Tuesday, January 12, 2010

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."

14 comments:

  1. Wonderful~ and good to know, since I'll be addressing several groups in the Bay Area soon!

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  2. Debra,
    Let's hope there isn't a sudden, bizarre cold wave that comes along to devastate mature plants! The winter is looking to be fairly normal in terms of the temps.
    Of course it's colder in my garden, across the bridge. We have cold, frosty nights, even when the days are gorgeous.

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  3. succulents are my new favorite obsession. I can't wait to collect more. I love the red edged ones like you've show above.

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  4. How timely, since I just got a chance to sit down with Debra's 'Designing with Succulents.' Succulents seem to be the kind of plants that always have smiles on their faces! Wish me luck on taking cuttings from an Aloe arborescens!

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  5. I love that Fan Aloe, really interesting form.

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  6. I really like succulents and that Zwartkop is a beauty. Thanks for sharing these.

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  7. Hi Alice, thanks for this refreshing look of life at the SF BG. I love that fan aloe. Dish gardens of such tender succulents can be planted here, to last only as annuals, but are worth replanting. Maybe they could come inside for the winter? Thinking aloud here...
    Frances

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  8. Hello Alice,

    What beautiful examples of succulents. I absolutely love the Aloe!

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  9. Boring to say this yet again, but love being briefly reunited with all these old flames, which I used to grow.

    Thanks

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  10. Hello Alice Thanks for your always interesting posts.
    I feel right at home with this one . It could be my backyard. kind regards Ian

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  11. I've always liked aloe too. It's on my easy-to-grow houseplants list!

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  12. Dearest Tendril! I am feeling VERY smug, because I have every single plant in this post and am MAD about them! The Aloe plicatilis is such an amazing specimen - I just took a job mainly because there was a 50 year old A. plicatilis on the site that I get to work with!
    And we KNOW the feelings I have for Aeonium 'Zwartkopf'! I knew I wasn't alone in my unbridled passion for it ... now we need a whole club so we can support each other.
    I'm working on thinking up that cocktail...
    Germi love to you!
    XOXO!

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  13. Succulents are such interesting plants Alice. My stepdaughter lives just outside SF - I'd love to visit the garden sometime when I'm there.

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  14. I can't see the dark Aeonium without being reminded of a trip to Tresc gardens on the Ises of Scilly a memorable trip.

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