More Flowers

Above:  Cryptanthus warasii.  Ooooooooooh!
Previous post:  flowers at home, this post, flowers from the Huntington--we attended something called the "Desert Forum", an opportunity for several local Cactus & Succulent clubs to visit the Huntington's Desert Garden and buy some plants.  
We had coffee and donuts in the Desert Conservatory.  Caffeine, sugar, and plants:  heaven! 
It got crowded.  
We got out of the tumult and went looking for Aloe flowers.  
Blogger in habitat:
More Aloes flowering.  Aloe x princips, 'David Verity', and ferox
 Rupestris, maybe
 Arborescens, x princips, marlothii...
 Aloe marlothii and yellow flowers on the Euphorbia cooperi behind it.
 Orange form of marlothii, maybe, and a ferox, and more x princips. 
 A big Crassula ovata, commonly called Jade plant.  A popular houseplant--I've never understood the attraction.  Growing up in Southern California, Jade plant is what you'd see in vacant lots, the remains of gardens where everything else had died. 
 Aloe aculeata, soon to open.  A most attractive Aloe. 
 Another ferox, perhaps
 Aloe barbarae is the majestic tree;  Aloe africana on the right.
 We had to move on towards the plant sale.  Past some lovely Camellias. 
 A delight to see a few bearded Iris cultivars in bloom.

Some other kind of Iris--Siberian?  Pacific Coast?  Gorgeous, whatever it is, even flopped in the mulch.
   A big (8'+) Mahonia showing off under an Oak
 An orchid or two in the tropical conservatory
 Pleurothallis marthae:
Several Acorn Woodpeckers in a dormant Magnolia
Acorn woodpeckers peck cubby holes into trees and store acorns in the cubbies.  There's a big Phoenix canariensis in the Desert Garden with a trunk filled with acorns that must be their work.
 
 The tropical Conservatory looked like a space ship beyond the conifers.
Time for the plant sale!  If the Desert Conservatory was the storm, the plant sale was the tornado. 
  Here's what came home:
Another Maireana sedifolia, for the Fall Project area,  two Agave victoriae-reginae 'Snow Queen', a dwarf form with plentiful white markings,  Gasteria nigricans var nigricans variegated, and Aloe bargalensis, from the northeastern tip of Ethiopia.  It holds its white longitudinal stripes as it matures.  Fun day.    

Comments

  1. I clearly spent my own weekend doing the wrong kind of plant shopping. I also came across Maireana sedifolia but it was offered in a large container at more than 8 times the price of the one you brought home!

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    1. I came, I saw, I grabbed! Hope you had fun shopping. I wish I could figure out how to propagate Maireana--the propagator herself sold me the plant, and I neglected to ask her how to do it--sigh.

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    2. https://translate.google.com/#en/la/I%20came%2C%20I%20saw%2C%20I%20grabbed
      Veni, Vidi, arreptaque

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  2. So wonderful! I haven't been to the Huntington yet this year, and I must fic that soon. Thanks for sharing your pictures of it!

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  3. I love your pics from the Huntington. If we ever make it to California it will be top of my list. I'm glad our woodpeckers don't have similar habits though...

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    1. Their work appears to do no harm to the Palm--don't know if it harms Oaks.

      The Desert Garden is considered to be world-class--it's quite amazing.

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  4. Completely forgot about this. Doh! So glad you attended and got more gorgeous photos. I love Maireana, which I first saw in the leaf in your garden.

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    1. It was like our bloggerama visit, only not as peaceful. I've started wacking the Maireana to shape, and it appears to be find with that--liking it even more.

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  5. Beautiful photos! (That Cryptanthus warasii... Hardy to 9a! 'Positive' from palmbob!)

    Just as well I missed the caffeine and sugar in the Conservatory -- I'd have been dangerous at the sale. Ye gods, what a crowd. There was a bus load from San Diego, and I bumped into some people from Fresno, among so many, many others. Nice, though, to see strangers handing plants to each other across the scrum. I found my gasteria under a table -- plant sale as parkour :~/ Good to see you!

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    1. I was sorry not to get the chance to talk to you a little, but it was a madhouse in the sales greenhouse, wasn't it? Enjoy your new Gasteria!

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  6. I wish I could have attended--for the plant sale alone. The Desert Conservatory sure looked packed!

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    1. Crazy-full, but happy, happy plant lovers all yakking about plants. :)

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  7. Sounds and looks like a grand day! What a nice haul and that Cryptanthus warasii is incredibly gorgeous!

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