Posts Tagged ‘cacti’

Bot­tle tree @ RBG

I am vis­it­ing my brother Scott and his wife Kate in North­ern Cal­i­for­nia. They live in Wal­nut Creek, about 25 miles east of San Fran­cisco and at the foot of Mount Dia­blo (site of a recent con­tro­versy con­cern­ing the name “Mt. Devil”, but that’s another story). There is a trea­sure right down the street from their house, the very first project of the revered Gar­den Con­ser­vancy.  That would be Ruth Ban­croft Gar­dens, ded­i­cated to the  preser­va­tion of as fine a col­lec­tion of water con­serv­ing plants as you will find on the planet. Started by it’s epony­mous founder in 1971, the 3 acre gar­den is located on a fruit farm owned by the Ban­croft fam­ily since the 1880’s. I have always found suc­cu­lents easy to love for their form, color, ease of pro­poga­tion and most of all archi­tec­tural good looks. The suc­cu­lent and cacti col­lec­tion @ RBG is thrilling for it’s con­trast­ing tex­tures, forms and col­ors, espe­cially in the spring.

The bot­tle tree (Brachy­chi­ton Rupestris) shown above is lit­er­ally a giant suc­cu­lent. Using it’s trunk for water stor­age, the Aus­tralian native  is slow grow­ing up to 40′ in height; it doesn’t dis­play the bot­tle shape until 15 years along. The good news is that if you have more money than time the bot­tle tree can be trans­planted very easily.

Ruth​ban​croft​gar​den​.org

Bar­rel Cacti in the Desert Gar­den Photo by Susan Hirsch

Last week I took my vis­it­ing fam­ily to Hunt­ing­ton Gar­dens in San Marino, Cal­i­for­nia, one of Socal’s trea­sures. My first stop is always the Desert Gar­den, my favorite among the many themed areas. There is some wild stuff going on there right now! This is THE time of year for cacti and suc­cu­lents to bloom and grow, and put on quite a show. The Hunt­ing­ton Desert Gar­den is nearly 100 years old, its 10 acres con­tain­ing almost 5000 species of suc­cu­lents and desert plants. If you live in South­ern Cal­i­for­nia the Hunt­ing­ton is worth a drive; it’s a great place to spend a day look­ing at art (remem­ber, they have Blue Boy and Pinkie) and gar­dens (they also have a new Chi­nese garden).

The fol­low­ing pub­lic announce­ment was placed  in my mail­box recently by the Los Ange­les Arbore­tum and I wanted to pass it on:

Hi Every­one – Marc Hall will teach you every­thing you wanted to know about berries and how to max­i­mize your crop! Because berries are Marc’s spe­cialty — and pas­sion — he will share recipes and sam­ples of his own home­made good­ies made with berries. Marc is a cer­ti­fied nurs­ery­man as well as The Arboretum’s Gar­den & Gift Shop manager.

BERRY BASICS

When? Sat­ur­day, March 27, 10 am — Noon

Where? Oak Room, next to the Organic Vegetable Garden

Instruc­tor: Marc Hall

Fee: $22 mem­bers /​ $25 non-​​members

Reg­is­tra­tion: Reser­va­tions pre­ferred; please call the Edu­ca­tion Depart­ment at  626.821.4623, or email jill.​berry@​arboretum.​org

The Arbore­tum is located at 301 North Bald­win Ave., Arcadia, CA 91007

Do you want to learn to grow berries — straw­ber­ries, blueberries, and caneber­ries, to men­tion just a few?  Then this class is for you! Bring your questions!

What you will learn:

When and where to buy your plants;

Tips for grow­ing abun­dant crops;

Guide­lines for tend­ing and har­vest­ing your berries;

The ideal exposure/​sunlight and watering;

The best soil and fer­til­izer for opti­mal back­yard production;

The ideal water­ing schedule;

Prun­ing tips and rota­tional infor­ma­tion on dis­ease pre­ven­tion and insect/​bird con­trol; and

Train­ing and trel­lis­ing methods.

Another Hunt­ing­ton photo:

Cacti, aloes, agaves and suc­cu­lents Photo by Susan Hirsch