The Berkeley Botanical Gardens are amazing. Seriously amazing. I took over 400 pictures, I’m not kidding! Of course they all weren’t keepers but it was a job to edit them down to “blog-able” quantity. I’ll try to do the gardens justice in the next 2 days.
The gardens were established in 1890 and currently have over 13,000 different kinds of plants from all over the world. The collection is planted in naturalistic landscapes covering 34 acres. The plantings are grouped primarily by geographic origin; nine regions (and several special collections) are represented: Mediterranean, Asia, Southern Africa, New World Desert, South America, Australasia, Mexico/Central America, Eastern North America, and California. Here is a map if you want to know more about the layout. 
Unfortunately the tour I am taking you on is a hodgepodge of my favorites, heavy on the Agaves and in no particular order other than the counterclockwise path we took from the entrance.Right near the entry were these Encephalartos. So far as I can remember this is the first time I’ve seen this plant and I was instantly in love. Put this on my must have list…never mind that they are only hardy to Zone 9 (a zone warmer than mine).
Encephalartos arenarius (above and below). Like all Encephalartos, this is an African native, this one from S Africa. Like all cycads, it is a dioecious plant (separate male and female plants).
Encephalartos eugene-maraisii (male).jpg)
Encephalartos horridus
Agave macrantha
Agave macroculmis
Agave pacifica 
Agave parryi (so said the label, I am not used to seeing the leaves flare out like these do...which reminds me, to remind you ,that I'm doing my very best to get these names correct, if anyone sees something I've got wrong please let me know so I can correct it!)
Look at all of those pups! And what lucky gardener is going to clean the needles? They must have a special blower/vacuum just for this!
Agave sobria ssp. Roseana
Agave ferdinandi-regis, this plant is considered to be a form of Agave victoriae-reginae with a more open rosette and fewer and larger leaves (so says the San Marcos growers website)
This is how they dealt with an agave that was projecting it's spike into the path, ouch!
Nolina Beldingii 
It was hard to tell if this was a recent accident or it had been like this for a while. And what caused it? 
Nolina CF. beldingii, I so wanted to cut off one of these squiggly leaves and take it home with me! (don't worry, I didn't - that would be wrong)
Beschorneria albiflora 
Sonoran palm Sabal Uresana
Equisetum hyemale relative in the tropical house. They were also growing outside along the building, like they had escaped! 
Below, fronds of Rock Palm Brahea decumbens, I loved it pared with the berries, beautiful! 
Mexican Grass Tree Dasylirion longissimum 
Mexican Grass Tree Dasylirion quadrangulatum and Nolina nelsoni 
I neglected to get the name of the tree, but I loved the cones… 
Agave wercklei
Don't know what this one is...but I love it!
This beautiful agave was growing in the “off-limits” area. 
The bloom spike on this agave got to heavy and fell over, it didn’t seem to slow it down any.
Crassula tetragoma
Echium decaisnei 
Echium lusitanicum 
If you look really close you can see the golden gate bridge in the distance. Or at least I can see it because I know it was there, you might have to use a little imagination. 
Well, you made it to the end of Part 1! Tomorrow is Part 2…including my new favorite (must have) Aloe…
As much as I’ve enjoyed pouring over the Plant Delights catalogue in the past I’ve never ordered anything. Now that I have I can say they make ordering easy and the follow up communication from the nursery staff is excellent. They do have a minimum order and the single ‘Chocolate Chips’ was not cutting it, so I had to add another plant (darn). Just recently I realized I was without an 
I was curious about what condition the Manfreda would be in when it arrived. All Manfreda share the common trait of very brittle, easily broken leaves. How could they ship this plant and have it arrive looking good? How big would it be? Would it look anything like the picture? I was pleasantly surprised! 'Chocolate Chips' arrived with a few broken leaves but all-in-all much better than I feared. It’s good sized and has great color. Nicely done!
I was a little disappointed in the small size of the Agave victoriae-reginae 'Porcupine' but it certainly looks healthy. I think come spring it will go in the ground since it is reportedly hardy to zone 7b. 
Uhm….maybe this online shopping thing could become addictive, especially in the winter months when the pickings can be slim at our local nurseries.
In between the weekend downpours I managed a few minutes in the garden. Time to get the patio furniture under cover, hate to admit it but there will be no relaxing glasses of wine consumed on the patio for a few months, might as well protect the wood from the rain.
Some of potted plants that can tolerate the cooler temps, (currently low to mid 40’s at night), but would rather not deal with the rain (we received over an inch on Saturday alone) will spend time under the shade pavilion. The ones on the outer edges get a bit of moisture but the ones in the center stay dry. The long-term plan is for rigid plastic sides to go up in the winter so the pavilion can act as a sort of greenhouse. 
I cut back the Sedum ‘Autumn Joy.’ 
I claim to have a love/hate relationship with this plant; one of the things I love about it is the combination of its dying foliage and blossoms…yet at the base, the earliest possible sign of the spring to come. This plant already has faith in the next gardening season!
Removing decaying Hosta leaves (I try pick them up before the slugs move in and lay claim to the territory) uncovered berries from the Back Mondo Grass (
And I found these orange beauties from the Lily of the Valley, lurking under the heavy hydrangea branches. 
And then it started raining again…time to head inside and warm up.
After we finished up at the Botanical Gardens we walked through parts of Golden Gate Park. It really is so amazing, and so vast. Our destination was the 
