Friday, December 27, 2013

Wandering a Bay Area neighborhood…

While I loved the excitement of three intense days spent touring gardens and nurseries with my fellow garden bloggers during the Fling, I finally hit the wall in Keeyla Meadows’ garden. Too much!!! I needed a little alone-time before we got back on the bus, so I wandered around her neighborhood a bit enjoying the silence.

Just for a bit though because I was soon joined by Scott, Peter and Alison. Seems they needed to get out too. I have fond memories of the four of us just wandering up and down the street. We even happened upon a house for sale and toured through it, oddly I didn’t take any photos. Maybe because I had gone photo-crazed on these trees just minutes before.

They were amazing...

A little Callistemon-ish...

But that bark!

The four of us were unable to come up with a name for my new obsession, but I later shared a bit of bark I'd picked up with KS of Gardenbook. And in fact she walked back down to look at them with me and came up with the name Melaeuca, part of the Myrtaceae family.

My research has been unable to get a definitive ID, the best I've come up with is Melaleuca quinquenervia (Punk Tree) or Melaleuca armillaris. Neither of those seem quite right though.

So beautiful!

I eventually tore myself away from the mystery Melaleuca and we wandered back down the street. That's Keeyla Meadows house again...

Whoa! That's a huge Eriobotrya japonica!

That tiny person in the lower left isn't a child it's Peter (the Outlaw)...

The homeowners even modified their fence to fit around the tree, love that.

And there was fruit!

Here's an interesting fence style.

A little too rustic for my garden, but I bet you could get some nice vines growing through there.

Finally it was time to get back on the party bus and continue the adventure (on another day)...

All material © 2009-2013 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

32 comments:

  1. Wow that loquat is huge! Nice Melaleuca too. They are one of my favorite trees. Judging from your pictures it looks like linariifolia - not that it matters since we can't grow it!

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    1. Indeed. Although judging by the amount of debris they were dropping I think I'd be happy just seeing them in other people's gardens.

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  2. That little bit of going rogue with you, Scott and Peter was such fun!

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  3. Wow, what a tree! (trees)...reminds me of something I saw in Australia but I am a bit tree-ignorant. Thanks for sharing.

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    1. "Melaleuca linariifolia, popularly known as Snow-in-Summer, is a plant native to eastern Australia"...see you're right!

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  4. I understand exactly what you mean. I reach that point of saturation even in the most beautiful of places and need a sensory timeout. You found a great neighborhood to explore,

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    1. We were just close enough that Peter was trying to engineer a quick trip to Marcia Donahue's garden...I was tempted but just not up for it.

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  5. On the few organized vacation tours my husband and I've joined, I've experienced a similar need for a break so I can sympathize with your choice to take charge of your own time for awhile during the fling. The Melaleuca is particularly extraordinary in bloom - although they're quite common in SoCal too, I can't clarify the variety for you.

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    1. I think that's precisely why the idea of a cruise vacation terrifies me. I would be trapped!

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  6. OMG...I had totally forgotten about the Open House!

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    1. Do you remember how much it was selling for? Seems like we were all shocked at the price but I honestly can't remember if we were shocked because it was high or low...

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  7. That was a fun walk. I have some pictures of you, Scott, and Alison being a little goofy around that Melaeuca tree trunk. I'll have to get to those posts soon!

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  8. That's sweet that they modified the fence to fit in with the tree. Some people would rather chop anything in the way of a straight boundary/fencing.

    Saturation point feeling, perfectly normal :)

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    1. I was very happy to see they realized what a gem they had. Of course if I remember correctly it (or a second?) was also practically destroying the roof of the house.

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  9. M. quinquenervia sure seems close Loree, and who knows what was available locally when that tree was planted ? Bet it's been there a long time. Really, you can grow just about anything in Berkeley.

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  10. This is exactly what I needed today, with all this ridiculous fog and drab winterness. Great post. Loree. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas.

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  11. Melaleuca linariifolia. Beautiful in someone else's garden, IMO, but a bloody mess in one's own. Constantly shedding year round, such dense shade difficult to garden below them. Best use as a street median or parking lot tree. I always think of them as a giant cauliflower in summer bloom. They build up lots of retained dead twiggy undergrowth when viewed from below, just like Callistemon citrinus, so can be a fire hazard here in California.

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    1. Yes I remember looking at the ground and thinking how much I would hate to see all that debris constantly falling in my own garden and yes! I can see the cauliflower comparison, that's funny.

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  12. Keeyla's gardens are always intense, and generally don't cater to a serene or contemplative moment. I find them interesting at times, but ultimately not spaces I would want to be in/see all the time, they wear me out.

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    1. I suppose everyone has a different idea of what the perfect garden consists of...

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  13. Thanks for this peek into another neighbourhood across the world! I wouldn't have known what kind of tree it was, I always see them and just call them all 'paperbarks'. A bit lazy of me! I loooove the feel of the bark and peeling apart the layers from a piece that's come off.

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    1. I'm no better with a lot of the trees which surround me so I totally understand.

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  14. Wow, what a trees. They are one of my favorite trees. Judging from your pictures it looks like linariifolia. Thanks for sharing.

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  15. Major plant lust! that is amazing!!!! I'm in SoCal right now. It was a completely last minute drive down in one swoop. Stopped for some gas in Portland! I thought about you guys!

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    1. Yay for impromptu road trips, I hope you're having fun!

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  16. The common name in Australia for the melaleuca is "paperbark". We have lots of flaxleaf paperbarks, Melaleuca linariifolia, as street trees in my neighbourhood, but the flowers look a bit different to the one you have here (perhaps a different cultivar). Our trees are similar in size, and were planted in the 1970s. I would imagine that Berkley's climate is similar to ours, so theirs could be about the same age.

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  17. Oh man, will loquats get that big in Portland? I wonder if I need to move my baby now.

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