Meetings

February 20 Meeting: Highlights of My Trees: Flowers and Fruits

Join us for a virtual tour of Don Winterstein's renowned orchard in the utility easement behind his backyard. 

In recent years Don has published about 40 articles on his fruit trees in the CRFG Fruit Gardener magazine. For tonight’s presentation he’s selected his prettiest and most interesting pictures from those articles. They cover 30 different kinds of fruit. The objective of the talk is to celebrate fruit growing in Orange County. Sit back and enjoy the diversity and the beauty!

Don Winterstein has had a lifelong interest in plants and gardening, but he got serious after retiring from a career in seismological research in 1999, when he got access to the large (by suburban standards) utility easement area. This became his garden, over SoCal Edison’s dead body, so to speak. Soon after, he joined the Orange County Chapter of CRFG and has been happily growing a wide variety of fruit trees in that big garden ever since. 

Don has been active in Chapter activities over that period, serving as chairman for a term and coordinating the Chapter’s plant sales for about fourteen years, the first four under the leadership of Denny Luby and the rest with Denny as second in command. He has also propagated hundreds of fruit trees for donation to the Chapter’s plant sale.

This meeting can be attended in person and on Zoom:
Thursday 2/20, 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

Red Hill Lutheran Church
13200 Red Hill Ave, Tustin, CA 92780

Click here for a Google Map. We meet in the CLC Fellowship Hall.

Join the meeting on Zoom at 7:00 pm (PST) with the following link: 
Attendees are encouraged to bring fresh fruit from their garden and other snacks to share at the tasting table.

Donations to the opportunity drawing are also appreciated.
Don Winterstein shared his homegrown dragon fruit with attendees at the OC CRFG meeting last September
(Photo credit: Joan Day)



For more information contact Jeff Warner 


Recent Past Meetings & Events

January 16 Meeting: Grafting Demonstrations

The 2025 grafting season is about to begin. In preparation for the Great Scion Wood Exchange (see below), a fabulous group of volunteers will be demonstrating various grafting techniques.

Some of the grafts that will be featured include:
  • Budding
  • Cleft graft
  • Crown bark graft
  • Dragon fruit grafting
  • Omega grafting tool
  • Side graft
  • Whip and tongue graft
Knife sharpening techniques will also be demonstrated.

Bring a grafting knife to be sharpened at one of our two sharpening stations!

You can also drop-off your scion wood at this meeting. We will store your cuttings in a cooler and bring them to the scion exchange for you. Even if you are unable to attend the scion exchange this year, we still very much appreciate your contributions
2023 Grafting Demonstrations

January 18: The Great Scion Wood Exchange (GSWX 2025)

The Great Scion Wood Exchange will once again be held in the Millennium Barn at the Orange County Fairgrounds. GSWX has always been a very successful event, but that success depends on the scion wood donations of our members and guests. Please take the time to bring in cuttings from your favorite varieties to share with others. If you are unable to attend the exchange, please drop off your cuttings at the Jan 16 meeting or contact Dick Malueg to make other arrangements.

Members and guests dropping off scion wood and/or breakfast items may do so between the hours of 8:45 a.m. and 9:45 a.m. Those who donate scion wood will be given early access to collect scion wood at 9:45 a.m.

Always check the patent status of varieties before sharing any cuttings. We do not accept varieties that are protected by an active patent. Here are two lists of patented fruit varieties.


Note: the list from CRFG has not been updated since June 2018. Varieties that have been patented since then are missing from our list (e.g. the recently patented Luna avocado from UCR.) It also appears that some common names are missing, making it more difficult to search for the variety (e.g. the Prime Ark Freedom blackberry is listed under its patent name APF-153T.) 

We cannot except any citrus cuttings because of the ongoing citrus quarantine.

The experts table will open at 9 a.m. to answer questions about grafting and rooting cuttings.

Sally & Laura Holly will be hosting the breakfast buffet again!

Saturday January 18, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.

  • 8:45 a.m. to 9:45 a.m. - drop off scions and breakfast items
  • 9:45 a.m. - early access for scion donors
  • 10:00 a.m. - official start time
  • 12:00 a.m. - end of the exchange & start of Isabel's grafting class (see below)
For more information contact Dick Malueg - [email protected]
A chilly damp day at the 2024 Scion Exchange

Fortunately, it was warmer and dry inside the barn

Millennium Barn in the Centennial Farm
Orange County Fairgrounds
88 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa, CA 92626

Park in Lot B off of Fair Drive. Enter the farm area through the back gate. Parking and admission for the Centennial Farm is Free.

Click here for a map of the OC Fair & Event Center.


*** The OC CRFG Grafting DVD is now available to watch on our YouTube channel ***

 Five OC CRFG members demonstrate methods they have used with success for grafting, air-layering and clonal propagation.

Click here for the full video.