Friday, November 6, 2009

Golden Gate Park (Jungle)

Part of my continuing series on our October trip to California…After we finished up at the Botanical Gardens we walked through parts of Golden Gate Park. It really is so amazing, and so vast. Our destination was the Conservatory of Flowers last time I was able to visit Golden Gate Park (over 10 years ago) the conservatory was closed because of some catastrophe. This time I couldn’t wait to get inside, finally! Above, just outside the conservatory were these huge Agave Americana variegata …over 6 ft tall….

“Plain old” Agave Americana…
Another wall of Aloe…amazing.
And below, Andrew…collapsed on the steps in front of the conservatory. Guess what. Closed. Again. I am destined to never step foot inside?! Damn. See those stormy skies? They are reflective of our moods at this point. But we quickly got over it...
Because this is what we saw next...
These AMAZING tree ferns (and Gunnera). These guys were over 9 ft tall. I wish I could have brought one home with me…they were just stunning. We felt like we were on a movie set they were so "other-worldly"!

6 comments:

  1. Hi DG~~ I'm on the next flight out! I thought they were palm trees but tree ferns is way better. I'm glad your trip was worth it. Maybe Alice @ "Bay Area Tendrils" can give you a head's up on the conservatory's hours, for next time. Love link: happy to do it.

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  2. Some of your pictures are not coming up for me: wall of aloe (3rd from top) and what we saw next (5). Anyone else having this trouble, or is it just me?
    Can't believe I once lived right on the panhandle (this was before the gardening bug bit) and all that fabulous stuff was just background to me.

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  3. Grace, go there! It was partially my own fault. Andrew made up this incredible spreadsheet with all the things we wanted to do and the days and times everything was open. I really didn't think that Columbus Day qualified as a holiday!

    ricki, I checked on Firefox and Safari (besides my default IE) and can see them fine. I am sorry that you can't...you are missing the amazing tree ferns!!! IF ANYONE ELSE IS HAVING THIS PROBLEM PLEASE LET ME KNOW...although I am so techno dumb that I don't know what I'll do about it!

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  4. It physically pains me not to be able to grow tree ferns like that. When I was there, the sprinklers were running, it was whole drippy wonderful jungle.
    PS I didn't have issues with images loading either, hopefully the problem has self resolved.

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  5. D'oh! Bummer about the closure, Andrew has the right expression for the frustrated botanical nut turned away once again. I was living in SF when the conservatory was wrecked by a horrible storm (same one that downed a ton of mature trees in the park, it was horrendous) and remember that it took eons for them to scrape the $$ together to fix and reopen it, maybe a decade or more?? I don't think I've even been back since it re-opened, sadly. Maybe you'll be lucky next time! (No photo issues for me, with my clunky computer.)

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  6. Megan, I feel your pain!

    Karen, the storm you mention must have been the one that had it closed the last time I was there....someday maybe I'll see inside...

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