Friday, August 4, 2017

Sherman Gardens - Part 2

Wednesday's post covered the Sun Garden, the Central Garden, the Perennial Garden and selected plants at Sherman Gardens, a 2.2 acre botanical garden in Corona del Mar.  While very nice, these were perhaps less interesting than the areas I'll cover in today's post: the Tropical Conservatory, the Shade Garden, and the Succulent Garden.

As you'd expect, the inside of the Tropical Conservatory was very warm and moist.  I felt as if I'd been transported back to Washington DC on the first day of the Garden Bloggers' Fling.

This large Koi pond, surrounded by bromeliads and ferns, set the scene.  I assume the brightly colored balls are part of the glass display that runs from June through October.

This handsome fellow demonstrated just the right touch of attitude

There were lots of massed plant displays like this one


While the flashy pink Cordyline shown here is pretty, I'm head-over-heels about the other variegated Cordyline, C. terminalis 'Miss Andrea', which I've seen in blog postings but not in my local garden centers

There were blooming orchids tucked in here and there throughout the conservatory

I'm not certain but I think I snapped this photo outside the Conservatory although then again it might have been part of the gardens' Palm Collection.  I can't identify the tree at the photo's center but I think it's a palm.


We toured the Specimen Shade Garden next.  This was enclosed in a very large lath house.  The space got me thinking about adding a structure like this, on a far smaller scale of course, to my own garden.  I'd previously asked my husband about building a shed/greenhouse but arguably this is an unnecessary addition to our garden.  I have adequate (if not particularly attractive) space to store my garden tools in our garage and, as our winters are exceptionally mild, I don't actually need a greenhouse to protect seedlings and tender plants.  However, I can definitely use some shade protection.  I miss the fuchsias, begonias, ferns and other shade-loving plants I grew in my former garden.  Luckily for me, my husband has embraced the lath house idea to a greater extent than the shed/greenhouse idea so my fingers are crossed that this plan will get off the ground - eventually.

View of the lath house from the outside

View from the inside with fuchsias in hanging pots as far as the eye can see

A nice massed planting of bromeliads

A healthy clump of variegated Iresine, paired with New Guinea impatiens

A huge staghorn fern (Platycerium) and lots of tuberous begonias in pots positioned on the shelves lining the sides of the lath house


The last area we toured was the Succulent Garden.  Like every other section of Sherman Gardens, it was densely planted.  Parts of it were also more stylized than most succulent gardens I've toured.

The entrance gates were decorated with wreaths, which I didn't notice until I reviewed my photos

A huge Furcraea foetida 'Mediopicta' anchored one end of the artistically decorated succulent bed

This is the other side of the same bed, bordered by the entrance gate

This area bed was situated on the opposite side of the Succulent Garden

There were glass pieces in this garden too


I think the mounded plant in the center foreground (repeated both to the left and the right) is Deuterocohnia brevifolia (formerly Abromeitiella brevifolia), a bromeliad

These 2 mature specimens of Agave 'Jaws' serve as yet another reminder that I need to move at least one of mine before it gets too big

The largest Rhipsalis baccifera I've ever seen

Perhaps the best example of both the focus on detail and the insistence on making use of every square inch of planting space by Sherman Gardens: succulents planted in the gap between every stair tread


You can find Hoover Boo's posts on our visit to Sherman Gardens at Piece of Eden herehere and here.  The earlier post by Denise that launched our trip can be found at A Growing Obsession here.

That's it for Sherman Gardens.  I won't let a decade or more go by before visiting again.


All material © 2012-2017 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

30 comments:

  1. "The largest Rhipsalis baccifera I've ever seen" I want one.

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    1. I can only imagine what a plant that size would cost but, if you have a great deal of patience, Jane, I suspect you can find a small starter plant without too much trouble. I've got a couple of smaller sized specimens, although neither has developed the wonderful red tones of the one in my photograph, which I suspect gets more sun and possibly less water than mine.

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  2. I would be so disappointed if I made the trip only to discover all that glass in the way of the plants. But then we all know I'm a bah humbug when it comes to "garden art". Lath house!!! Fingers crossed for you. You should plan a trip here, to brainstorm ideas for the design:
    http://www.thedangergarden.com/2015/03/back-to-balboa-park-lath-house-and.html

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    1. It's terrible to admit but I don't think I've ever visited that lath house in Balboa Park. I should try to get my husband down there but then the image of a complex, colossal structure like that might put him off the project. What he builds for "us" will, of necessity, be much more demure.

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  3. Oh, oh, a lath house for you! What a great idea -- somewhere for fuchsias and begonias and ferns! I'm hoping it comes to fruition. Although I do have a few glass pieces in my garden, like Loree, I was a bit bummed to see it here. I appreciate the photos of their succulent garden. I want to redo my own gravel garden, and I'm looking for inspiration for something a bit more stylized, like this.

