letters from america: part 2

Opposite the Japanese Tea Garden is the San Francisco Botanical Garden. Much more like it! It's quite scruffy for a botanical garden (at least compared to UK), but I am sure this is only down to funding and it more than makes up for it in sheer numbers and diversity of plants! There are all kinds of rarieties from Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Central and South America, South Africa, plus lots of native Californian stuff.

Apparently the average temperature and humidity of San Francisco’s foggy coastal climate is similar to that of the 'cloud forest' regions of tropical America and Asia, which allows them to grow so many choice plants. I tried not to be jealous.

Entry is free if you leave in SF, $7 to everyone else. It's hard to imagine one of our Botanical Gardens doing something like that (Kew is currently about £14 / $22 per person)...

I loooove Proteas. This one is Leucospermum catherinae 'Yellow Pinwheel'

Leucospermum cordifolium 'Veld Fire'

 

 

Anigozanthus 'Regal Claw'
a native to Australia. Will it grow in Norfolk?
Hmmm probably not. Will have to move to Australia.

What's this? Some sort of Cosmos? answers on a postcard...

Aloe saponaria

How's this for a combo? Imperata cylindrica and Campanula takesimana
(aka "Bloodgrass" and "Korean Bellflower")
Am going to copy this one.

Leucadendron argenteum, "Silver tree"
A native to S.A., now endgangered. This beautiful tree can grow up to
50ft very quickly. Stunning metallic colour.

Metrosideros excelsa
aka Pohutukawa
A New Zealander with amazing aerial roots that descend to the ground and take root in the soil. They then extend to become extra trunks that support enormous great horzontal branches. Mental!

letters from america: part 1

One of the first botanical pit stops was to the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park. It had some lovely pools, bridges and tea house-type structures, but to be honest I was a bit disappointed. The one at Tatton Park feels more authentic somehow, maybe it's to do with the fact that you can't go in, whereas this one was all wide paths and concrete. And there's not all that much to entertain the plant enthusiast other than topiary. Still, it's worth a look. It's about $14 dollars to get in (for two of you), but is free on Wednesday mornings. I'd recommend a visit when it's free, then belt it across the road to the SF Botanical Garden.

This bridge is really fun, and unusual in that it is
meant to be climbed over rather than just looked at.

chicks!

One month old. They're all white and almost identical, but let's call these two Pepe and Eugene.

visit to Ness Botanic Garden

Lovely garden in the Wirral, managed by the University of Liverpool. Ness was founded in 1898 by Arthur Bulley, plant collector and seed merchant - the man responisble for the 'penny packet' system, where packets of seeds were produced for the poorer classes.  ‘Why buy seeds in 3d packets when a penny packet will satisfy your needs?’

The beautiful water garden

Le bourdon

A classic combo: Iris sibirica and Alchemilla mollis. Love. It.

Persicaria bistorta, Magnolia spp. and Sandra spp.

Alpines.

Primula pulverulenta

A gorgeous little woodlander: Paris yunnanesis

Colleague and fellow botanical blogger Bertie Bainbridge
getting up close to some Meconopsis

visit to Speke

Beautiful house and garden... right under the flightpath of John Lennon airport. The garden team are tenacious to say the least - there are six security cameras in the garden, phytophthora all over the place and way too many scallies desperate to do doughnuts all over the lawn on their quadbikes. Lovely place though.

Nice Holm Oak hanging over the moat

visit to Shugborough

 

Impassioned head gardener Joe Hawkins explaining the symbolism in the Shepherd's Monument. This guy knows his stuff. My mind is still spinning from all he had to say. I wrote a lot of it down, missed half, and didn't understand the rest. Apparently this monument is one of the world's top uncracked ciphertexts (google it). The Grail-esque mystery surrounding it could be what inspired a local nutjob to smash up one of Shugborough's more ordinary-looking urns, claiming, when the police came to take him away, that the urn was the key to the location of the Holy Grail, which he'd just written a book about and could he please have some publicity please. What a crackpot (heh).

 

 

The walled garden was lovely, and the lone gardener (Dan) did amazing things with zero budget and tools from the 1800s. Literally. He can't even use plastic netting, cos it isn't authentic, so they make these crazy anti-bird structures out of string. Prettier than netting, though...

Rosa 'Cantabrigienses'... Want!

here be bushes

you get to hear the loveliest comments from visitors. I was tootling through the west garden today when i heard this little exchange between a woman and her daughter - only about three or four years old.
"this is a magic garden!" said the girl.
"yes it is a magic garden," said her mum. "what do you think lives here?"
i was a expecting the girl to say lions or dragons or macca pacca. but she thought for a mintue and then declared simply: "bushes!"