The Hortiphile! Luculias at San Francisco Botanical Garden

Searching the internet can be enlightening.

As it was the other day when I discovered 'The Hortiphile' -- San Francisco Botanical Garden's blog written by Lisa Van Cleef: Lisa's not only super-savvy about plants, but a wonderfully engaging writer, too.

Richly fragrant Luculia had a starring role in a recent post: Photo courtesy of San Francisco Botanical Garden

Luculias grow in the Rhododendron, Asian Discovery, and Moon Viewing Gardens.

Should you be in the Bay Area, pencil in a visit to SFBG - a must-see on any itinerary!

Luculia - Plant of the Moment

Drought-Tolerant Plants - San Francisco Botanical Garden Plant Sales

SAN FRANCISCO BOTANICAL GARDEN 

... A great source for drought-tolerant plants ...

Trees, Ferns, Rhododendrons, Native Plants Succulents, Perennials, Salvias, Shrubs, Shade Plants: The San Francisco Botanical Garden's Annual Plant Sales are  a great resource.

An impressive, botanical extravaganza, with more than 4,000 different kinds of plants on offer; emphasis on drought tolerant plants for water-wise gardening and food plants perfectly suited for Bay Area vegetable gardens.

San Francisco Botanical Garden - Golden Gate Park - 9th Avenue at Lincoln Way ....

A large selection of California natives will be available at their seasonal peak during the Native Plant Sale. Species you can be  counted upon to feature seeds and nectar to sustain native wildlife, and bring authentic beauty to California gardens. Some 300 to 400 varieties of natives will be for sale.

Eucomis bicolor / Eric Hunt Photo

Beguiling selections of uncommon and unusual plants will delight avid gardeners, while colorful succulents, flowering vines, herbaceous perennials, rock garden plants, salvias, shrubs and rhododendrons should draw plant lovers of every persuasion.

Public Information:  415/661-1316 -- www.sfbotanicalgarden.org

Winter Color! San Francisco Botanical Garden Succulents

"San Francisco's mild temperatures and rare winter frost make it possible to grow a great diversity of plants..." 

Succulents in the Entry Border

After more than a decade of living in the Bay Area, the wintertime displays 

of vividly colorful succulent plants still hold me spellbound.

  Visitors to the San Francisco Botanical Garden will find the fan aloe among the

Entry Garden's eye-catching succulent specimens. 

Aloe plicatilis - Photo: Joanne Taylor

 At the Garden ... the San Francisco Botanical Garden Society's Newsletter:

"Gracing the hills and mountains of Cape Province in South Africa, Aloe plicatilis, or "Fan Aloe," adds drama to our Garden with its fan-like arrangement of fleshy leaves tipped in orange. The species name, "plicatilis," means fan-like, pleated or folding together. 

The fans of leaves display in two opposing rows with a spike of scarlet tubular flowers rising from the center 

on a tall solitary stem. 

Look for Aloe plicatilis in the South Africa Garden and in this month's In Bloom feature, 

complete with photos, a plant profile and exact locations."

San Francisco Botanical Garden Vignettes

Leucodendron argenteum - Silver tree - South African Garden

Endangered in its native habitat of Cape Province
Photos © Alice Joyce

Himalayan Blue Bamboo - Entry Garden

Vignettes from a stroll through the San Francisco Botanical Garden

New Rhododendron Pavilion - stonework by Edwin Hamilton

Elegia capensis - above - Library Terrace Garden

Entry Garden plantings - below
Photos © Alice Joyce

New Zealand Garden - below - Norfolk Island Pine

Eastern Australia Garden - below - Reed Madden Design, Sculptural Wall

Photos © Alice Joyce

Oxalis deppei 'Iron Cross'

Native to Mexico, North America

Faux flower - Entry Garden

Read More...

Luculias at San Francisco Botanical Garden

Inspiration... Behind the Scenes - Making A Garden

San Francisco Botanical Garden  Entry Border / Shade / Blue Bamboo

June 2009  -  Making A Garden ... Chapter 2

The Agony & ...the Word that Must not be Spoken

(the 'E' word having generated an inappropriate advertisement with Chapter 1)

San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum

Entry Border -  Sun

Designed by 'Planet Horticulture'

Inspiration / Behind the Scenes

While waiting for slides of my garden's early days to be converted to digital images, I offer another bit of background:

On January 13 when BayAreaTendrils was brand spankin' new, I wrote about designers Roger Raiche and David McCrory, aka Planet Horticulture. The entry borders they designed for the San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum opened my eyes, providing limitless inspiration, and helping to lead the way in the creation of my garden's plant palette.

Now, for one of those secrets promised in Chapter 1. I chose a customized blue, always referred to as Moroccan blue, as the main accent color for my garden. After a few years, I decided to introduce a contrasting color; to be an earthy terra cotta. Ready to begin painting, I dashed around from store to store, to buy a ready-mixed enamel paint. But my impatience won over. Unable to find what I was looking for, I seized upon the saturated yellow that appears in my garden today.

