Thursday, January 14, 2021

The Huntington: paddles and balls

Today's post is a study in plant shapes, the paddle and ball shapes of the plants in the Desert Garden at the Huntington in San Marino, California. Photos taken when I visited in December of 2019. We start with the colorful paddles of Kalanchoe luciae...

And move on to lots of opuntia paddles, some on tree sized plants...

...and others with interesting patterns on them.


Look at the trunk on that one (the opuntia I mean)!

Now we turn our attention to the balls, mostly the golden barrel cactus, Echinocactus grusonii, but there are a few others mixed in to keep things interesting. 








For me this is where the serious magic starts to happen. Mix those golden barrels with a powder blue agave and...wow!








This little cutie is a Gymnocalycium horstii ssp. buenekeri.

And this one, well there wasn't a label that I could see, but it's pretty well spiked isn't it!?

Weather Diary, Jan 13: Hi 61, Low 42/ Precip 0 

All material © 2009-2021 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

14 comments:

  1. There is definitely something to be said for massing elemental shapes. Do you think it's harder for home gardeners to apply this lesson because how we buy plants a few at a time, have smaller spaces, and work piecemeal?

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  2. Love those barrel cacti, amassed, they make quite a statement.

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    1. I can't help but picture some giant hand coming down from the sky and rolling them out across the landscape like prickly bowling balls.

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  3. Paddles and balls, is that the spiky equivalent of X's and O's?

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    1. No, that would be sticks and balls, which I was tempted to group but I just had too many photos of both!

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  4. You zeroed-in on my absolute favorite planting of all at the Huntington: the golden barrel cactus with the Agave parryi var truncata. I will never forget coming across that bed for the very first time about ten years ago; it completely blew my mind. Thanks for that lovely memory!!

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    1. I don't ever want to leave this planting when I come across it. So many different angles and variations on the theme to appreciate.

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  5. Although I've never been to the Huntington, after reading your and Gerhard's posts of that spectacular garden, I can say the barrel cactus beds became my favorite too. Planted either with little silver nuggets of a cactus or blue agave, I imagine the glorious feeling one gets when walking that winding path.

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    1. I do hope you make it there someday. It's amazing.

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  6. How I wish my Kalanchoe luciae looked like that! I'd never cared much for barrel cactus until I saw what The Huntington did with them - I wish I had the kind of room they need.

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    1. How I wish I could even grow Kalanchoe luciae! (in the ground I mean...)

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  7. Fabulous concept: paddles and balls. Even having seen this garden in person, I still find it hard to believe these are real plants. So otherworldly to me.

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  8. Such an excellent combo, the golden barrel with parryi truncata. Like peanut butter and chocolate!

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