GardenBook

  This weekend was the big fall plant sale at The Ruth Bancroft Garden-an event that has typically occurred in October. However this year the nursery sales area must be moved out of harms way as the long-awaited new visitors center is beginning construction at last, and the fewer plants that had to be schlepped across garden to the temporary nursery the better. I decided at the last minute to go on Saturday, which was the 35% off day , and was not surprised to find Gerhard there just ahead of me. He has already posted about the sale and as usual has provided much more detail , including an inventory of his purchases-be sure to check it out ! After I finished shopping I wandered off into the garden to take a few photos . It was a yukky hazy summer day, and not ideal photography conditions at all, in fact downright crappy. I took far fewer photos than I usually do but I felt ok with how some of them came out all things considered.  It was best to stick to areas with bit of da...

 Last week I posted the first installment of my visit to Tower Hill. I took a fair amount of photos and decided to break them up into two posts. Today we will visit the Systematic Garden, the meadows and the Orangerie courtyard among others. The Systematic  Garden  segregates plants by family, to display plant taxonomy in a live setting. Here you see the garden transitioning from the grasses to the conifers, with the Golden Larch as a focal point. I'm a sucker for conifer gardens; there are so few we can grow well here in inland Norcal. I took most of my photos here in and around the grasses -they were beautifully grown and the only thing missing was back-lighting.    Check out this cool chenille plant container-it had a few companions anchoring benches and the corners of the beds. Many east coast/cold winter botanical gardens have conservatories where they may shelter some of the plants that live outdoors in s...

 Business trips can be painful and exhausting, but the  benefit is the ability to add a personal extension on to company paid transcontinental airfare. I had business in Boston last week and was able to spend a few days with my New England friends visiting gardens and eating lobster.  The primary goal was a sojourn to Coastal Maine Botanical Garden . I last visited in 2013 , which I blogged about here and here. It remains, in my opinion one of the best public gardens in the US. And as I mentioned , there is copious fresh caught lobster nearby. A post will be coming soon on this garden.   I was flying back to SFO on Wednesday, so I decided to visit Tower Hill Botanic Garden on Tuesday which is a reasonable driving distance from  Boston airport lodging.  This was I think my 3rd or 4th visit to Tower Hill; the first being a quick walk-through in 2009. Tower Hill was developed from farmland by the Worcester Horticultural Society and still remains the headqu...