I wrote a quick post after
our unplanned trip to California in January, but I only teased at the things we saw. Today I'll finally start sharing the fun photos. First up, palms at Starbucks in Thousand Oaks. Do I know what they are? Nope. But you guys, it was mid-January and I was sitting outside enjoying coffee surrounded by these adorable palm meets cycad meets fern creatures...
We decided to visit the nearby
Conejo Valley Botanic Garden and see how things were going there, I've enjoyed my past visits (
here and
here).
Sadly they were closed. Seems the rain that fell in the first week of January may have done some damage.
I was bummed. I mean it had been dry for four days and they were still closed!
Since that plan was foiled I searched online for area nurseries and we set off for someplace called Natures Best Nursery... (the sign still says tree farm, but online they aren't so specific).
It was not to be.
Maybe that was okay though, as I don't need to shop with rattlesnakes.
Oh! Proof of snakes!
We decided to abandon the idea of looking for plants and set off for the
Chumash Indian Museum (Andrew's desired stop that day), however on the way I saw this sign...
...it led us to
California Bonsai Studio. I'm not really a bonsai fan, but hey, finally there were plants! That's the Agave americana clump we pulled a couple pups from (
part of my plant haul).
The nursery/studio.
If I remember correctly this one is Portulacaria afra.
The fellow we chatted with,
Colin Purcell, was one of those folks who can easily make his passion, your passion. He was a great bonsai ambassador.
Andrew and he chatted while I wandered and took photos. This rock planted with what I think is a form of Huernia definitely inspired me to think differently about how I'll plant up
my mother-in-law's Stapelia I brought home from the trip.
This Selenicereus undatus had soaked up so much of the recent rain they'd had that it looked like it was about to burst.
Oh my, that's a project.
More Agave americana...
There had been blooms.
And many seeds...
Next stop, the
Chumash Indian Museum. This cup made from the vertebra of a sword fish looked a lot like a miniature
Willy Guhl hourglass planter (as seen
at The Tropics, Inc. in Los Angeles).
Growing outside the museum, sugar bush, Rhus ovata.
Our next stop had us trekking across the brambles toward a stream that Andrew wanted to show me. Andrew in shoes with socks, me in flip flops. I stopped when my feet and ankles started to burn, then itch. Beautiful, but painful. We didn't make it to the stream.
Final stop of the day, Camarillo Nursery.
Lots of palms...
And blooming aloes.
The nursery was large, and we walked all the way to the end. Well, I suppose I could have gone a little further had I been willing to crawl through that hole.
Spiky! Ceiba speciosa I believe.
Look at those picturesque mountains in the distance.
Agave pumila
Agave horrida
Blooming Mangave (against the pole)
Pedilanthus bracteatus (tall slipper plant)
Orthophytum magalhaesii
My last photos from Thousand Oaks are these of ferns at our hotel. Someone was painting the front of the building and had cut back the plantings. I'd never noticed the fern creeping along the ground, even though we've stayed here several times.
I wonder if it might be
Nephrolepis cordifolia? Anyone know?
The Bit at the End
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