The San Francisco Botanical Garden is located in Golden Gate Park. One of the best things about it is the cost of admission…nothing! The gardens are free. If you have more patience than we did you might even score a free parking space on the street. Makes for a very affordable outing, yes?The negative? It’s free. So perhaps it suffers a bit from lack of funding for upkeep and care. Things were less than crisp and the overall design seemed a little incoherent, trails rambled and I was never sure where I was going and what I missed. If I hadn’t printed a map of the gardens I never would have found the Succulents area (which was only the MOST IMPORTANT PART!) as it was hidden between the Children’s Garden and the Redwood Trail.
You are greeted by a row of signs. These were my favorite. No tromping on the flowers and no picking the flowers. Darn.
We were there on Columbus Day, which evidently is a major holiday as the tiny bookstore was closed. Too bad.
Tall Aeonium Schwarzkopf by the front entrance.
Beschorneria Albiflora from Mexico. Very exciting to see as I have one of these that I purchased last spring. I had no idea what it could become!
Beschorneria Septentrionalis
Banksia Serrata…very cool as is, imagine it in full bright bloom!
Unnamed bloom…
On a host plant ("stump")…
There were so many enormous Echium. I was drooling and determined to overwinter mine. They were huge! 
Look at those Echium bloom skeletons (the grey spikes)! They must have been amazing.
Fish tail palm…huge and remarkable.
Little plantlets on a fading bloom soike of Furcraea Roezlii. Cool!
Leucadendron argenteum of the Protea family, common name: Silver Tree…
Protea flower. Amazing to see in “real life” growing on a plant, as I normally buy these as cut flowers.
Monterey Cypress. I am in love. 
One of many large Cycads.
Datura… 
Squirrels. OMG…they are everywhere! I swear they were following us and Looking at waiting for the right moment to pounce and, well, it wouldn’t be pretty. 
Restio Rhodocoma capensis mikado stems, amazing!
Araucaria Heterophylla
Araucaria Heterophylla also known as Norfolk Island Pine, isn’t it beautiful? The perfect Christmas Tree.
Chilean Rhubarb Gunnera tinctoria, described as a primitive looking Chilean plant with rough textured leaves that can grow to five feet in diameter…yep!
And there was this sign. Just in case you were thinking of stealing something…
Tree ferns…
Telanthophora Arborescens Tree Groundsel.
We came a across a sign that offered a bit of history on the beginning and location garden……”In the 1860’s San Francisco was a booming city fueled by the Gold Rush and the first transcontinental railroad. Civic leaders envisioned a large park and arboretum similar to those in European cities and the eastern United States. Skeptics argues that the proposed location in the western part of the city consisted mainly of windswept, shifting sand dunes and was therefore and unwise choice.”Tomorrow the succulent garden and the aloes… (the best part!). And don't worry, it's shorter than Part 1.
Normally I 
I had no idea what variety it was, but figured it would be happy in a sunny window during the winter and could vacation on the patio during the summer. That’s it vacationing above, and below. The red coloring has increased as the weather cools. I need to take it inside soon, and end the vacation fun.
As luck would have it I ran across the very plant at the Cactus Jungle Nursery during our recent California travels. It’s a 
Now I know it needs bright filtered light, it’s hardy to 30 degrees, and it’s native to the cliff-sides of Brazil and could reach 5ft in height (currently it's about 31/2 ft, but part of that is the pot). 
Oh and the fact that they are selling it for $250! ...
Well, here we are…Daylight Saving Time has ended. I’ll leave work in the dark, drive home in the dark, and I won’t see the garden in the light again until the end of February (except on the weekends or a quick glance as I run out the door on my way to work in the morning).
Slug eggs, found and destroyed! Very satisfying!
The Canna’s. They still have unopened buds, and with no freeze in sight (fingers crossed) they might just get to bloom.
This might be the last time (for the season) that I mow and edge the lawn. AND, with all the rain we’ve received the lawns that were allowed to go dormant over the summer (most of Portland it seems) are green again. It’s like spring….and with our relatively mild climate they will stay green all winter long. 
Coming face to face with these fabulous berries when I was making a quick stop at Starbucks. 
Moss. The rains bring out the moss and I do love moss.
The light. Fall brings a different light (when there is light). Soft and diffused.
Fall leaves, especially huge golden Terapanax leaves.
And lastly…since it's cooling off I have an excuse to bring out my sock monkey slippers!
What's making you happy these days?
I potted up 5 tiny agaves that I brought back from California in these little orange pots, and had them setting in the window. Andrew thought they looked like pumpkins. So he added the jack-o-lantern faces (don't worry it's a dry erase pen so they'll come off). Since I am pathetically out of tune with the calendar I hadn't even managed to buy a pumpkin yet. These will do nicely.
These are heavy cement pots, tipped over by the wicked winds.
One of them shattered. Yikes.
Okay so I guess the storm packed a bit of a wallop after all, maybe this was extreme. 
Amazingly it was even better in person and still looking fresh and vibrant. Something I worry about with vertical gardens…how do they look over time? 
For some reason I envisioned the nursery location being very suburban, maybe north in Corte Madera. Not the case, the nursery is located just south of downtown in a fairly industrial area. Everything was so colorful and well tended. There weren’t many people there early on a cloudy Monday morning so we had the place pretty much to ourselves. 
There was so much color everywhere we looked!
I've dubbed this the "Marmoleum Cactus" - doesn't it look like Marmoleum?
Flora Grubb does stock tanks! 
And more metal...lots of metal!
A display for 
Luckily I ducked in the powder room, what a great green wall behind the loo! I love it when areas like this are considered and part of the overall aesthetic of a place, not the scary restrooms that you sometimes discover in a retail location.
Imagine yourself relaxing on these lounge chairs. They actually are very comfortable! If you find yourself in the Bay Area...check them (and the nursery) out for yourself!
