The UC Botanical Garden, Late February
I went to the UC Botanical Garden yesterday. Anita and I decided to get memberships for the year. We realized that the garden is actually quite close to our house, not quite as close and convenient as the Tilden garden, but almost, and we should get to know it better. This was the first visit of the year. The garden was in transition between winter and spring, the earliest plants in leaf but most of the other deciduous plants still dormant.
The South Africa section has a new section of moss rock wall. Really nice stonework, dramatic contrast between the boulders and the walls. Be interesting to see what they plant, something with an intense flower no doubt, based on everything else in that section. I think it’s my favorite section of the garden.
It’s hard to think of a flower like this as the natural bloom and not a cultivar that has been bred by humans, but the UC has only wild collected seed.
I don’t remember noticing this vertical stone before. I think that’s a flowering quince behind it.
The ceanothus were going in the native section, but a lot of the other spring bloomers were just getting ready to break. Like the Tilden garden, the UC is a little later than my more coastal garden.
The Summer Holly, Comarystophylis diversifolia, was covered in buds. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen one in full bloom. The Oso Berry, Oemleria cerasiformis, is another one that I don’t often see in bloom.
And there is patch of Giant Coreopsis, the star of my recent bloom day, looking like they wandered over from the South Africa section. Such a strange plant; it’s very clear to me why I need one in my own garden and why I’ve never planted one for anyone else.
Tags: moss rock
This entry was posted on Saturday, February 26th, 2011 at 7:01 am and is filed under public gardens, UC Berkeley. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
February 28th, 2011 at 12:15 pm
I enjoyed this visit to the botanical garden with you. I only visited briefly once – have to go again. I love the stonework too. I really like mixing big boulders in like that. Unfortunately even in my Mighty Mouse guise, I can’t move big boulders!
February 28th, 2011 at 8:19 pm
Beautiful! Lucky you being so close. My husband and I were just talking about our visit to this garden and whether or not we would want to visit it or the Huntington again soon. I vote both!
March 2nd, 2011 at 8:41 am
I think Mighty Mouse would be the only one who could move those boulders without a machine. I’m certainly not superhero enough.
I’ve never been to the Huntington. I’ve been wanting to go for a long time, but I guess I get spoiled living in the Bay Area with so many botanical gardens close by.
March 3rd, 2011 at 9:30 pm
I noticed that the Huntington garden had a giant coreopsis in the California/Mexico of their succulent garden. It fit right in. I’m right there with you on that wall mixing the boulders with the smaller stones. The contrast of scale is really exciting. And kudos for supporting the arboretum. I really fear for what’s in store for institutions that rely in great part on state funding.
March 7th, 2011 at 1:12 pm
Lovely walls