I visited South Coast Botanic Garden's "Phase One" Pollination Garden in late July when it was only just coming into bloom. I'd planned to go back to see it in full bloom four to six weeks later but SCBG posted notice about the new garden's progress in a newsletter so I popped in again this week. The garden is indeed in full bloom, with flowers in some areas stretching well above my head.
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| The photo on the left was taken on July 25th. The photo of the same area on the right was taken on August 16th. |
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| Although I arrived soon after the garden opened at 8am, it was already quite warm |
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| Flowers that had been a foot high at the time of my earlier visit were chest high or taller |
I could hear the water circulating in the pond but I could barely see it.
The bright pink shade sail covers are still in place.
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| And they haven't faded yet |
The pollinators were plentiful, even if I caught relatively few photos of them.
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| The bees were busy and easier to photograph than the butterflies |
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| On the left is a monarch butterfly. On the right is a truly tiny butterfly I think may be an arctic blue (Plebejus glandon). |
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| NOT a pollinator, except perhaps by accident, but he was in the middle of things |
I appreciated all the vibrant flowers but, linking back to the title of this post, if this is representative of a meadow, it's probably not something I'd want in my own garden.
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| Jumbled mix of flowers |
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| Cosmos flowers were the most prevalant |
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| Other flowers I was able to identify included, clockwise from the upper left: Amaranthus cruentus, Anethum graveolens (dill), Borago officianalis (borage), Helianthus annuus (sunflower), Mirabilis jalapa (four o'clocks), Tithonia rotundifolia (Mexican sunflower), and another Helianthus |
I've always liked the idea of a meadow garden. I envision drifts of flowers and grasses, with the mix changing subtly as the season progresses but always retaining a degree of cohesion. (I may be obsessively tidy, even when it comes to garden settings.) I prefer floral colors that coordinate with one another and, while I don't think low profile plants must always be sited in front of taller plants, I like to see a discernible flow of one type to another. While I liked feeling enveloped by an abundance of blooms, the Phase One Pollination Garden was too visually chaotic for me. To be fair, SCBG's objective was to create a space to attract pollinators, not the creation of a meadow garden. I suspect that the staff was also in a hurry to fill the space so it could be reopened to visitors this summer before they embark on the more labor intensive Phase Two process that will require cooler fall temperatures and the promise of rain. In the interim they simply spread a mass of mixed seed to cover the ground and let plants remain wherever they germinated.
Temperatures have been in the upper 80sF (31C) this week so I didn't hang around SCBG long. I took just a few photos outside my tour of the Pollination Garden.
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| An Ocotillo (Fouquieria peninsularis) in bloom in the Desert Garden next to a noID agave |
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| A couple of displays in the small greenhouse |
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| A closer look at the tree in the parking lot I incorrectly identified as a noID Acacia in an earlier post. A closeup photo of the flowers indicates that this is a Palo Verde tree (Parkinsonia). |
Best wishes for a pleasant weekend. There's a strong chance that a tropical rainstorm stemming from Hurricane Hilary, currently stirring things up to the south of us in Mexico, will reach Southern California this weekend. According to local projections, we could get as much as one and a half inches of rain and even more is possible in surrounding areas. As summer rain of any amount is an anomaly here, that's a lot!
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