A visit to UC Botanical Garden

It goes without saying that the UC Botanical Garden in the Berkeley Hills is one of the treasures of not only the Bay Area but the country as a whole. While any lover of plants can enjoy a casual stroll through the Garden, for those of us that know a bit about plants, the Garden is always full of surprises and delights. A friend and I spent a couple hours there this week and I took a number of photos. Here they are, with plant ID and a sentence or two about them. If anyone spots an error in plant ID please let me know so I can correct it.

Crassula coccinea. This bright-flowering crassula is usually a bit more densely populated with vibrant green leaves.

Staying on the South Africa hill, here's a low growing succulent (Glottiphylum longum).

A caudiciform is a plant that has a pronounced and usually fat trunk called a caudex. Caudiciforms run the gamut in the forms they take. Here's a Cyphostemma juttae. Known as Wild Grape, it's a slow growing deciduous succulent shrub that will eventually get to 6' tall.

Erica vestita (white flowering form). I love heathers and this is certainly a pretty one.

Neither my botanist friend nor I could be absolutely certain which restio  this might be. Restio is both a genus, all the species of which are native to South Africa, and the common name for a group of grass or reed-like plants that take attractive forms. They are often highly sought after.

Veronia capensis. This white-blooming species of ironweed has made a nice mat over one of the S. Africa hill slopes.

I couldn't find the sign for this dense mat-forming succulent but I thought it looked cool, adding some green in the crevice between two rocks.

There's a wonderful pond in the Japanese Garden area of the Garden. This time of year lily pads cover a good portion of it.

Here's a closeup of two of the water lilies in bloom. Water lilies have a complex pollination process and rely on a host of insects to get the job done. Among others, flies, beetles and bees all are drawn to the nectar these flowers produce. 

We couldn't find the sign for this Roscoea so we're uncertain as to which species it is. Lovely though.

Likewise, we're not sure which species of Dyckia this is and getting too close to look can be injurious to one's health (Dyckias are famous for their extremely sharp spines).

Here's a flower most of you will recognize - Hollyhock. A proper English garden flower! Below is a plant that's as uncommon as hollyhocks are instantly recognizable. It's Colletia ulicina and it was in full glorious bloom!

Another flower you will no doubt recognize - Fuchsia. Again, a sign could not be located but it was in the Central and South America section of the garden, areas where many Fuchsia species hail from.

Luma apiculata. This Myrtle family member hails from the central Andes, between Chile and Argentina. Though each flower is small, we caught it in full flower, smothering the green leaves in a white coat.

No sign and neither of us recognized this floriferous plant. Very fuzzy flowers that ranged from pale pink to rose-pink.

Though Eucalyptus trees are common, some, like this species with a white trunk and aromatic foliage, provide plenty of appeal.

We found this Amaranth in the edibles garden. Traditional peoples harvested the seed to use in cooking and used the colorful flowers to make dyes.

I didn't recognize these two milkweeds though my friend did. This first one is Asclepias linaria. It is sometimes known as pineneedle milkweed.

This second member of the Asclepias genus is A. glaucescens. Its down-turned flowers have given it the common name of Nodding milkweed.

My friend knew this was one of the many 'fan palms' but wasn't sure which one exactly. He thought perhaps a member of the Sabal genus, known as Dwarf palmetto. Any experts out there to ID it?

Dianella species. This grass-like perennial produces dainty blue flowers but it's the blue berries that follow that tend to be the reason for adding it to one's garden.

Calceolaria tomentosa. This large member of the pocketbooks genus hails from Peru. Not only does the plant get big but the individual flowers are considerably larger than those of the ones you find in your local nursery.

Another unfamiliar (to me) shrub that was laden with eye-catching flowers, this Brachyotum ledifolium hails from Ecuador and produces small fruits that are edible.

Contrary to the popular idea that all ferns like shade, this Cheilanthes myriophylla can handle the sun. An extremely rare species hailing from Mexico south to Peru, it forms an attractively dense mound.

Macleania benthamiana. This shrub with pendent branches hails from Columbia and Ecuador. It too produces edible fruit.

Near the front entrance to the Garden is a Leucospermum reflexum. This specimen is the yellow flowering form of it. That's it to left of center.

The crawl

Not sure if 'The Crawl' is an actual gardening phrase but it's mine for the mid-summer to mid-fall period when the garden transitions from the glory of spring to the fall season. There's still lots going on in my garden now, as today's photos will attest, but the amount of new developments has slowed. I know this because I keep a journal of developments in my garden. But hey, it's sunny out, a lot of us have more time in the garden and for sports fans such as myself, baseball is back!
That noted, here are today's photos.

Chantilly Peach snapdragon. Glorious!

Front yard color.

Medium strip. Here's an example of what can be packed into a median strip. I have 3 trees, 4 shrubs and a dozen potted plants of various sizes. Somehow they have found a way to coexist. 

