The Ruth Bancroft Garden; Part 1, plants for sale

I promised you a tour of the Ruth Bancroft Garden today but it isn’t going to happen. The full visit will be tomorrow; I took too many pictures and need more time edit them down and get them posted. Here’s a teaser to peak pique your interest…(thanks Ricki for the correction)

In the meantime I’ll share a bit about their fabulous plants for sale. You see this wasn’t just a garden visit, there was shopping too! Here is their plant sales area…

See that rope keeping the curious out of the area behind the fence? Back there are all the plants that will be for sale on their official Opening Day 2012 Plant Sale held on April 14th (go if you are in the area!). The garden is closed now and through the 13th (we squeaked in just under the wire visiting on the 22nd), everyone is hard at work removing winter covers from the tender plants and prepping the garden for the season. During our visit the winter covers were still on, I was a little concerned they would detract from the experience but it wasn’t an issue.

Anyway, back to the plant shopping…we were more than a little bummed we only got to shop from the plants in front of the fence, it was pure agony to be able to survey the fabulous sale plants and not be able to buy them (you know where this is going right?). Finally a kind volunteer (whose name I’ve unfortunately forgotten) put us in touch with the Curator, Brian Kemble, who after answering multiple plant questions and listening to us lament the fact we drove down from Oregon and couldn’t come back for the sale, took down the rope and gave us free reign.

How lucky were we? Not only did we get to shop the sale plants but we had the extremely knowledgeable Mr. Kemble telling us about the plants and the garden. It just doesn’t get any better than that!

As I soaked it all in I had to remind myself to take pictures…

I’ve been on the hunt for an Agave americana var. striata since seeing a beautiful specimen during my visit to San Marcos Growers. Still I passed this one by; it just didn’t look up to a less than ideal existence in Portland, Oregon. Better that it might go home with someone who can give it a little less rain and more sun.

This variegated Agave was appealing too, but it stayed behind.

However there was no chance I was leaving without an Agave franzosinii!

After all they are practically the signature Agave of the garden, greeting people with their twisty arms as they enter (as shown in the photo at the top)...

Here is Ruth Bancroft herself posing in front of them (photo by Karl Mondon, borrowed from the garden website)…

Planted in the ground an Agave franzosinii will grow to be 8 feet tall by 10 feet wide, unfortunately mine is destined to life in a container and will not achieve its full potential. Here are my three must-haves (I know, only 3! How well behaved am I?)…the Agave, a garden hybrid of Dasylirion longissimum and an Aeonium tabuliforme…

My shopping companion did noticeably more damage…

Okay shopping complete, plants stowed away in the car, it’s time to walk the garden (tomorrow)…

Cactus Jungle, 2012 version

This was my second trip to Cactus Jungle, the first was back in 2009 when Andrew and I spent some time in the Bay Area on our way to Los Angeles.

Since the snow in Oregon slowed us down we arrived during the evening commute. Not wanting to just set on the Bay Bridge for an hour we instead got off the freeway and stopped in at Cactus Jungle. However since we arrived just before closing we didn’t get to see everything, so we came back on Saturday. Two trips! I felt like a regular.

Walking around the nursery, and again looking at these pictures, I was impressed at how clean and organized it was. The red gravel provides an excellent contrast to the plants, everything pops! The plants all were so healthy and gorgeous...needless to say I wanted EVERYTHING!

Isn’t this combination striking? The Corokia Cotoneaster I can (and do) grow, the Leucadendron not so much.

But oh how I wish I could!

Another trunked Yucca rostrata is on my wishlist, but even if we could have fit one of these in the car I wasn’t feeling up to the $725 price tag.

There were many beautiful Cactus in bloom…

Here’s Benjamin politely asking us to leave. Turns out when the gates close at night he gets to run like crazy around the nursery.

Did you see those lovely blue Dasylirion wheeleri to the left of Benjamin? Here they are again, two of them came home with me.

I was tempted by these Yucca pallida, aren’t their powder blue twisty leaves fabulous? There was a smaller one but the leaves were straighter, not as cool.

Super sharp spine on this Agave salmiana ‘Green Giant’…

And the almost glowing Agave ‘Blue Flame’…

These were the two largest Spiral Aloes (Aloe polyphylla) that I’ve ever seen in a nursery! No, I didn’t look at the price.

If you aren’t aware of it Cactus Jungle has a great blog, you should check it out. Just a few more spiky pictures from our visit…

A few blocks down Fourth Street from Cactus Jungle is The Gardener, from their website: “The Gardener is a collection of all the things that Alta (the owner)…has learned to enjoy and appreciate in her life”…I wonder what a store made of up those things from my life would look like? Yours?

Since we visited this shop after the SF Garden Show (and the Succulent Gardens booth), I wasn’t at all tempted by their succulents…

I wonder if they ever have trouble with kids attempting to roll these away down the sidewalk?

Inside the shop I was captivated by this hanging sculpture made from (I think) cast off palm tree bits.

At first I thought it was a light fixture but it’s not wired, I suppose that could be dangerous.

That's it for our visit to Fourth Street in Berkeley, Come back tomorrow when we visit the Ruth Bancroft Garden!