San Francisco Botanical Gardens Part 2

Part of my continuing series on our October trip to California…

Just when I was getting bored with things (in relative terms mind you, it’s not like I was REALLY bored…) we would happen upon something amazing, like the aloes… Aloe mutabilis
A wall of aloes! Right there in the middle of the aloes an advertisement for danger garden! Aloe Arborescens Aloe Arborescens Candelabra (I have my doubts but that is what the name plate said*)
Aloe Suprafoliata Blooming Bromeliad Fascicularia pitcairnifolia var bicolor, blooming! As I mentioned yesterday the Succulent Garden was hidden in an odd corner. It was amazing to come out of the trees and have everything open up to expose a tiered wall of (among other things) huge agaves. Beautiful. Unfortunately I was unable to accurately capture the view with my camera. Agave attenuata, just pouring out of the wall!Agave parryi Agave Potatorum Dyckia (Bromeliaceae) Dyckia bloom
Marmoleum Agave…okay I really have no idea what this agave is really called. As with several of the plants here I couldn’t find a name plate. I don’t know what it is but I love it! Puya Alpestris this (click here) is what its blooms look like. I see several faded bloom stalks, I wish I could have seen the actual blooms. So dramatic…and the color! Xanthorrhoea Grass Tree So there you have it. In the end to us it felt more like a park with cool plants than a botanical garden (not a criticism, just a statement). But I also think it serves a valuable purpose, being right in the city and free. I am so glad we spent an afternoon wandering the gardens.

*I have done my best to accurately label the plants - of course a lot of the names were taken right from the name plate in the ground. Which may or may not have been accurate. Any mistakes were honest ones!

San Francisco Botanical Gardens Part 1

Part of my continuing series on our October trip to California…
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.

discarded “lobby plant” makes it big

Last winter I was the lucky recipient of a cast off lobby plant, you know the big plants that set just inside the lobby of a commercial office building? Those are “lobby plants”. There are also “mall plants” (usually a Spathiphyllum) and “apartment plants” (in this case a Fatsia japonica).
Normally I wouldn’t be interested in rescuing a sorry lobby plant, but this wasn’t just any lobby plant it was a Bromeliad, the biggest Bromeliad I had ever seen! 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 Vriesea imperialis, or Imperial Bromeliad. Here is the plant at the nursery… 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! ...

the sky goes dark...

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).

Our days will get shorter and shorter until Winter Solstice on December 22nd when we start gaining light back again. Not to be a downer or anything but I hate living in the dark. Don’t you? Remember a few months ago when it was light until after 9 pm?

Ok enough wallowing in the darkness.

The first day of November was darn beautiful! What a lovely day to get out and do a little fall clean up. Here are a few things I found to be happy about.

We filled our huge yard waste container and 6 qty 30 gallon bags! Satisfying.
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?