Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Back to Balboa Park: the Lath House and Australian Garden


The Botanical Building, aka The Lath House, was built for the 1915-16 Exposition held in San Diego's Balboa Park and is one of the largest lath structures in the world.

It is eminently photographable, we walked by it several times and I had to snap a photo every single time. That's why the light is so different in some of these images. According to balboapark.org: "The Botanical Building plantings include more than 2,100 permanent plants, featuring fascinating collections of cycads, ferns, orchids, other tropical plants and palms. The Botanical Building also presents some of the Park’s vibrant seasonal flower displays." Unfortunately the seasonal displays during our December visit were nothing but poinsettia, not a favorite of mine.

Those palms however, they're lovely...

Heading inside...

The poinsettia were everywhere! Hard to avoid them even when photographing an impressive staghorn fern.

Anthurium podophyllum (there were some labels in the lath house)

Blechnum speciosa 'Silver Lady'

The "shorter tree fern"...

Ready to leave and taking one last look before turning around...

To this view!

Everybody enjoys the sunshine.

The Timken Museum of Art backs up against the pond, that's where these beauties were planted, against the museum building.

I don't think I could ever tire of that silver blue color.

Now we're down in the Australian Gulley Garden. If you read my earlier rant then you know...this garden is extremely hard to locate, and a little underwhelming once you get there. There were, again, no labels that I could find. So none of my attempts at ID can really go any further than the genus. This of course is a eucalyptus.

Dried up banksia (?)

Still cool, but I think I'd prefer it alive.

Grevillea, maybe G. 'pink pearl'

Leucadendron

Lovely...

An acacia, I believe.

Eucalyptus

Brachychiton (bottle tree)

Erythrina

And so this is: THE END. Well, of this post. We still have the Desert Garden (different from the Old Cactus Garden) and the Zoo to see (soon).

All material © 2009-2015 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

24 comments:

  1. Wow, amazing building. The light inside looks great in your photos as well.
    Love the sliver/blue palms as well, mind you any blue plants, are Ok with me.

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    1. It really is an amazing building, living where I do (rain rain rain, in the winter) I couldn't help but imagine it fitted inside with glass or plexi. I imagine the shade is a welcome respite on a sunny San Diego summer day.

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  2. Bloody poinsettias, always gets in the way! Nevermind, the place and the other plants are undeniably beautiful!

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    1. All-in-all I had nothing to complain about. Most of the places we visited were blessedly free of holiday decor.

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  3. What an incredible building, especially from the inside, looking out. It's the type of architecture that leads one to expect a glass house...happy surprise.

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  4. That's one amazing lath house! So much great foliage! Is that Bismarckia nobilis again? I'm totally in love with that palm!

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    1. Yes I think it is, and so tall! Can you imagine having 7 or 8 of them planted around your garden?!!!

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  5. Holiday Poinsettias could be my least favorite plant of all time. If it's not #1, it's close.

    As I remember the LA Arboretum had the best Australian garden locally, though it was pretty new when I saw it. The Huntington's for a long time was not an Australian garden so much as it was a Eucalyptus grove. With the recent interest in Australian plants, we may get improvement in all of them--which won't take much.

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    1. Nice to hear I'm in good company, I did see a cut flower arrangement with poinsettias last Christmas that almost had me thinking them pretty. I got over it.

      The LA Arboretum was another stop on this trip, I wasn't terribly impressed there either, although it was definitely better than this one. Here's hoping the improvements start soon!

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  6. What an amazing structure. It sort of reminds me of an old train station. The view from the house is also amazing.

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    1. Ah, I can see that. I never would have thought of it but you're right! (train station)

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  7. Great photos! Shame the Australian Garden seems a bit neglected -- I'm kind of surprised a group of San Diego gardeners hasn't made a project of it.

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    1. Maybe that's in the works? It did seem rather new, perhaps they're just getting started.

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  8. The 13th and 14th photos have to be some of the best you've featured here (that aren't of your garden -- I think we tend to more lovingly photograph our own stuff because we're familiar with many of its more secret angles). Great composition, great light, great design!

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    1. Ah thank you! Oh to have that lovely warm, soft, light for all my photos!

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  9. Wow, wow, wow, and just wow. And then a little more wow.

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    1. I see a San Diego vacation in your near future!

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  10. Interesting place...the lath house is beautiful. I wouldn't mind having one for my self.

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    1. I've got a friend out on Sauvie Island (where Cistus is) that has a very old dilapidated lath house on their property. It's a tiny fraction of the size of this place, and basically just a box...but still magical.

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  11. I lived in SD for nearly 10 years in the mid 70's to mid 80's. Both my children were born there, though they have no memories of it;they were too young when we left. We often spent a day at Balboa Park, and my favorite place was the model railroad museum. Did you visit that ? I've never regretted leaving San Diego , I actually like the climate better here, and SD was somewhat of a cultural wasteland back then..couldn't keep a symphony going, tepid theater scene, and a crappy baseball team. But it was a mecca for Fuchsias, Begonias, tropical foliage and cut flowers. Sadly many of these industries have moved off shore.

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    1. We did not visit the model railroad museum, there were so many things to do and so little time to do them in! We definitely need to go back someday when we can spend more time and really get to know the city.

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  12. Too funny, I was there just the other day. Didn't take too many photos as the light was very contrasty. But I really liked the structure.

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  13. Yay! This is so timely! We just went for a mini, mid-week get-away! You'll be happy to hear there is not even 1 poinsettia in the lath house! There were orchids everywhere in pots, but I was more interested in the stuff that was actually planted (crazy, right?). It was amazing and stunning and memorable. Right outside the lath house doors were 2 Calotropis Gigantea that were positively moving with Monarch butterflies in every stage of life. We stood and watched a newly "born" butterfly emerge from its pupa. Magical!
    I am still on a horticultural high! That glaucous palm? Oh, my! We didn't get to all the gardens (short trip!) but now we have something to look forward to for next time! Thanks for sharing your photos. So beautiful!

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