Neoregelia 'Lorena.' Though leaf color is the main reason for adding these colorful bromeliads to your garden, they do actually flower. Here you can see the tiny lavender flowers forming in the center 'cup.'

Lily Portland. One of my faves this year. 

This 'mistake' (grower sent wrong variety) produced glorious golden trumpet lilies.

Lily Conca d'Or. This translates literally as 'golden conch' and that's a pretty accurate description.

Roselily mix. This double Asiatic lily type produces fully double flowers in shades of white, pale pink and rose pink.

Mimulus Jeff's Tangerine. Doesn't this variety of sticky monkey flower sound like the name of an art rock band?

Lily Scheherazade. One more shot of this glorious lily.

Although the first flowers on my Lily Flore Pleno haven't fully opened you can already see evidence of their double form.

My Stephania keeps pumping out the heart-shaped leaves. This caudiciform is surprisingly easy to grow.

I plunked a new little Sedum in this teacup, where I hope it will eventually spill over.

Darwinia taxifolia. I'm getting some very pretty chartreuse new growth on this new addition to my garden.

Begonia Berlleconia Soft Orange. Very unique flowers for a begonia.

Art deco tile. I'm not sure where I want to put these guys but at least they're now displayed outdoors.

Lily Captain Tricolore. Extravagant!

Grevillea Superb. A Protea family member whose variety name is well earned.

Strobilanthes anisophyllus. I'd never seen a Strobilanthes with dark foliage. Lovely.

Eriogonum latifolium. This CA buckwheat has made itself comfortable in my garden.

Making the most of Sheltering

Every man - or woman - needs a hobby, isn't that what they say? If so, gardening seems like a damn fine one. With many of us at home due to the pandemic, having a garden to get involved with has been a real life saver. That's especially true for those of us with big gardens or with ambitious garden plans that we'd been putting off. The nursery I work at has been incredibly busy, as people pour in to buy not only plants but mulch, bark for ground cover, fertilizers etc. It is a blessing too to be able to share my garden with an even wider group of neighbors, now that they have time to walk their dogs or very young children in strollers. If our gardens are the canvas that we create, it certainly is a pleasure to share this 'art' with those around us.
And now here are some of the fruits of my labors.

Lily Double Sensation. One last photo of one of my favorite lilies.

One of three new lilies I added to a new wooden planter this spring, this Lily Playtime proved to be one of the most fantastic. Huge flowers and very fragrant!

Lisianthus hybrid. These flowers are called Silk Roses cuz, well, they do kind of look like roses.

There are an endless number of California native flowers, only a portion of which are easily found in the nursery trade. One that's a bit hard to find is Wooly Blue Curls (Trichostema lanatum). Much beloved by bees and sporting small fuzzy purple flowers on sloping branches, it's a summer delight.

Helenium Mardi Gras. I think of Heleniums, Echinaceas and Rudbeckias as one group, all having nectar rich flowers that bees love.

Paradise lane. Okay, just shady lane as I call it but as you can see, it's densely planted, despite only narrow beds lining the walkway and a raised cement ledge on the right.

This is my Sun King bed. Yes, yet again another Beatles reference. It gets lots of sun so I can - and have over the years - plant pretty much anything there and it flourishes.

Although the flowers are small and the foliage wispy, those red and yellow flowers are Coreopsis radiata Tigrina. 

Here's another of those 3 varieties of lily in the square wooden planter, in this case L. Tiger Moon. Like most tiger type lilies, the flowers are nodding. Although I didn't plan it, it just so happened that these 3 lily varieties all are predominantly white. That's made for quite the show!

Speak of the devil, here are those three lilies. The third one, The Edge, is white with a pink border and is also intensely fragrant.

Bouvardia ternifolia. Red, red, red. 

Succulents bed. I'm gradually made over the front of my driveways bed - which mostly houses Australian shrubs - into a succulent garden. 

As I've mentioned, I've been on a bit of a bromeliads tear. Here's the main collection.

Oops, another shot of my Lisianthus somehow snuck in here.

Dianthus variety. Though pinks, reds and whites dominate for Dianthus (carnations), there are a host of other colors, including this salmon-colored variety.

Lily Scheherazade. Yes, from the Arabian Nights. Love the rich colors on this reliable bloomer.

On the other hand, a few lilies are more delicate, like this L. Lankongense. Very delicate, pale lavender and with fully recurved petals, it's a beauty.

Lily Portland. This variety, a new one for 2020, is supposed to be more heavily spotted. We'll see what the flowers on stems two and three look like.

White lilies seem to be a theme this year. Here's another one called Solution. They came out perfect.

Lily Conca d'Or. An oldie but goodie.

Lily Montego Bay. This variety is in year 4 or 5 and is still producing, though not in the numbers of previous years.

Begonia odorata White. This guy is having its best year yet and it's just getting started.