Leucadendron 'Safari Sunset' SFBG Library Garden below

More about 'Planet Horticulture' on link below:

http://bayareatendrils.blogspot.com/2009/01/insomnia.html

A trove of Drought Tolerant Plants, Colorful Succulents, Eucomis, and...

 

California Garden Circle - above

SAN FRANCISCO BOTANICAL GARDEN 

Drought-tolerant Plants available at Botanical Garden Plant Sales

Visit the San Francisco Botanical Garden web site (link below) for a schedule of plant sales. A fantastic source for rare perennials, salvias, shrubs;

plants for shade and native species: Succulents, trees, ferns, and rhododendrons.

San Francisco Botanical Garden

at Strybing Arboretum

County Fair Building

Golden Gate Park

9th Avenue at Lincoln Way

The San Francisco Botanical Garden's Annual Spring Plant Sale: An impressive, botanical extravaganza, with more than 4,000 different kinds of plants on offer, including drought tolerant plants for water-wise gardening and food plants perfectly suited for Bay Area vegetable gardens. 

A large selection of California natives are often available at their seasonal peak. Plants that can be  counted upon to feature seeds and nectar to sustain native wildlife, and bring authentic beauty to California gardens. Some 300 to 400 varieties of natives may be for sale.

Eucomis bicolor - Eric Hunt Photo

Beguiling selections of uncommon and unusual plants will delight avid gardeners, while colorful succulents, flowering vines, herbaceous perennials, rock garden plants, salvias, shrubs and rhododendrons draw plant lovers of every persuasion.

Public Information:  415/661-1316 or www.sfbotanicalgarden.org
Read more ... Luculias at SFBG  

Rare Plants, San Francisco Botanical Garden, Deppea splendens

Photo San Francisco Botanical Garden Society

A Preview

Rare Plants - San Francisco Botanical Garden Plant Sale

at Strybing Arboretum

Visit the web site to see a schedule of Annual Plant Sales, with rare and unusual plants from the Garden's collections!

Pictured: Deppea splendens - a rare cloud forest plant, virtually unknown in cultivation and presumed to be extinct in the wild. One of the rarest plants in the world, Deppea splendens looks fuchsia-like (although it is gold with burgundy sepals), but is actually a close relative of the coffee plant. 

San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum

San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum

Eastern Australia Garden

Anigozanthos: Kangaroo paw - Photo © Alice Joyce

A fusion of horticulture and hardscape becomes a gateway to another realm in the Eastern Australia Garden at the San Francisco Botanical Garden on Ninth Avenue and Lincoln Way.

Designed by Bernard Trainor, the garden takes its character from "materials both hard and soft," as Trainor articulates in his original concept for the space. A stroll through the garden reveals how fully Trainor succeeds in his aim to inspire garden visitors with an exciting collection of plant material from Eastern Australia, laid out to create "a sense of place."

An overall framework of flowing, decomposed granite pathways center upon a rock circle, where the artistry of Jennifer Madden and Jeffrey Reed of Reed Madden Designs emerges in a refined sculptural setting. The circle focuses attention on distinctive wall forms, poured in place. These concrete walls exhibit a warm-hued palette, and the gently curving, fluid striations of rock formations, which outline a distinctive, contemplative area surrounded by unusual flora: the Reed Madden vision, "echoing the ancient geology of Australia." 

Distinctive scenes unfold in Trainor's design, with a dry stream bed, akin to an arroyo, serving as a sinuous link in the garden plan. 

Visitors encounter the twisting trunk and peeling bark of a venerable Malaleuca linariifolia, and an aging bracelet honeymyrtle, Malaleuca armillaris, set apart by a reclining trunk that sprawls along the ground; its angular limbs gesturing unrestrained. And the craggy bark, a conspicuous contrast to feathery foliage.

Wall by Reed Madden Designs

Insomnia

Does blogging lead to insomnia? Or is it the other way around.....

Last week I had tea with David McCrory at a cafe a few towns away. David and Roger Raiche, aka Planet Horticulture, are the award-winning design team who created the Entry Borders at the San Francisco Botanical Garden. I've written about their lush planting style more than once. For Gardens Illustrated magazine I profiled their home and garden in Berkeley. 

But shortly after moving from Chicago to the Bay Area, when my first book, West Coast Gardenwalks was published, I began writing 'Dig This'; a gardening feature that appeared in the San Francisco Examiner. The borders provided the inspiration for an early column: An ode to the vast, and unusual plant palette Planet Horticulture created for a border situated in sun, and another in a shadier setting across the way. These compositions of exotic succulents, bamboos, and flowering species from Australia, New Zealand, and the Cloud Forest are anchored by the contrasting forms and textures of rare trees and shrubs.

And so, last Friday I accompanied David as he walked me through a private garden they designed in Larkspur; a home nestled on a street defined by towering Redwoods. I failed to bring my camera!  Missing the chance to photograph an unforgettable specimen of Lapageria rosea (Chilean Bellflower) in full glorious bloom.

It's 3:30am.... and I must return to bed.

p.s.

To view a portfolio of  Roger and David's projects, visit their web site,

www.planethorticulture.com