The next area I'm focusing on from my November 2024 trip to the Huntington Gardens is the cycad collection garden and the area located just below the large European Art Museum.
During my 2019 visit this part of the garden still felt pretty raw (newly planted, with large limestone rocks moved in). Thankfully the rocks have all been tamed by plantings now and it looks fantastic.
More blooming Kalanchoe thyrsiflora...
Exploring the dense plantings I discovered an unlabeled fern that I loved the look of, it reminded me of my Pteris vittata.
Even the squiggly dried bits were pretty.
Not to mention the spore-heavy fertile fronds.
Since there were a couple of Huntington employees nearby I asked if they knew what it was. One of them, Gary Roberson, the lead gardener for the cycad and palm collections, said he hadn't had time to key it out, but that the fern popped up around the big chunks of limestone that had been donated to the garden. He pulls it where he doesn't want it and lets it grow where he does.
It seems happy with the very minimal water it receives.
Once Gary heard that I love dry-land ferns he made sure to show me their Pleopeltis lepidopteris 'Morro dos Conventos' (Brazilian hairy sword fern).
Pretty sweet planting (the fern is at the base of the leaning cycad, at least I think that's a cycad?).
Here are a few wide-angle shots of the area where the NoID fern was growing, among the limestone and plantings below the European Art Museum.
Yes, there's the NoID fern again.
Gorgeous variegated Agave attenuatta.
That platycerium seems a little over-sized for those palm trunks...
Wowsa!
Cycads...
Interesting display on the "porch" of the art museum building.
Even more interesting new growth on the trunk of a decapitated cycad.
Whether it was the weather, disease, or an accident that caused the cycads to lose their tops, it certainly hasn't slowed down the plants.
Another fern pic to wrap things up.
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I love the look of the new growth on the cycad, I wouldn't have thought it would do that. The spore heavy fern is cool. You are whetting my appetite for my visit!
ReplyDeleteOn second thought, that saying looks gross typed out.
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine "keying" out ferns, will be interesting if he gets a name. I just planted that same pleopeltis in Long Beach where it is experiencing its first heat wave, Great photos esp the last one!
ReplyDelete