Botanical Gardens: Conservancy of Flowers

My aunt and I visited the Conservancy of Flowers in Golden Gate Park a few years ago. We saw the dinosaur exhibit – complete with the whimsical dinosaur head punching its way through the roof of the conservatory. The collection is housed in a wonderful, Victorian greenhouse structure that is painted white to provide diffused lighting for the plants.

The conservatory is devoted to subtropical plants of highlands (cool) and lowlands (hot). The building has several distinct areas, including those for special exhibits, potted plants, and aquatic plants, as well as areas for plants of the highlands and lowlands.
 

Entrance to the Conservancy of Flowers in Golden Gate Park

Subtropical potted plants

The plants are well marked with informative signs, making it easy for the botany lover to learn more about new or favorite plants.

Signage also provides interesting information about the plants or ethnobotany

I was especially enamored to see plants for some of the spices we have learned about as part of our holiday cooking series, including ginger, vanilla, and nutmeg; and the giant water lily pads that can support a small animal, or person.

The aquatic plants are especially appealing

A plant sale is held every fall and spring, and the web site list the plants that are currently in bloom.

Cardamom, also used in cooking	Orchids growing midcanapy
Lotus flower	Carnivorous plants

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I recommend this conservatory for finding out more about subtropical plants. The building and the collection brings to mind the Victorian era, when everyone was mad to classify and collect plants. The madness continues – maybe in a different way. Now we want to learn more, to conserve what we have, and to learn all the lessons we can before it is too late.

 

Address: Golden Gate Park; 100 John F. Kennedy Drive; San Francisco, CA 94118 Web Site: http://www.conservatoryofflowers.org/ Golden Gate Park Map (scroll down): http://www.conservatoryofflowers.org/visit/directions/ For other botanical collections in the San Francisco Bay Area see: http://www.edenbythebay.blogspot.com/2015/02/botanical-collections-of-bay-area.html

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Summer Movies 2015: Roses for the Garden

In this program, Penelope Hobhouse visits gardens that feature heirloom roses;  and interviews the English rosarian, David Austin, who cross bred old and new roses to create rose shrubs that bloom more than once. He gives a brief history of the fall and rise of heirloom roses in England, centering on Graham Stuart Thomas, who is credited with helping to save old roses from extinction.

Hobhouse starts in her own garden in Bettiscombe, where she incorporates roses in her design. Her garden is small, so she uses vertical climbers, which provide accents without taking up space. She also uses roses as shrubs and hedges with other plants, which she calls companion planting.

Next Hobhouse visits the water garden at Mottisfont Abbey, an old monastery in Hampshire. In the 1970s, Graham Stuart Thomas incorporated roses from his collection into the walled garden of the Abbey. From the garden you glimpse the countryside over the wall, and old roses inside the wall. The old apple trees in the orchard serve as trellises for climbers. Hobhouse interviews garden writer, Patrick Taylor, at Mottisfont about old roses.

Lastly, Hobhouse visits Lower Hall in Worfield, a private garden that also grows old, heirloom roses. Lower Hall is a large, timber-framed farmhouse from the mid-16th century, with a four-acre garden developed in 1965. The garden is walled, and includes a stream. Hobhouse interviews garden designer, nurseryman, and writer, John Scarman, who points out several ancient roses and indicates they are growing in similar conditions as they were grown 7000 years ago. 

I love the innovative use of roses in these gardens. There is not a "rose bed" in sight; instead, roses are integrated into the garden design. Sometimes the roses take center stage with their blooms, other times of the year they take a back seat to their companion plants. Some are used as hedges and bushes. Climbing and rambling roses are integrated with other plantings, running up a wall or over an embankment in a flow of fragrant flowers. Old roses only bloom once, but they continue to produce new clusters of buds, sometimes blooming all through the summer months.

Summer Movies 2015: Visions of Nature

In another program, Penelope Hobhouse visits three naturalistic gardens. Naturalistic gardens emulate nature, but are "edited" to appear that way. Naturalistic gardening emerged as part of the landscape movement, which was a reaction to the highly manicured, resource-intensive, formal gardens of the Renaissance.

 

In England Hobhouse visits the iconic Stourhead, designed in the 1700s for the wealthy Henry Hoare family. A lake is the centerpiece of the garden; trails meanders through the woods and lake side, giving wonderful views of nature, buildings, a grotto, bridges, and so forth.

On the other side of the Atlantic, Hobhouse visits Winterthur Garden's March Walk in Delaware, USA. Winterthur was designed in 1839 by Antoine Bidermann and Evelina du Pont, and named after the Bidermann ancestral town of Winterthur. They both had a passion for gardening, and flowers, as did subsequent generations of their family. The garden is formally landscaped closer to the house, and then becomes a wild garden away from the house. The woods are an important part of the garden design.

