I paid a visit to the South Coast Botanic Garden earlier this week. As it's early February and I knew a large-scale construction project is underway on the 87-acre site, I wasn't expecting to be bowled over by the garden; however, I expected more than I found. I'll start with the prettier stuff.
One of the reasons for my visit was to check out the Aloe blooms, which are usually at their best during the winter months. It seems I waited too long as many flowers were waning, although there was still a lot of color to be found.
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| Clockwise from the upper left: Aloe 'Erik the Red' (I think), a mix of noID aloes, Aloe 'Spiney' (a David Verity introduction), a mass of Aloe vanbalenii and hybrids, and Aloe 'David Verity' |
The rest of the Desert Garden was also looking good, although there wasn't much color to be found there at the moment.
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| Wide shot of the Desert Garden as I approached it from the front of the garden |
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| Views of the same area from other sides |
I ran into a friend at the garden and she told me that the Display Greenhouse across from the Desert Garden had been replanted and was now open so I checked it out.
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| The space isn't large by comparison to the tropical greenhouses at the Los Angeles Arboretum and Sherman Gardens but I missed the area when it was closed. When I conducted tours of the garden pre-pandemic, I always brought school kids here. |
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| The shell of the greenhouse admittedly isn't very attractive as the heating and air circulation elements aren't well-disguised. They may have overused the Spanish moss but the new plants looked healthy. |
SCBG had been advertising cherry blossoms so I wandered through the more distant parts of the garden looking for them but it appears my visit was too late to see most of those too. I also ran into the construction area, which has sprawled to cover more space since my early December visit.
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| The garden is developing a larger space to interest children and families. It's been on the drawing board for years, while funding was sought. It's projected to be completed sometime in 2024. |
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| This is the only sign I've seen providing information on thew new garden to the visiting public. I was able to find a brief explanation of the new project on the website but I had to actively search for it and it doesn't provide much more information than the sign. |
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| I was disappointed by the inability to access 90% of the Banyan Grove, one of my favorite parts of the garden. If information as to when it will be reopened was posted anywhere, I didn't see it. |
I continued walking along the tram road toward the Sakura Meadow, designed to highlight cherry trees and other spring-flowering fruit trees. I saw only one tree in bloom and it didn't photograph well. I did spot a Eucalyptus tree nearby that looked as though it's slowly falling over.
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| The tree appears to be nearly down but not yet flat out. The area wasn't taped off. |
I veered off the tram road at its intersection with Creek Lane. I followed it past what was once a man-made lake in the center of the botanic garden and on through a tunnel of foliage back to the tram road on the garden's south side.
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| I didn't get very close to the creek (shown on the left) but, despite all the rain in January, it didn't look like there was much water there. The lake (middle photo) of course is dry, as it's been for years. The garden has a vision for a replacement but not the money it needs to implement the plan at present. The walk through foliage to the south side of the tram road was a calming experience, if offering little else. |
I found one small cherry tree in full bloom as I headed back toward the garden's entrance.
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| It sits between the garden's lower meadow and its Living Wall |
Other flowering plants of interest included these:
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| Clockwise from the upper left: noID Acacia, my first sighting of California poppies this year, a mass of noID Kalanachoe, and Salvia africana-lutea |
The most impressive flowering tree was one I couldn't get close to because the garden's upper meadow was closed off. The garden's website states that the meadow would be closed through December for maintenance purposes but there's no explanation for its continued closure. They need to update their web page, which also says the Display Greenhouse is closed. The areas impacted by construction of the new Children's Garden aren't identified either.
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| Regrettably, I didn't have a telephoto lens with me so this was the best shot I could get of the hybrid apricot-colored trumpet tree (Handroanthus chrysosticha x impetiginosus) |
It isn't at all easy to implement a major renovation in any public setting and I sympathize with the difficulties SCBG is experiencing. However, I wish they'd be more open about the impacts of temporary closures on members and other visitors. It would be helpful in managing expectations.
All material © 2012-2023by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party