I paid a visit to the South Coast Botanic Garden earlier this week. As it's early February and I knew a large-scale construction project is underway on the 87-acre site, I wasn't expecting to be bowled over by the garden; however, I expected more than I found. I'll start with the prettier stuff.
One of the reasons for my visit was to check out the Aloe blooms, which are usually at their best during the winter months. It seems I waited too long as many flowers were waning, although there was still a lot of color to be found.
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| Clockwise from the upper left: Aloe 'Erik the Red' (I think), a mix of noID aloes, Aloe 'Spiney' (a David Verity introduction), a mass of Aloe vanbalenii and hybrids, and Aloe 'David Verity' |
The rest of the Desert Garden was also looking good, although there wasn't much color to be found there at the moment.
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| Wide shot of the Desert Garden as I approached it from the front of the garden |
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| Views of the same area from other sides |
I ran into a friend at the garden and she told me that the Display Greenhouse across from the Desert Garden had been replanted and was now open so I checked it out.
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| The space isn't large by comparison to the tropical greenhouses at the Los Angeles Arboretum and Sherman Gardens but I missed the area when it was closed. When I conducted tours of the garden pre-pandemic, I always brought school kids here. |
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| The shell of the greenhouse admittedly isn't very attractive as the heating and air circulation elements aren't well-disguised. They may have overused the Spanish moss but the new plants looked healthy. |
SCBG had been advertising cherry blossoms so I wandered through the more distant parts of the garden looking for them but it appears my visit was too late to see most of those too. I also ran into the construction area, which has sprawled to cover more space since my early December visit.
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| The garden is developing a larger space to interest children and families. It's been on the drawing board for years, while funding was sought. It's projected to be completed sometime in 2024. |
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| This is the only sign I've seen providing information on thew new garden to the visiting public. I was able to find a brief explanation of the new project on the website but I had to actively search for it and it doesn't provide much more information than the sign. |
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| I was disappointed by the inability to access 90% of the Banyan Grove, one of my favorite parts of the garden. If information as to when it will be reopened was posted anywhere, I didn't see it. |
I continued walking along the tram road toward the Sakura Meadow, designed to highlight cherry trees and other spring-flowering fruit trees. I saw only one tree in bloom and it didn't photograph well. I did spot a Eucalyptus tree nearby that looked as though it's slowly falling over.
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| The tree appears to be nearly down but not yet flat out. The area wasn't taped off. |
I veered off the tram road at its intersection with Creek Lane. I followed it past what was once a man-made lake in the center of the botanic garden and on through a tunnel of foliage back to the tram road on the garden's south side.
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| I didn't get very close to the creek (shown on the left) but, despite all the rain in January, it didn't look like there was much water there. The lake (middle photo) of course is dry, as it's been for years. The garden has a vision for a replacement but not the money it needs to implement the plan at present. The walk through foliage to the south side of the tram road was a calming experience, if offering little else. |
I found one small cherry tree in full bloom as I headed back toward the garden's entrance.
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| It sits between the garden's lower meadow and its Living Wall |
Other flowering plants of interest included these:
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| Clockwise from the upper left: noID Acacia, my first sighting of California poppies this year, a mass of noID Kalanachoe, and Salvia africana-lutea |
The most impressive flowering tree was one I couldn't get close to because the garden's upper meadow was closed off. The garden's website states that the meadow would be closed through December for maintenance purposes but there's no explanation for its continued closure. They need to update their web page, which also says the Display Greenhouse is closed. The areas impacted by construction of the new Children's Garden aren't identified either.
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| Regrettably, I didn't have a telephoto lens with me so this was the best shot I could get of the hybrid apricot-colored trumpet tree (Handroanthus chrysosticha x impetiginosus) |
It isn't at all easy to implement a major renovation in any public setting and I sympathize with the difficulties SCBG is experiencing. However, I wish they'd be more open about the impacts of temporary closures on members and other visitors. It would be helpful in managing expectations.
All material © 2012-2023 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
I love me some Tillandsia usneoides, but yes. That's a bit much. Websites should be so easy to update, there's no excuse for not telling people what to expect.
ReplyDeleteI've criticized the failure to update the garden's website sources before. The staff devote considerable time to social media hype but don't bother making routine updates to their webpage despite the fact that the site is used to make reservations and purchase tickets for special events.
