Filoli

A friend announced on Twitter she was going to Filoli yesterday, so I invited myself along. I know. Lucky her! :) Well, I'm trying to make the most of my week off for you dear readers before I go back to school and resume blog silence. Besides how could I not go see the tulips and, I was surprised to see, the daffodils. My daffodils went kaput in the middle of winter quarter. Was the blog's last visit here really in 2009? That was a long time ago.

Filoli has their big Spring Fling fundraiser today. Unfortunately it is raining quite heavily. Go anyway and pretend you are in England. Or go Sunday. Guy just told me Sunday has the best weather forecast for this week. So go. For the rest of you who live hundreds of miles away, here are some pictures.









I was delighted to see them using California native wildflower Baby Blue Eyes (Nemophila menziesii) under the tulips in places this year. Forget-me-nots (Myosotis sylvestris) is the more traditional companion, or Muscari bulbs as I've seen them do in previous years).



Here's a drift with the myosotis.





I feel certain I have taken this picture before of the pointy iris foliage poking up between the round purple tulips. This bed also has big poofy alliums in it.











Elsewhere, they've done a lot of work in the shady camellia/rhodie garden and it has never looked better in my memory.





You realize things you should have done when you look at your pictures. Like, get a third picture of the little girl doing something. Then you'd have a theme. Oh well.

This portal is always a key stop for me. I love me some climbing hydrangea. Alas. I've come too early for the bloom this year.



Too early for the wisteria cladding the mansion like a lacy veil.



And too early for the Camperdown elms. But pre-bloom and leafless I can admire the extreme contortions in the branch structure.







Remarkable.



So many bushes leafing out in the rose garden creates a mounting sense of drama. I'll have to come back in June.







The map calls this room the garden house. My friend noted it might be an orangery in cooler climates, full of the sent of orange blossoms.



This one's full of the scent hyacinth, muscari, and narcissus.





Some stray shots from around the grounds...











And we end in the meadow.











Bye for now, Filoli.

UC Santa Cruz Arboretum

I return again to be dumbfounded by the largest collection of Protaceae outside of Australia or South Africa.









I don't remember if I've ever seen a silver tree in bloom before (Leucadendron argenteum). You'd think I'd remember.



There is always a lot to take in here.











I feel like the restios have all grown ten feet since the last time I was here.



Massive things.





Some of the leucodendrons seemed uncommonly massive to me as well.



I saw an alligator lizard in the grevillea.







If you visit the Arboretum (and you should--the nursery alone is worth the trip), just down the hill, right at the corner of Mission and Bay, is Donnelly Chocolates. FYI.