When former Cal State Fullerton greenhouse tech Leo Song was a child, he remembers the huge white chrysanthemums that his father grew in their home garden. Each flower was spectacular. In honor of his mother, Song’s father planted a Chinese magnolia that blossomed with fragrant, cup-shaped flowers that his mother loved. And so began a lifetime of interest in growing and nurturing plant life.
Song most likely inherited his skill in caring for plants from his father, who knew how to propagate LaGrand nectarines and eventually went into farming. Later, Song’s father, along with a friend, opened a wholesale fruit and vegetable company, K&S Jobbers, in Los Angeles.
“I remember I had a summer job at K&S,” said Song. “I swept the floor, used hand tools and learned as much as I could about plants.”
After he graduated from high school, Song attended UCLA where he originally majored in meteorology but soon discovered that he much preferred his botany classes. While there, he studied under some of the giants in the field of horticulture: Mildred Matthias, who focused on classifying and naming plants used for medicinal purposes by indigenous people; professors who excelled in plant diseases and cures; climatologists who could forecast weather changes; and more.
Song began reading more about plant life to better understand the needs of specific plants to ensure their chances of survival. He learned about soil and irrigation, plant pathology, pollination and more. He also conducted research in Chile while he was still a student.
Upon graduation in 1963, Song enlisted in the California Air National Guard and was stationed in Lackland, Texas. From there, he was sent to Chicago to become an air weather service observer. At both places, he was able to learn more about plants, particularly those from the Midwest and South. When he finally began graduate school, he began research on convergent vegetation evolution in the California and Chile Mediterranean climate zones.
In 1969, he spent nine weeks in an internship with the Monrovia Nursery Company in Azusa, where he learned every aspect of nursery operation that he could: propagation, pruning and more. Upon completion of his internship at Monrovia, he worked for the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wildflower and Native Plants, where he learned how to process seeds for the wild for propagation.
Song arrived at Cal State Fullerton in 1971, as the equipment tech for the university’s greenhouse. As part of his job, he was tasked with building a plant collection to support the research of the botany and biology classes. The hope was that maybe someday, an arboretum could be established.
The campus at that time was fairly new and Song was determined to make the most of it. Much of the equipment in the greenhouse was more than 10 years old and in poor condition. He learned to barter: “If I buy this unit, will you install it for me?” This included a cooling system. Without it, plants wouldn’t survive.
“I became good friends with the heating staff, and they helped with the cooling system,” he said.
He also had to upgrade the greenhouse watering system, assess what plants were in the greenhouse and what was needed to provide the environment they needed to thrive.
“At that time, there were lots of orchids,” he said. “Everyone was donating their grandmothers’ orchids. At a certain point, we just couldn’t accept any more. And there were lots of cacti. But they too were taking up too much room. And frankly, cacti in California don’t need to be in a greenhouse.”
There was also a rattlesnake problem. One of the biology professors was storing rattlesnakes in one of the greenhouse isolation rooms. The snakes had to go, so the professor located them elsewhere.
Once Song cleared out what didn’t belong in the greenhouse, he started building a diverse collection. He discovered a collection of 300 seed packets in a drawer. He planted most of them and they began to grow. Other botanists and professors offered seeds including the Welwitschia mirabilis — a very rare and bizarre-looking plant that only grows wild in the desert of Namibia and Angola.
Although he was new to the field, professionals shared seeds with Song because he had developed a reputation as someone “who could make plants grow.”
Dreaming of an Arboretum
Before long, Song began collecting and growing plants for the arboretum while others began raising money for this new development that was to be located at the northeast section of the campus.
Once the arboretum was included in the university’s master plan, efforts to reach out to the community for financial assistance began in earnest. When the city of Fullerton expressed interest in helping to develop the arboretum, it looked as if the dream would become a reality.
The soil was amended and healthy Valencia oranges from clean stock were planted behind the Heritage House and adjacent to the California Native Meadow. A new ground and watering system also needed to be installed, and new soil needed to be brought in. Distinct soils needed to be developed for each section of the arboretum. The watering system also had to be developed to provide the water needed for each collection. Ensuring that plants with similar soil and water needs were planted near each other was another puzzle to be solved.
Zones were developed: desert, Mediterranean, rainforest, tropical and subtropical.
“For a couple of years, it seemed like a construction site,” said Song. “Grading and irrigation are critical otherwise we’d be transplanting continuously. I needed to figure out the appropriate zones for each plant and keep track of where each plant was placed. If you really look at plants, they’ll tell you what they need.”
Song continued to reach out to multiple sources for seeds and cuttings. The Orange County community generously donated plants and trees. The Orange County chapter of the Rare Fruit Growers agreed to give the arboretum 75 rare fruit trees, not commonly found in Southern California, including cherimoya, papaya, guava, Buddha’s hand, loquat, pawpaw and mulberry.
Upon his retirement after 33 years of service, Song continues his involvement as a volunteer.
“I have a vested interest in all the arboretum plants and still have an eye out for unusual specimens and at home, I continue to work with carnivorous plants,” said Song.