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    1. I was okay with a few of the glass sculptures but, like all of these special exhibits, they add some in spots for purely gratuitous purposes. They bothered me most in the succulent garden. Re your succulent garden, if you haven't already seen it, check out Jeff Moore's version of the under the sea succulent garden at Quail Gardens (now San Diego Botanic Garden) here: http://www.pacifichorticulture.org/articles/an-undersea-garden/. You can also find a lot of photos of his creations on Pinterest.

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  4. Be still my heart! What a great tour. I liked the glass placement in part 1 much better. Some of this seemed to war with rather than add to the surroundings. Love the succulent bed and that pink cordyline is right up my alley. (I've killed 'Miss Andrea.' She likes it hot, humid, and wet and I like to ignore plants in the winter.

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    1. So excited for you about the possibility of a lath house for you!

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    2. Yes, I suspected there was a good reason that 'Miss Andrea" was hanging out in that tropical conservatory. I suspect she wouldn't survive long here at all.

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  5. Kris, what a wonderful place! don't know where to start! The pond is fantastic and the turtle is so cute, I'd have one in my pond if they weren't water lilies eaters. The glass ornaments are wonderful they look like real exotic carnivorous plants and integrate to the garden perfectly, I wish I could find them here. A lath house is a wonderful idea to grow shade loving plants! I love fuchsias and they once grew very well in my garden untill the fuschia mite arrived and never left. Thanks for sharing these wonderful pictures!

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    1. I'm looking forward to the lath house, although, as my husband wishes to build it himself, I suspect I'll have to wait until summer is over before we can get started. I never had a problem with fuchsia mite in my old garden but I understand that it's become a pest here too so I may have to confront that problem as well when the time comes.

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  6. You will not regret building a Lath House. I created my own version of a Lath House this year. If you want ideas you can look at my Lath House board in Pinterest. Krista Nickerson

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    1. Thanks Krista! I added some of the photos you'd compiled to my own Pinterest board (on garden sheds/structures).

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  7. I can just imagine the possibilities if you had a lath house... Oh boy! :)
    I think your mystery palm is a fishtail. Love the succulent garden!

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    1. My lath house will be very small by comparison to that at Sherman Gardens but I'm already excited about the prospect. My husband seems committed to the project (as he definitely was not to the shed/greenhouse) but I suspect his schedule and mine may be 2 different things. Re the mystery palm, it appears that you and Hoover Boo on on the same wavelength.

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  8. Caryota gigas. Monocarpic, like an Agave.

    The weather the past few days recalled our visit to that greenhouse. A lath house would be very cool!

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    1. Thanks for the plant ID, HB. Monocarpic, that's a surprise!

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  9. Gardens like these are always fascinating with their amazing specimen plants and great displays. A lath house would make it so much easier to keep shade loving plants at their best when the sun has other ideas.

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    1. After killing a couple dozen shade plants since moving here, I'd gradually given up on them, Shirley. Even many of my partial shade plants have been singed before they settled in. It didn't help that my former neighbor also campaigned for the removal of my trees either, which both increased my sun exposure and made the idea of planting more trees a source of potential conflict. Now that that neighbor has moved, I may be adding more small trees but the lath house also seems made to order.

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  10. I'm with Hoov, your mystery palm is a Caryota. When I was a child in LA our neighbor had a lath house that I would visit as often as possible, full of ferns, begonias and fuchsias. The fuchsias at my house (and there were dozens) were shaded by a large Elm in the back yard .That lath house was instrumental in my obsession with plants.

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    1. If the lath house adds to my existing obsession with plants, my husband may live to regret building one for me, Kathy. We shan't tell him about that possibility, though ;)

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  11. I'm so glad your lath house plans are proceeding! Fingers crossed...

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    1. I expect the plan will come to fruition, although perhaps not on my preferred schedule, Denise. Summer's heat is the first impediment...

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  12. A lath house sounds fabulous - oh, for enough shade! So glad to hear your pesky neighbor has finally moved! And perhaps I should know, but can you tell me what is the upright plant in the center background behind the "Jaws" Agaves? Love it all...

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  13. Truly a feast for anyone hungry for color! Too much to take in quickly; I wish I could take it in slowly, in person, at a leisurely pace. The warm and humid, however, I have no desire for. I long for the cool alps!

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    1. Well, at least here, when you tire of the warm, moist air of the tropical conservatory, you can walk outside into conditions that are both cooler and drier, Deb. I don't know how you stand prolonged exposure to that kind of humidity. It seems a good time to pay a visit to coastal SoCal!

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    2. Well, not SoCal, but next month I will be in Portland/Seattle to visit with my sons. I am definitely looking forward to the cooler weather, though hopefully by then Alabama will be cooling a bit and the humidity will be lessening. Someday I will get to your particular part of the world!

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    3. I hope the heatwave in the PNW is well over in time for your September trip, Deb! It's been hotter in Portland of late than it is here.

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