DeleteOur botanic garden is a public/private partnership and they are good about letting you know what's going on. I think if's critical to keep visitors informed so they don't stop visiting because they can't get info.
ReplyDeleteExactly. One bad experience can chill the entire relationship, especially among new members and first time visitors who don't have a general perspective about the range of activities offered by the garden. I have a "deluxe" membership and, although I'd like to support the garden's long-term projects, I can't judge whether renewing that membership at that level is a good investment or not. The garden's leadership team seems to have a "trust us" mentality with no sharing of details regarding the garden's operating plan. One of the last major projects the garden implemented dragged on much longer than expected - but that one didn't shut down as much of the garden as the current project has.
DeleteSeeing those large and healthy desert plants was a welcome relief from all the damaged and rotting ones on various bloggers' posts.
ReplyDeletechavli
Even with our heavier-than-usual January rainstorms, we get a LOT less rain than the PNW or even Northern California. We're not nearly as cold either so the desert succulents find this environment more hospitable. While I've wondered if the small flurry of blooming agaves in our neighborhood can be regarded as a response to the rain, I haven't noticed any of the damage reported by other garden bloggers.
DeleteHere's hoping that their large investment in attracting families and getting children interested in plants/gardening pays off. Anything to get them outside seems like a winning option to me.
ReplyDeleteThanks for highlighting the good things that you were able to see. Everything looks so green!
They raised $15M so I hope they'll do a great job on the new children's garden! They did well with the rose garden, which was the last large-scale landscaping project. The revival or reimagining of the former lake area has regrettably been on the back burner for years; however, that's presumably a more complex and costly endeavor as they have to factor storm management and our water crisis into the equation. The garden lost a huge number of bird visitors when the lake went dry, though, and that's sad.
DeleteI hope their investment pays off and they can get families with kids to make the garden a favorite spot for them to visit. I just learned a new word today; biophobia = fear of nature. It seems it's very common in kids who haven't had much exposure to the outdoors. I shudder to even think about the repercussions of *that*. We need many more easily accessible outdoor public spaces, so all power to them. I wish them all good luck!
ReplyDeleteSCBG had a smaller children's garden, which was constructed by volunteers about 60 years ago. It was based on nursery rhymes and, when I was conducting school tours, I learned that many kids are unfamiliar with these so it was about time they updated it to appeal to more recent generations. The garden hasn't shared much information about the new plan but I have a vague understanding that the area will be more adventure-oriented. And yes, the school tours showed me how hesitant some kids are about getting close to nature.
DeleteDid they ever fix the parking lot? Last time I was there it was all pot-holed and undulating (I guess because it used to be a landfill) and really a mess.
ReplyDeleteAt least they are doing something. That's a miracle in itself. That's funny--a nursery rhyme garden baffling kids who have no idea what a nursery rhyme is. Culture does change rapidly these days.
The rain may have helped more, though, to make it all look better, than $15 million. (For those of us who see plants as the most important feature of a botanical garden.)
They "fix" the parking lot on a periodic basis but, for all practical purposes, it's still "Mr Toad's Wild Ride" for the reasons you cite. I'm not sure the landfill below the garden will ever be fully settled.
DeleteI collided with another former volunteer (formerly part of the now defunct propagation unit) while there and we both bemoaned the current emphasis on amusement-park like "events" rather than plants but I expect the Board feels it's doing what it needs to do to keep the garden afloat. I just wish they could strike a balance to keep "plant people" happy too. They scrapped a fall plant sale and I'm waiting to hear whether they'll be a spring plant sale...I heard from a still active volunteer that they're planning to roll out a display of "trash sculptures" in an effort to educate visitors as to the problems associated with plastic pollution, which is something I can get behind.
I had a similar experience recently of going to a local public garden's website to get information about an upcoming lecture series, only to find that the website hasn't been updated in many months. I suspect the problem is that they have contracted with some third party to create/maintain the website and can not update it themselves (as opposed to social media postings, which staff can do themselves).
ReplyDeleteI hope both your local public garden and my local botanic garden can afford to find themselves web designers to create a basic format they can manage with their own staffs in the future. The failure to do so may harm their public images and traffic if they drop the ball there. Actually, I'd be surprised if they couldn't find volunteers who could both redesign and maintain their websites if they bothered to look for them.
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