danger garden

Monday, September 8, 2025

Xerophytic Ferns at the UC Botanic Garden at Berkeley

Next up on my long weekend of garden touring last March (there's a recap of our stops thus far at the bottom of this post) was the UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley. I hadn't visited the garden since 2014 and several things had changed in those 11 years. First up was a fabulous display of xerophytic ferns near the entrance.

"We commonly associate ferns with moist habitats like forests, wetlands, and tropical rainforests, but there are actually species that thrive in desert environments." (UCBG Berkeley website)

Truth be told dryland ferns are a big part of what pushed me into a love of ferns... it's one thing to have a shady fern garden, but tell me that ferns can also be happy in the sun, next to an agave (or yucca) and I'm in, 100%!

I was so excited about this display that I had to photograph every fern and it's label. I'm sure I tried the patience of my companions, Gerhard and Janet Sluis, but I could not tear myself away. I was methodical in my documenting, and I also looked up every name online to make sure it looked reasonably like my photo as I completed this post. That said I heard from a dryland fern expert that the names assigned to these specimens were not completely accurate. Names change, people move signage, ferns are confusing and dryland ferns even more so. Still... I hope I've correctly identified the ferns in these photos and help to get you excited about the possibilities...

Astrolepis windhamii (Windham's scaly cloakfern), Jeff Davis County, Texas

Cheilanthes buchtienii (lip fern), Argentina (yes this does look a lot like the photo above...)

Myriopteris rufa (lip fern), Gillespie County, Texas

Pellaea mucronata var. mucronata (bird's-foot fern), Monterey County, California

Cheilanthes bonariensis (Bonaire lip fern), Nuevo Leon State, Mexico

Close up

Myriopteris notholaenoides (lip fern), Nuevo Leon State, Mexico

It looks a little autumnal with all the dry leaves, but it really was early spring.

Astrolepis laevis (cloak fern), Nuevo Leon State, Mexico

Cheilanthes fendleri (Fendler's lip fern), Cochise County, Arizona

(same)

Myriopteris aurea (lip fern), Oaxaca State, Mexico

Close up

Cheilanthes bonariensis

(same)

Cheilanthes mathewsii, Argentina

A little more than half way through...

Myriopteris wootonii (Wooton's lace fern), Santa Cruz County, Arizona

(same)

Bommeria hispida (hairy bommara), Cochise County, Arizona

(same)

Myriopteris myriophylla (lip fern), Argentina

(same)

Myriopteris covillei (lip fern), Graham County, Arizona

So that's their xerophytic fern collection, pretty impressive I thought. On Wednesday I'll share my collection of dryland ferns.

A recap of the long weekend, in case you're curious and have lost track of our adventures...

THURSDAY: I flew down to Sacramento, CA, on March 27th. Gerhard picked me up and we were off to walk his garden in Davis, which would be home base until I flew out on Monday. My first post was a quick look at the people and the plants of the weekend, and here's my post on Gerhard's garden.

FRIDAY: we started the day at Kyle's garden in Sacramento, and then hit the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek, Part One, Part Two. Then we stopped by East Bay Wilds Native Plant Nursery in Oakland. After that we headed down to Livermore, CA where we saw Tracy's garden.

SATURDAY: we kicked off the day and Max and Justin's garden (Part One, Part Two) and then went to Ann Nichol's garden. Next was a quick drive-by garden and then Marcia Donahue's (Part One, Part Two, Part Three). David Neumaier's garden was our final planned garden of the day (Part One, Part Two), but we hit one more drive-by on our way home.

SUNDAY: I've posted about the visit to Curious Flora, and now I'm working on the UC Botanic Garden at Berkeley. WOW!

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Friday, September 5, 2025

Jeanne's triple lot plot

I served on the board of the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon with Jeanne DeBenedetti Keyes, and have heard a lot about her garden over the years, it was great to finally get to visit her place during a recent HPSO open event.

I was headed up onto the porch to photograph the plants there when Jeanne came out the door, being a good sport she let me snap her photo.

The Agave victoriae-reginae and metal dish planter is one Jeanne bought from me a few years back.

Jeanne purchased interesting creature from Dan Hinkley during the Cistus Summer Extravaganza and hadn't yet had a chance to pot it up...

"Sedum oxypetalum-the tree sedum from Mexico shared with us by our friends at Xera Plants, quickly forming a striking small branched specimen to 4' with stunning flaking bark, similar in effect to a small-foliaged Jade Plant. Winter deciduous; store cool, bright and dry during winter. Bizarre, beautiful, forgiving."

Another nearby treasure on a table...

Jeanne and her husband Kirk have the deep wrap around porch of my dreams...

From the open garden description: "Jeanne and Kirk’s garden surrounds a 1911 Craftsman Foursquare house, encompassing three 50 x 100 ft lots. The garden is naturalistic in style and methodology with many natives planted for birds and bees. Jeanne is interested in ecosystems and collects plants based on the geography of origin, site conditions, and many seasons of interest. The gardens are climate-adapted and are either drought tolerant or watered with drip irrigation or soaker hoses." Did you catch that part about three 50 x 100 ft lots? My lot is 45.38 x 111.2 (5,046 ft) so I have roughly 46 more feet to garden than the typical 5,000 ft plot, Jeanne has 3 times the average lot! Oh my.

More from the description: "The front porch garden, an area that gets a lot of hot, south-facing sun is a dry garden with plants such as Manzanita, Agave, Yucca, Grevillea, prickly-pear cactus, (Opuntia), and other sun-loving, drought-tolerant native plants. The Eastern front porch garden includes a collection of native ribes (flowering current) plants."

In the back garden (the one nearest the house) there's the garage as well as another charming out building (or two, gosh.. my memory is already a little foggy)...

A ferny spot...

Then a narrow pass-thru and your in another garden space the size of most people's whole lots!

"The back garden, on the north lot, now 24 years old, reflects an interest in Chinese gardens..."

The label said Pyrrosia lingua 'Keikan (Cockscomb)' (from Far Reaches) but I don't see it doing much of the "cockscombing". Still it's got great form.

Oh man... Daphne x houtteana, I swoon! (my plant died).

This is a first! I've never visited an urban Portland garden that has sidewalks on two opposite streets (on the north and south sides of the property).

There were palms...

And more pyrrosia.

Brassaiopsis cf. bodinieri (a little sun-bleached from a hot day).

I neglected to get the name of the mahonia, or the schefflera/heptapleurum in the background.

Fatsia polycarpa 'Needham's Lace'

Iris domestica, which I've failed to be able to grow multiple times.

I am jealous of every gardener with a grape arbor!

And (back in the garden around the house now) those with a fire-lookout fort in their back garden. How cool is that?

At ground level (no, I did not climb up).

Jeanne had described these rusted pieces of metal (part of an old tank on the property) but they were way cooler than I imagined them to be.

I really should have taken the time to climb up there...

Looking down the west side garden and more of the garden description: "The garden on the West side of the house expands the dry garden theme to include Australian/New Zealand plants. This spring, she [Jeanne] is working on two dry stream beds that will feed into the Ying/Yang sunken garden."

The carnivorous plant bog is planted in the end of the metal tank (we saw the side pieces above) sunk into the ground.

And one final shot as I made my way back around the front of the house. The gorgeous agave is A. ovatifolia 'Vanzie' and the tall thin spikes back by the containers belong to a yucca, perhaps Y. elata var utahensis according to Jeanne's records. Thanks for opening your garden Jeanne!

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