Far Out Flora

Gardening in the Outerlands of San Francisco

Santa Barbara Botanic Garden Bling

March 19, 2013 by Megan | 6 Comments

Santa Barbara Botanic Garden

I keep finding good pics from our trip back to Wisconsin last May. We hit up almost all of our favorite plant places including The Santa Barbara Botanic Garden (it’s all California natives and all awesome). It was foggy when we visited, so the poppies weren’t open. I think that purple-blue plant is Penstemon heterophyllus, but I’m not 100% sure.

Salvia leucophylla

Hurray for California native Salvias!

Salvia spathacea

Ceanothus ‘Kurt Zadnik’

Just for fun I’ve been checking out Ceanothus varities online, since I want to plant one when we move back. I think ‘Kurt Zadnik’ might be the one. I like this description from Yerba Buena Nursery,“The same species as ‘Carmel Creeper’, this selection differs in having a slightly smaller leaf, brilliant midnight purple flowers, and in that it has not been planted over thousands of acres of the state. ”

Mimulus and more!

 

Even more Mimulus

Pretty sure this looker is ‘Pamela’ but not 100%. I’ve been starting a list of CA native plants we’re going to need in my head.

Agave shawii

Another cute little reasonably sized agave I’ve always liked.

Phacelia sp.

Hot, hot Heuchera ‘Canyon Delight’

That’s it for now, but did you notice I didn’t include our all time favorite CA native succulent that starts with D? It’s coming soon.

Spring Flower Show: Wisconsin Woodlands

March 16, 2013 by Megan | 5 Comments

Yesterday, Zoe and I took a trip to Olbrich Gardens to check out the spring show: Wisconsin Woodlands It’s very flowery unlike the cold, snowy outdoors and goes until March 24th. The Chenille Tree (Acalypha hispida) in the conservatory is still going crazy:

Chenille Tree (Acalypha hispida)

Agaves Gone Wild!

March 15, 2013 by Megan | 4 Comments

Matti in a sea of succulents

On the way back to Wisconsin last Spring we hit up Santa Barbara after our central coast stop. We checked out San Marcos Growers in a cool electric golf cart. Since we hadn’t been to Lotusland yet, it was quite possibly one of the coolest plant excursions we’d ever been on. The place is huge and full of really cool plants. Please note that the nursery is wholesale only and not open to the public, but they have one of the finest websites around for succulent and rare plant information. Here’s a taste of their crazy Agave selection:

 

Agave americana var. marginata

Agave salmiana ‘Green Giant’

Agave ‘Cornelius’ – Quasimoto Agave

We need one of these. After getting stabbed by our big, kind of crappy Agave americanas all the time, I think we’ll be going with shrimpier agaves in the future. I couldn’t even look at these pictures before I knew we were moving back. It was too sad.

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Sunny San Francisco

March 14, 2013 by Megan | 2 Comments

We flew in over the city

Flying with an almost six month old was nerve-racking, but Zoe was great. No crying and lots of sleeping. Ripping up and trying to eat the Skymall magazine provided lots of entertainment. Our flight to SF arrived 30 minutes EARLY and we flew in down the coast over Marin and then over the city. Our old apartment is pretty much below the plane in this pic. The golden gate bridge is peeking out at the top of the pic. To top it off our luggage popped out in less than five minutes.

Flora’s Edsel

Our first stop was Flora Grubb Gardens, which is looking amazing as always. Did you know that the Edsel was in this spot before Flora?

Bro poles

Love the new vertical bromeliad hangout. Matti needs to build us a plant pole for our new epiphyte collection when we move back.

Java Beach

Before we hit the road for Pacific Grove we stopped at Java Beach for our favorite sandwich. We left our big camera at home, so we only have phone pics. We’re both still instagraming like crazy at faroutmegan & fofmatti

Gardens by Gabriel, Central Coast Gardening God

March 12, 2013 by Megan | 12 Comments

On the way to Wisconsin: Megan, Kaveh, Gabriel & Matti

Back in late April 2012 we were hanging out on the Central Coast checking out some of the coolest succulent gardens around with Gabriel (Gardens by Gabriel) & Kaveh (Plant Propaganda) on our way back to Wisconsin. We took tons of pics, but haven’t blogged much about our trip back to dairyland. It was too sad for me to look at all the plants I thought I’d never be able to grow again. Now that we’re moving back it’s fun to look at all our pics of plants again.  Big thanks to Kaveh for hooking us up with Gabriel’s totally rad gardens! We’ll be definitely be down for a visit once we’re back. *Not all gardens pictured below are Gabriel’s. The first two are Nick Wilkinson owner of Grow Nursery in Cambria. You guys are both gardening gods!

Beach succulents

I think those octopus like aloes are Aloe vanbalenii, but I’m not sure. I am really, really sure I want one. Here are a few more of my favorite pics from the tour below, but you can check them all out on flickr here.

Dudleya fun