new plant introductions. The nursery was founded to solve a recurring problem: perennials ordered from Midwest, East Coast or European catalogues almost always disappointed in California, with pink daylilies blooming beige, ruffled buds failing to open, irises refusing to flower and heucheras simply dying — a consequence of the long growing season, cool summer nights and absence of hard winters. Greenwood has since trialled thousands of varieties and developed its own breeding programme. Project credits include Las Vegas casinos, Malibu estates, Disneyland, schools and hospitals across California, North Carolina highways and a Saudi palace.

Plant Selection

Greenwood’s core offering is organised into four major lines. Daylilies (Hemerocallis) are the headline crop and include the proprietary ‘Frankly Scarlett’, ‘Lady Rose’, ‘Mahogany Whispers’, ‘Nile Queen’, ‘Bahama Butterscotch’, ‘Black Suave’, ‘Blushing Summer Valentine’, ‘Old Adage’ and ‘Quannah’ series; the nursery is also a test site for the All American Daylily award and classifies varieties by foliage habit (Evergreen, Semi-evergreen, Deciduous) and rebloom tendency (Re, RR). The daylily-rust outbreak (Puccinia hemerocalloides), which arrived from Central America, led the nursery to destroy more than 400,000 plants of the most susceptible varieties in favour of resistant selections. Irises (Iris) centre on Tall Bearded types that bloom reliably without a winter chill, with carefully chosen Beardless alternatives for specific California microclimates — Spuria for heat and drought, Louisiana for moist or even boggy conditions, ‘Caesar’s Brother’ Siberian where Southern California permits, and Pacific Coast Hybrids (PCH) replaced in hot zones by Grandma’s Purple Flag, Great Grandma’s Purple Flag or ‘Nada’. Geraniums and Pelargoniums are split into Species Hybrids, Scented, Ivy, Unique, Angel (“Mini Regals”), Zonal and Regal/Martha Washington groups, with rust-resistant Zonals and heat-tolerant Regals particularly recommended for California. Bulbs and flowering shrubs round out the catalogue, including Agapanthus dejaTm ‘Sky Blue’ (PP#14989, blooming through summer and intermittently the rest of the year), low-chill Lilac ‘Snowy’ and ‘Rosy’ Beach Party™, Salvia ‘Love Child’ (a Cleveland Sage × Purple Sage chance hybrid from the garden), Drimia maritima, Amaryllis belladonna, Hippeastrum papilio and a curated selection of virus-resistant Cannas.

Practices and Sustainability

Greenwood operates on the principle that agriculture and environment can coexist. On hillsides too steep for nursery containers the farm grows certified organic avocados; the nursery itself cannot go 100% organic because of shipping regulations, but the team works steadily towards that goal. The site uses no imported water — only rain and groundwater — with contoured beds, heavy mulching and infiltration basins that detain, clean and percolate more than a million gallons of runoff per storm, alongside ongoing plantings of native sycamore and oak. Each year local stables and arborists deliver more than 5,000 tons of organic waste, which the team sorts and composts into nursery mix and mulch. Plastic containers are collected back from customer sites for reuse. A local beekeeper moves hundreds of hives onto the property each winter: daylily pollen helps the bees prepare for California’s almond bloom, and the bees return to pollinate the avocado orchard. Crews do not spray orchard weeds but instead selectively “weedwhack” around lupines, butterfly weed and clover. Greenwood has recorded roughly 60 bird species, 40 California native plant taxa and more than 20 animal species on the farm. The November 2024 Mountain Fire swept through the property; most nursery plants survived but infrastructure and the Schoustra family’s organic avocado orchard were damaged, and a GoFundMe campaign is funding the rebuild.

Services and Trade Channels

Open House days run from April through June on Saturdays, 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., when the public is welcome to wander the rows, photograph the plants and take home varieties — including some available only at the farm. Trade customers (landscape architects, designers, contractors, nurseries and garden centres) are welcomed year-round by appointment, with deliveries and trade pricing arranged on request. Greenwood also lists through the Bamboo Pipeline and Green Thumb Growing Grounds wholesale platforms and sits among a cluster of Ventura County nurseries that includes Boething, Berylwood, Baron Brothers, Performance, Ventura County Nursery and Valley Growers; landscape maintenance partners such as BrightView, Norman’s and LaVerne are also nearby. The Schoustras host group tours, bus visits and lectures — in person or as webinars — for garden clubs, master gardener groups and other organisations. Year-round online ordering is fulfilled through barn2door, with farm pickup or delivery available. The combination of family operation, on-farm trials, regional specialisation in Mediterranean-climate perennials and integrated trade and retail channels defines the Greenwood model.