She also visits the native plant woodland, Pierce Woods, at Longwood Garden in Pennsylvania, USA. The garden showcases the most ornamental characteristics of the eastern deciduous forest, and incorporates both indigenous and exotic plants. The garden has interest throughout the year.

I love the ideas behind the naturalistic gardens - gardens that appear as though they are wild, but in reality are planned and managed.

Summer Movies 2015: New Garden Ideas

Every summer and winter I like to head to the theater for interesting or fun movies where plants are the movie stars. Over the years we've watched some zany sci-fi shows, period pieces, documentaries, and main stream movies in our quest for movie star plants. This summer, I'm turning to Penelope Hobhouse's DVD collection, The Art & Practice of Gardening: England, Ireland, & America. (Kultur Films, 2008).

Hobhouse was one of the inspirations for our plants-on-the move theme in 2014, and I continually reference her book The History of Gardens. The Art & Practice of Gardening includes 13 programs, and I've selected three of them for our summer movies series. One caveat for those of us gardening in the San Francisco Bay Area, some gardens are lush and green, which may be a little tortuous! But be inspired, and look for ways to implement the spirit of these gardens into our dry native gardens.

New Garden Ideas

Hobhouse opens the program from Coach House, her gravel garden in Bettiscombe in Dorset, England. Here Hobhouse has created a dry garden, with limited water, and experimented with growing plants in unconventional ways. She uses grasses, drought tolerant plants, and gravel as mulch. The plantings seem natural and wild, but she  actually has a plan behind the planting.

Later she visits with John Brooks, an international designer, at Denmans Garden in West Sussex. Over time he has come to rely more on foliage, and less on flowers, in his designs. His garden is a series of rooms, each planted differently. He uses abstraction (such as dry river beds), and asymmetry in his designs, and implements objects, such as art, benches, and fountains.

Hobhouse visits a private garden in Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, USA, which is designed by James Van Sweden (1935 - 2013). This landscape implements a meadow instead of a lawn, and is planted in grasses of all types and sizes. The breeze off the bay keeps the grasses rustling and sighing in a lovely way. Curving paths meander near the house and down to the bay. 

I appreciated seeing these accomplished gardeners trying new ideas in the garden - water-wise gardening, use of foliage, relying on lawn alternatives (like meadow, gravel, tall grasses), and embracing foliage more than blossoms.

Rainforest Gardening

Rain, rain, rain. After drought in California, the rain of Southeast Alaska seems like paradise. Everything is green, everything drips with water.

Lush green landscape in Southeast Alaska (no irrigation required)

But gardening in the rainforest can be a challenge. A greenhouse helps – for starting plants and growing tender ones that would be eaten by slugs, or snails, or other critters.

Green house protects starter plants, and prolongs the growing season

Black visqueen helps prevent weeds, but does not provide much protection against the bear that strolls right through the vegetable garden periodically, with no thought to the damage his big paws cause.

Weed proofing

Rhubarb growing in a raised bed

Raised beds or planting areas for favorite plants and flowers are a necessity, to provide good drainage for all that water.

Drainage is key to gardening in the rainforest

Mossy raised bed

Some plants thrive with all that moisture, like the ferns, skunk cabbage, and horse tails. Salmon berries and blueberries abound in clearings where they get more light. 

Hanging lichen	Hemlock cones
 Horsetails	Skunk cabbage
New spruce shoots	Devil's Club
Salmon berry	Firewood for winter

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This is what I remember from my childhood – the drip, drip, drip of water, and the misty forest. And green, green, green!

Glacier Gardens

Another fun outing was the Glacier Gardens Rainforest Adventure—part rainforest tour, part fabulous views down Gastineau Channel, part whimsical upside-down trees, and part beautiful botanical garden in a natural setting. Something for everyone!

Glacier Gardens

We got an early start, hoping to snag a tour between tour busses, and succeeded (we practically had the place to ourselves). Glacier Gardens got its start after a landslide ravaged the Thunder Mountain hillside in 1984, leaving a big scar across the rainforest. Some folks would have been dismayed, but Steve and Cindy Bowhay saw opportunity. They obtained the proper permits, purchased six-and-a-half acres of land in 1994, and started to work on their vision restore the land and create a landscape. Over time, they obtained additional land and expanded their operation.

