Autumn in the East Bay and A Preview of Spring

Dawn Redwood Glade in Winter

Obata Gate to the Japanese Pool

 University of California Botanical Garden ... A Preview

Photos Courtesy : University of California Botanical Garden

Autumn in the Asian Collection  

With its hilly topography, Strawberry Canyon is a dramatic setting for the U.C. Botanical Garden in Berkeley, 

located across the Bay Bridge to the east of San Francisco. Stretching over thirty-four acres, the grounds feature a geographical arrangement of gardens, displaying plants from around the world. Rhododendrons are well represented in the Asian gardens, along with maples and hydrangeas,  witch hazels and epimediums. Pictured above in a wintery scene, the Botanical Garden's lovely grove of Dawn redwood trees,  Metasequoia glyptostroboides, are another highlight in this collection. The unusual trees are deciduous conifers:  Having been believed to be extinct, they were discovered growing in western China  some sixty-five years ago. The trees at UCBG are among the first grown outside of China.

More to follow on the U.C. Botanical Gardens.

Across the Golden Gate - Sausalito at Sunset

Echeveria species: A drought-tolerant, pass-along plant.

An octogenarian when we met, Dr. Herman Schwartz loved to walk through his Bolinas gardens giving visitors bits of succulent plants as he shared tales of plant collecting in Africa, the Americas, and Madagascar. The passionate plantsman's arrays of cacti, agaves, aloes & crassulas put on a brilliant flowering spectacle in the winter! Amid all the rarities, a Euphorbia greenhouse contained towering to tiny, spiny and spineless species: Countless plants that one could see nowhere else in the U.S. When Dr. Schwartz died not long ago, the Marin-Bolinas Botanical Gardens - as his renowned collections came to be known, were shuttered.

Golden Gate Bridge

View from the grounds of Cavallo Point Lodge, a new resort hotel within historic Fort Baker, Marin County.

San Francisco Bay

November is a great time to visit the city, although it's the rainy season, days are often dry and sunny.

Many summer days in San Francisco are cold & fog shrouded... yet each city neighborhood

has its own microclimate!

Cross the Golden Gate into Marin County and the weather shifts dramatically once you're away from the coast,

with crystalline blue skies, hot days , low humidity, and cool nights for sleeping.

View of the city from Sausalito.

Sausalito ... a ferry ride from San Francisco - often the only other town visited

by international tourists.

Intrepid travelers rent bikes and travel across the Golden Gate Bridge to explore the surrounding hillsides.

Cultural Landscapes ... Central Park, NYC

Central Park - New York City

Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr.

What are cultural landscapes? 

Stewardship through Education:

Link to The Cultural Landscape Foundation:

www.tclf.org

Flora Mirabilis .. Extraordinary Plants

Flora Mirabilis

A beautifully produced, richly illustrated National Geographic Society book

www.nationalgeographic.com/books has arrived for review.

Author, Catherine Herbert Howell writes engagingly,

drawing the reader into the fascinating world of plants that have influenced every aspect of our existence from prehistory to the present-day.

Sweet figs and dates to aromatic herbs and tangy citrus,

the grains, grapes, sugarcane and coffee that nourish the body,

to sumptuous flowers that feed the soul,

mind-altering opium poppies, and medicinal discoveries:

Flora Mirabilis draws attention to more than two dozen plants

in a journey through time.

Cultural myths are illuminated, and adventurous explorers come to the fore,

to reveal historical, social, and scientific advances.

Drawn from the archives of the Missouri Botanical Garden Library,

the book's magnificent botanical images

will be savored by garden, art and nature lovers.

Postscript - I received the following comment:

"I'm a little fuzzy about the phrase "arrived for review". Does it mean that you received compensation

in the form of a free book in exchange for an unbiased review. If so, you should clearly disclose this information."

If my phrasing is unclear, then I hasten to add, I was given a copy of the book.

It merited a recommendation, and so I chose to review it.

Mysterious & Strangely Alluring - Carnivorous Plants

Nepenthes - the weird beauty of pitcher plants - on display at California Carnivores, Sebastopol: the premiere U.S. nursery for carnivorous plants and a destination featured in my book,
 Gardenwalks in California .. an INSIDERS' GUIDE.

Stunning plants in every way.




UNDER CONSTRUCTION ....

Cape Sundew (Drosera capensis) ... its hairy leaves produce a sticky sap, bewitching to insects.

Nepenthes ... A tropical pitcher plant: "Nepenthes .. Euphoria (its reputed drug property)." Quote from The Names of Plants by D. Gledhill, Cambridge University Press - acquired on a memorable visit to Cambridge, England

Sarracenia ... native to Eastern United States and Canada.

Sarracenia leucophylla hybrid

The owner of Cal Carnivores, Peter D'Amato is the author of The Savage Garden.

Peter's working on a revision of this best-seller.

Sarracenia show-stopper! A hybrid specimen of an American pitcher plant.

The color I find most alluring these days... chartreuse!

Gorgeous color interaction: Live sphagnum moss growing with carnivorous Cobra Lily,

the California Pitcher Plant (Darlingtonia californica)

www.calcarnivores.com

A brightly patterned Bromeliad ... not carnivorous.

Aechmea 'Ensign'?

Mexican butterwort ... Pinguicula 'Oaxaca'

Pinguicula gigantea

Recurring theme? I am strongly attracted to chartreuse foliage!

A visitor dropped by while we were having lunch at HopMonk Tavern.

Cape Sundew on display at Cal Carnivores.

Propagation Area - Cal Carnivores

Once again, we see kiddie pools utilized in horticulture!

Click on link to:

Noble Rot, Portland Oregon Destinations