Last week I posted photos taken of the Chinese and California sections of the
The Huntington Botanical Gardens in late May. Although my husband and I didn't get to all 12 of the gardens, we did stroll a few more. This post is dedicated to the Australian and Desert Gardens.
I can't say that we covered the
Australian Garden in any depth. It was more along the lines of a walk through the area on our way to the Desert Garden. Despite my love of Australian plants like the
Grevilleas and
Leucadendrons, I've never really given this area its due, an error I've yet to remedy. That's not to say that the collection doesn't contain beautiful specimens, however.
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| Clockwise from the left: Anigozanthos (aka Kangaroo Paws), Bignonia capreolata, Bougainvillea glabra, Coprosma repens 'Tapata Gold' and Eremophila 'Summertime Blue' |
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| Cassia tomentella, which I initially took for a golden chain tree |
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| I couldn't find a label for this tree-sized shrub but I'm assuming that it's a Vitex |
The
Desert Garden grabbed more of our attention. Thankfully, it remained overcast and pleasantly cool throughout our entire visit, which allowed me the luxury of taking a LOT of photos. (You've been warned.)
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| We didn't need a sign to tell us when we'd arrived in the Desert Garden |
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| I wasn't good at checking for name tags and not everything had a tag. Opuntia and Echinocereus grusonii (golden barrel cactus) occupy the foreground here with what I think is a saguaro cactus (Carnegiea) in the middle. It looks as though we just missed out on seeing the latter in bloom. |
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| I skipped by this path, intending to come back, but never did |
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| Chilopsis linearis (aka Desert willow) in the middle of a bed of Senecio |
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| Euphorbia xantii in bloom - you can get an idea of the plant's size by comparing it with the bench sitting in the path in the photo on the left |
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| More golden barrel cactus (the garden has 500!) sit between a flowering Aloe and some variety of Puya here. An agave with the bloom stalk that signals its demise can be seen behind the Puya on the right. |
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| The fabulous turquoise Puya alpestris was in bloom, drawing a crowd. (Yes, that color is real.) |
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| A nice stand of golden barrel cactus is backed by what I think is Caesalpinia pulcherrima (aka Red Bird of Paradise) |
There were a tremendous number of agaves, large and small, scattered throughout the garden.
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| Labels seemed to be uncommon when it came to the agaves so I'm mostly guessing in identifying these fine specimens. Clockwise from the left, my guesses are: Agave americana 'Variegata'; A. parryi?; no idea but it's beautiful; A. gypsophila?; A. geminiflora?; A. parryi var truncata; and A. ovatifolia 'Frosty Blue' (which had a label although it was one I could've identified on my own) |
Large numbers of cacti and succulents were assembled in groups supported by rocks, which prompted me to think about what I could do with the west-facing slope at the front of our property. (My next project perhaps!)
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| Echinopsis, Gymnocalycium and Notocactus, if the labels can be credited |
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| A nice Agave victoriae-reginae |
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| A collection of Mammallaria |
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| The plants in the mid-section of this photo looked like agaves to me but the sign posted next to the one on the far right identified them as Ariocarpus retusus, which isn't a genus I'm familiar with. Other plants here include Echinocactus, Mammallaria and Opuntia. |
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| Pachyphytum, Opuntia and various agaves |
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| Dudleyas are front and center here |
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| Echinocactus (in flower), Echeveria, Aeonium 'Sunburst' and Crassula |
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| Aloes and Euphorbias among others |
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| Echeverias backed by Aeoniums |
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| Echinocereus in vivid bloom |
We passed some beautiful cycads on our way back to the the California Garden at the front entrance. I remembered that the Huntington received a bequest of a large collection of cycads from
Loran Whitelock following his death in 2014 and I wondered if these were part of that gift.
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| Cycads bordered by dark Aeoniums and backed by a stand of tall bamboo |
I'm impressed if you made it all the way through this post. I did take some other photos at the Huntington Gardens but I'm going to leave you here - at least until my next visit.
All material © 2012-2016 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
