Ruth Bancroft Garden 2013 fall plant sale

This past weekend was Ruth Bancroft Gardens big fall plant sale. The member sale was on Friday afternoon, and the public sale was all day Saturday. Not wanting to miss out on the best plants, I was there at 4:30pm sharp on Friday. The selection was a little smaller than at the spring sale but everything was 30% off. This made for some great bargains, especially considering that a lot of the plants they carry fall in the “unusual” category and are impossible to get elsewhere in Northern California.

Instead of organizing my photos by plant group, I’ll present them in the order in which I took them. This lets you share in the sense of discovery I felt. (The plant tables are in various places throughout the garden so to see them all, you end up doing a garden tour without initially knowing it.)

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Purple tradescantia (Tradescantia pallida 'Purpurea') and aeonium sp.

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LEFT: Leucadendron argenteum. I still want one but these 5-gal plants were $40, a bit too steep for what would be an experimental plant in my garden.
RIGHT: Leucadendron ‘Ebony’; $35 last year, now just $15. I got one
this summer when I met up with the Garden Flingers.

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Large selection of grevilleas. If only I had room for a few more of these but they get big.

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Desert willow (Chilopsis linearis)

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Agave titanota (2 gallon pot)

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Agave titanota (4-inch pots)

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Impressive agave flower stalk…

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…and close-up of flowers

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Aloe elgonica. In hindsight I wish I’d bought one.

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Aloe elgonica and Aloe kedongensis

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Prickly pear table

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These were labeled as Opuntia ‘Santa-Rita’. The pads were amazingly round…

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…and flat like a wafer!

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Kapok tree (Ceiba speciosa) still blooming

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Ceiba speciosa and Opuntia ficus-indica

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Prickly pear fruit is called “tuna” in Spanish. It makes great jam.

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Fruit on Ferocactus pottsii

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I was thrilled to see this palo verde. I don’t know what species it is but it could be ‘Desert Museum’. My own palo verde saga had a happy ending; look for a new post very soon.

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Sale tables. The tree in both photos is a Mexican palo verde (Parkinsonia aculeata)

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Agave titanota. This is the classic white-leaved form described by Howard Gentry.

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This undulating Agave americana ‘Marginata’ never failed to impress. Awesome if you have the space but definitely not suited for small gardens.

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Tree-sized flower spike on Agave franzosinii

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Agave franzosinii. Dying rosette up close.

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Agave franzosinii

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Agave franzosinii

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Cow horn agave (Agave bovicornuta)

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Agave mound

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Agave parryi var. truncata

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Agave parryi var. truncata, possibly the most beautiful specimen I’ve ever seen

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Agave parrasana, my new favorite agave. Look at the color, the shape, the bud imprints! Fortunately I found a smaller 2-gallon size plant that was for sale. I’ve already planted it in our renovated driveway-size succulent bed (post to come).

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Agave guadalajarana. This is the same species as the one I wrote about in my “Agave sunburn” post although it varies in leaf shape  from the specimens I saw at Succulent Gardens. This seems to be a species with a great deal of variability.

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Agave attenuata with pups

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Nerine sarniensis, a South African bulb. These intensely red flowers emerging from the rocky ground without even a hint of leaves made for a strange sight.

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Baja fairy duster (Calliandra californica), another desert favorite of mine

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Baja fairy duster (Calliandra californica). One plant came home with me and is now planted outside the front yard fence.

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Sale area outside the nursery; the trailer on the right is the office

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Rusty red clump of aloes. These desperately need some rain to perk up

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Ruth Bancroft’s own manzanita cultivar, Arctostaphylos 'Ruth Bancroft'. The bark is a particularly lustrous red-brown.

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Agave parryi and Agave parryi var. neomexicana (pointy leaves)

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Agave parryi and Agave parryi var. neomexicana (pointy leaves)

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Tree aloe (not sure, possibly Aloe barberae)

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Flats of Australian natives

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Agave mitis var. albicans

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Aloe capitata var. quartziticola, still my favorite aloe

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Ruth’s Folly, one of the two entrances to the Ruth Bancroft Garden (the other is via the office parking lot). By the time I left, the line of members waiting to get in had dissipated.

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Check out these inquisitive epiphytic cacti growing through holes in the shade cloth (or possibly making their own holes)

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Ponytail palms (Beaucarnea recurvata) and Agave parryi var. truncata outside the entrance

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Dusty Miller (Senecio cineraria) and Agave parryi var. truncata

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My haul (yes, my 40+-year old Radio Flyer wagon came along, too)

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Agave stricta ‘Rubra’

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Agave titanota (green and blue form)

This was was another great plant sale, and in spite of my initial misgivings about having to deal with rush hour (and early weekend) traffic, I actually enjoyed visiting the garden at this time of day. By the time I was back on the freeway heading home, the sun had set and the sky was bathed in beautiful shades of pink, purple and blue:

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Comments

  1. Another great garden and sale. Agave parasana is a greatly under-rated plant. See any well grown one like the one in your photo and any agave fan is going to want one.

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    Replies
    1. I couldn't agree more. The problem is that as a small plant--the size you're most likely to find it for sale--Agave parrasana doesn't look like much so people don't give it a chance.

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  2. Great looking plant in a great looking place that I never get tired seeing photos of. It'll be a dream to visit this place one day...

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  3. Ah so wonderful! I thought of 50 things I wanted to say as I read through and looked at your photos but now of course I can't remember any of them except how gorgeous that combo of dusty miller and agave parryi is...wow!

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  4. So did you get an aloe kedongensis? Love that color. And can you plant dusty miller in our area? I have one and not sure what to do with it yet.

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