Please Help Support Plant Hunting Activities
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I am Mike McCullough and am an authority on Rhododendron occidentale, a plant which can be found in California and in Oregon.
Some of my Rhododendron occidentale discoveries are at the Gardens at Lake Merritt in Oakland.
Am assisting Rick Edwards, Mitch Mortvedt, and Mike Creel in finding out why Rhododendron occidentale does not do well in the eastern part of our country by providing information, seed, and cutting material.
The named seedlings mentioned in the article by Mitch Mortvedt and Rick Edwards, and the seed from southern California came from me.
Rick Edwards, who lives in Cedar Creek, Missouri, in June planned to drive to northern California and explore Humboldt County and Del Norte County in California and would have liked me to show him the area of Low Divide Road in Del Norte County (where there is both Rhododendron occidentale and Rhododendron macrophyllum, a discovery by Britt Smith and Frank Mossman, and some of my discoveries), Myrtle Creek Trail, Crescent City Flats (an area rich in Rhododendron occidentale explored by Britt Smith and Frank Mossman before they discovered Stagecoach Hill), Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, Stagecoach Hill, Sue-meg State Park, and Azalea State Reserve.
Rhododendron occidentale and / or Rhododendron macrophyllum is found at all of these locations.
In May received an email from Rick Edwards that because of the health of his mother (who is in her nineties), and the cost of gasoline in California ( “That is more than double the cost of gas to travel from my home to the CA state line and all the way back home again”) Rick Edwards decided to cancel the trip.
I shall go ahead with the trip, and also explore TJ Howell Botanical Drive in Oregon, Sea Ranch in Sonoma County and Flynn Creek in Mendocino County.
In 2021 a member of the Eureka Chapter of the American Rhododendron Society, who lives in Trinadad, California (which is a short distance South of Sue-meg State Park and Stagecoach Hill) and I explored Sue-meg State Park and would have explored Stagecoach Hill the next day if it had not rained. On this trip will very likely go plant hunting with him.
I live in San Jose, California, am on a fixed income, but unfortunately my expenses have gone up about five hundred a month.
Hopefully things shall soon go my way, and my life shall soon be better.
Thanks to the GoFundMe account, birthday presents, and collecting aluminum cans and plastic bottles, shall be able to go on the plant hunting trip to southern Oregon and to northern California.
Would also like to raise money to in late June explore the San Jacinto Mountains, Mount Palomar, and Cuyamaca Mountain State Park in Southern California.
Would like to raise a thousand dollars for the northern trip, and a thousand dollars for plant hunting in southern California.
Have been a contributor to the Seed Exchange of the American Rhododendron Society for many years.
Click on my contributions to see photos.
Unfortunately due to a lack of funds which made it so that I did not go out of the greater Bay Area in my seed collecting last year, and no seed at quite a few locations, contributed fewer seed to the Seed Exchange for this year then I would have liked to have contributed.
Please send contributions to https://www.gofundme.com/f/please-help-support-plant-hunting-activities
I send out emails of my activities to over seventy people ranging from Hawaii in the West to Germany in the East.
If you contribute to my expeditions you shall receive copies of my reports if I have your email address.
Have been looking for a job for over seventeen months.
Am looking for a job in Customer Service, Administration, Writing, Research, Journalism, Public Relations, Photography, Public Relations, Advertising, or a similar type of position in the San Jose, California area.
Organizer
Mike McCullough
Organizer
San Jose, CA