A quick visit to Gerhard's (Succulents and More) Garden...

My visit to the Ruth Bancroft Garden in August included a night spent with Gerhard and family in Davis, CA. Luckily there was enough time in our whirlwind adventure for a quick daylight tour of his garden. Back when I first visited (in 2014) this was all lawn...

While I followed along with the transition on Gerhard's blog (Succulents and More) it was an entirely different reality to see it in person. It is just splendid, such an improvement!

The overall design was simple and elegant and each individual plant begged for a close up. Agave bovicornuta...

Looking back towards the front of the house.

Agave vilmoriniana 'Stained Glass' in the spotlight atop the second mound.

Such elegant arms...

Is it wrong to like the buds better than the flowers on this blooming barrel cactus?

Agave pumila

The view from the front porch...

Aloe × spinosissima as we walk back towards the driveway...

 For a look at the front and side plantings on the other side of the fence. In the "public" realm...

Such happy healthy bamboo!

Leucadendron ‘Safari Sunset’

For me this is a signature image of Gerhard's garden; the pots along the top of the fence. I've yet to try this in my garden since the squirrels use our fence as their own super highway.

Agave weberi ‘Arizona Star’

Aloe elgonica

Russelia equisetiformis

Under a beautiful Palo Verde.

That's a lot of Echium wildpretii!

And a thick clump of Agave macroacantha.

Manihot grahamii (peaking over — way over — the fence)...

Aloe ferox

A mash-up of fabulousness! Aloe ‘Moonglow’, Yucca rostrata, Agave americana ‘Medio-picta Alba...

Agave macroacantha absolutely glowing from within, backed by Aloidendron ‘Hercules’...

Almost missed the Agave ovatifolia (far right), can't do that!

Aloe capitata var. quartziticola...a plant I wanted SO BAD and then finally got one of my very own thanks to Denise. It went through an ugly phase when I thought I was going to lose it but it's bounced back now and looks almost this good.

Aloe ‘Erik the Red'

This little Yucca came from Portland (Cistus Nursery)! Yucca baccata var. vespertina 'Hualapai Blue'.

An arching ‘Sonoran Emerald’ palo verde frames those plants we just admired.

I feel so lucky to have visited this garden twice now, hopefully when I return next time I'll get to see the back garden too! (I needed quickly pack up my plants for the trip home, so it didn't even occur to me at the time that we skipped the back). If you want to see more Gerhard just did a couple of in-depth posts with much better photos: here and here. Thanks again for the hospitality Gerhard, hope to see you up here in the spring! (HPSO Spring sale is April 15th and 16th!)...

All material © 2009-2016 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.