5/25/08

The California Trip, Part Eleven: San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden

A small but exquisite garden, full of water-wise plants for a Mediterranean climate.

They also have the biggest specimens of Aloe ferox I've ever seen. How am I possibly going to maintain this plant in my tiny garden?

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Aloe + Aesculus californica

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Aesculus californica makes an impressive focal point from every angle.

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Aloe striata, always looks best massed I think.

Aloe striata

They're also massing Dracunculus vulgaris here, but I missed the main show. After visiting Lotusland I can no longer be surprised about unlikely our counterintuitive plant massings.

dragon arum dragon arum

(Actually, maybe those are just offsets from the parent bulb. But, still--same lesson.)

Lychnis under Ficus carica

One step to the left, and this would have been a much better picture. Sometimes I do wish I composed instead of doing the quick run through which is my usual mode.

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They have some plants here that I've never heard of.

Eucalyptus forrestiana?

Eucalyptus forrestiana

Well, it's nice.

Eucalyptus forrestiana

Banksia repens?!

Banksia repens!

Who knew.

Banksia repens

Echium handiense?

Echium handiense

Never heard of it.

Echium handiense

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Erica cruenta

Back on the road.

Some pictures from the car. IMG_9498

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A small-town cemetery in Part 12.

2 comments:

Tira said...

Wow, that Aloe ferox is splendid. i have the opposite garden issue-I need lots of big, dramatic plants to fill in all the space. I want my plants to get big quick! Also enjoyed the pics of the unusual plants.

lisa said...

Heh, I think aloe ferox will be managing YOU, eventually. What a cool monster! A new echium? Interesting.