Given that this is the third of my posts within a week's time to feature photos from last week's visit to my local botanic garden, you may suspect that I spent a lot of time there but in actuality I was there for less than two hours. Arriving in advance of my timed entry to the garden's butterfly exhibit, I walked the rest of the garden at a relatively fast clip, snapping photos as I went. My focus was on discovering the topiary displays but, as I didn't know where most of those were, I walked a significant portion of the garden's 87 acres in the time I had available. Without revisiting any elements of the topiary or butterfly exhibits, here are some of the best views I captured in the process.
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The Wisteria isn't blooming yet but the Japanese Garden looked great even with very little floral color
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Another view showing off the Cycads and Dietes iridiodes (aka fortnight lily) in the same area
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Other points of interest in the Japanese Garden included a bonsai specimen, a huge noID Dyckia in full flower, and Iris ensata (aka Japanese water iris)
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I've no idea what the shrub fronted by the asparagus ferns is but I love its shape
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| Lower meadow area bordered by Iris pseudacorus, Verbena bonariensis, and Rotheca myricoides 'Ugandense' | | | | | | | |
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I can't remember exactly where I took this shot but I was surprised to see so many Canna lilies already in bloom
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The highlights of the Desert Garden for me were the Pseudobombax ellipticum (aka shaving brush tree) and the noID Echinopsis
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The Jacaranda trees are blooming throughout the peninsula (at least with the exception of the dwarf variety in my back garden). These border the extension of the Desert Garden that specializes in Aloes.
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The major draw in this area, which I've always thought of as limbo, is a huge mass of Romneya coulteri (aka Matilija poppy), currently in full bloom
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Even though not yet in full flower, the lavender field area always has a peaceful feeling about it
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After a little rain, the Mediterranean Garden has sprung to life (no pun intended)
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The canopy of the Moreton Bay fig trees (Ficus macrocarpa) in the Banyan Grove seemed thinner than usual but as beautiful as ever
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This spectacular Cape chestnut tree (Calodendrum capense) is in the Phoebe Meadow, located in the outer area of SCBG
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This massive Bougainvillea entangled in a palm tree sits next to the tram road
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The Rose Garden viewed from one corner
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This view from a path within the Rose Garden looks out in the direction of a large Brugmansia (aka angel's trumpet) bordering the nearby Amphitheater
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The forest pansy trees (Cercis canadensis 'Forest Pansy' aka eastern redbud) planted a little further along the same path hide the Amphitheater lawn and the flamingo topiaries I featured in an earlier post. In bloom, I thought these were western redbuds but their foliage clearly identifies them as the eastern species.
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Since South Coast Botanic Garden furloughed its volunteers in 2020 and subsequently disbanded the docent group I'd belonged to, I only get to the garden about once a quarter on average but, coincidentally, a friend and I plan to be there this weekend for the garden's first plant sale since the start of the pandemic. I used to attend all the fall and spring sales but I'm not sure what to expect after the long hiatus. I'm still looking forward to it, though.
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material © 2012-2022
by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
My vote goes to the Banyan Grove, always a mazing to me. And although I'm not usually a huge fan of roses, your photos of the rose garden are spectacular.
ReplyDeleteYay for plant sales! Even if they don't quite measure up to pre-pandemic times, I'm certain you'll have fun; another step towards normalcy. Hallelujah.
Chavli
Much as I love flowers, Chavli, I have to say that the Banyan Grove has always been my favorite spot in that garden. It has both majesty and mystery - and in the summer, it's blessedly cool too. That first photo of the rose garden captured the wonderful expanse of color but also hid the fact that the flowers were in serious need of deadheading ;)
DeleteCanna in bloom! Geez, ours are just barely peeking out of the ground. That bougainvillea palm is amazing.
ReplyDeleteI've never had much luck with Cannas in my garden, Loree but I expect SCBG waters more than I do...It's sometimes easy to forget that Bougainvillea is a vine. I've seen it climb like that in trees before and it's always impressive, if perhaps not good for the trees.
DeleteOh goodness, those fig trees are interesting. Love that first show of the Japanese Garden.
ReplyDeleteThe Japanese Garden was especially well-manicured on this occasion. The banyan grove is magical - before the pandemic, when I was still guiding school tours, it usually engaged kids in a way the very dated children's garden rarely did.
DeleteGarden looks pretty good overall.
ReplyDeleteI hope its a good plant sale----they stopped propagating so it is all vendors bringing stuff in?
Well, the word was that they were leveling the propagation area but, when I walked the garden last week, there was a large area with benches covered in plants so perhaps it's been at least partially resurrected - or that's just a staging area for vendor-supplied plants. I just checked the garden's list of volunteer opportunities and propagation still isn't listed. Their last newsletter mentioned that "some" plants were propagated in the garden. The only example provided was a Mangave that was developed and being propagated long before the pandemic. I'm concerned about their prices as I didn't consider the prices on the plants offered on their plant stand bargains by any means.
DeleteThe garden is looking nice. I think when I visited 3 years ago, they were just redoing the rose garden... it is looking quite lush in comparison. Good luck with the plant sale! Eliza
ReplyDeleteThe "new" rose garden has been open for several years now, Eliza. As it's a wedding venue, it gets regular grooming ;)
DeleteSo many beautiful views - I love that iris!
ReplyDeleteI'd love to have a Japanese Iris or two myself, Phillip, but they want too much water :(
DeleteThere are some particularly gorgeous trees in this garden. The jacaranda is gorgeous but such an unusual flower colour. Particularly liked the bougainvillea up in the palm. I think it's probably the biggest one I have ever seen. Hope you find some treasures at the plant sale.
ReplyDeleteJacarandas are common trees here and their blue flowers are yet another sign that summer is moving in, Elaine. I love these trees but they're very messy. I invested in a dwarf variety but I've only seen a handful of flowers in prior years and none so far this year. It may not get as much sun as it wants.
DeleteGoodness, what a beautiful place! That Bouganvillea/palm combo is fantastic! Before reading, I thought it was all one plant. I wonder how old that bonsai is - it looked ancient. It's such an interesting art form...
ReplyDeleteI don't like all bonsai but that one captured my attention and really appealed to me, Anna. I expect that growing them is a tremendous exercise in patience.
DeleteLots of lovely things at your local botanic garden, Kris. Sorry to hear they don’t host volunteers anymore- is that just a Covid thing? Hopefully there is a plan to start up again in the future? Absolutely love the bougainvillea in the (Canary Island?) date palm. The rose garden looks very well cared for too.
ReplyDeleteSCBG reopened their doors to volunteers again in late 2021, Horticat, but they eliminated the docent role, and also the plant propagator role as best I can tell. As the docent role was heavily wrapped up with school tours and the schools had pulled these back, there was a logic to that decision, although I did hear that some in garden management considered the docents to be "uppity." They've essentially replaced the docents with "guides" who help our with special exhibits like SOAR (the butterfly exhibit) and GLOW (the now annual light show). They've also brought back volunteers to help with maintenance. I'd considered going back in the latter role but was alienated by some of my own experiences near the start of the pandemic involving the aborted revival of the dahlia garden, as well as gossip I heard from others about their post-pandemic assignments. I'd be interested in a propagation role if they reintroduce that at some point - partly because I could learn something in the process ;)
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