Glacier Gardens landscaping

Tranquil pond

 

The gardens are lovely with rhododendron, azalea, and maple; stunning streams, ponds, and rock work; and the beautiful and whimsical planters made out of upside-down trees (called Upside-Down Flower Towers). I have visited the gardens multiple times over the past 10 years or so, and the trees, shrubs, and planters have matured beautifully.

Rhododendrons and whimsical planters 

Upside-Down Flower Tower

 

The quick tour by golf carts up the hill and through the rainforest is a treat. We got to see the beauty of the rainforest flash past – the spruce and hemlock; the mist hanging in the air; the heavy moss dripping with dew; the Devil’s Club with its spiny stem and leaves; the old growth stumps, logged last century and now decomposing with dignity. The rainforest was the playground of my childhood. We ran through a similar forest behind our home, making forts, spying on each other, and exploring the green paradise.

Dense temperate rainforest

From the summit of the road, the view is beautiful – down Gastineau channel toward Juneau in one direction, and toward the Chilkat Mountains in the other. Without the trail and observation deck, this would be a difficult view to see – it would require a rigorous hike through the trees and understory.

Beautiful views

Back at the Glacier Gardens Visitor Center, we enjoyed the beautiful hanging umbrellas and baskets of cascading petunias. The newlyweds posed near the heart of flowers.

Glacier Gardens Event Center

After a few more photos in the garden, we regrouped at Vintage Fare Café in the Nugget Mall for delicious quiche and egg salad sandwiches.

Eagle Beach Adventure

For natural beauty, companionship, and living into the moment, this was the best day ever! Maybe it had something to do with a long stretch of rain and drizzle that led up to the day, or the unusual late-spring softness of the day, but everything was perfect. Eagle Beach State Recreation Area is one of my favorite places in Juneau, Alaska, and close to the Boy Scout camp, which is one of my favorite hikes.

Eagle Beach State Recreation Area "out the road" in Juneau, Alaska

Bridge over the estuary

Eagle River is a glacial river that empties into the salt water Favorite Channel. In the estuary, as the tide rises and falls, the river expands flooding the wetlands, and then recedes revealing tidal flats.

Eagle River swelling with tidal waters

Saturday Creek Cabin

 

The recreational area includes a large sandy beach, camping, picnic areas, covered shelters, fire pits, and trails; and offers three cabins for rent (Saturday Creek Cabin, Berry Patch Cabin, and Marten Cabin). The rec area surrounds the Methodist Camp that was built in the 1950s. The views are stunning, and the weather is often milder than rainy downtown Juneau!

Relaxing by a bend in Eagle River

View down river to the channel

 

The beach, river, and woods provide an interesting assortment of plants, many of which like water, or moist conditions. These are probably not candidates for our San Francisco Bay Area garden, but it is a pleasure to see them.

Fireweed	Lupine
Buttercup	Wild strawberry
Chocolate lily	Dwarf dogwood
Cottonwood	Mushrooms in the woods

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We experienced one of those rare days where nobody was busy, and we were able to put all distractions on the shelf for a few hours. It was the perfect lazy day, for hanging out, enjoying nature, and dreaming of the future.

Tram Adventure

A group of us took the Goldbelt Mount Roberts Tram from dock-side in downtown Juneau to the tram stop at the tree line, practically straight up the mountain. In our youth we hiked up the mountain, starting at the trail head close to Basin Road, through thick conifers, to the tree line at around 1,760 feet.

The tram car, named Raven, arrives at the dock-side tram stop

Raven arrives at the Mount Roberts tram stop. Here is a view of the powerful cable works, and Nature Center.

 

Now it is enjoyable to zip up the mountain in just a few minutes, watching the cruise ships and downtown Juneau fall away below, and the vistas down channel open up. The Visitor Center provides information about native American history and culture, and offers a restaurant and gift shop.

The miniature conifers of the elfin forest are pruned and sculpted by the elements.

A blind bald eagle on display at the nature center.

A native American raven is carved into a tree.

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A short hike takes you out of the elfin forest and into the alpine meadow. June is a great time to see wildflowers. The plants take advantage of the brief season to grow and propagate. We enjoyed the fabulous vistas in all directions.

Beautiful view down channel at Father Brown's cross.

The alpine meadow is being restored. Meadows are easily trampled, and restore slowly in the short growing season.

I learned from signage at the top that the rise in elevation from water’s edge to mountain top comprises multiple plant communities, including conifer groves, elfinwood, rock gardens, lush meadows, deciduous thickets, snowbeds, and heath. This provides a great opportunity for botanical observation.

Blue berries are just starting to ripen.	Salmon berry blossoms with snow in the background.
Violets	Wild geraniums

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We finished the day at El Sombrero Mexican Restaurant for a delicious dinner with our extended family, and lively conversation.