Ruth Bancroft Garden 2013 spring plant sale

A couple of weekends ago I attended the spring plant sale at the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek, CA. If you’ve followed my blog for any length of time, you know that this is one of my favorite public gardens in Northern California and that I try to go to every one of their sales. Not only is it great fun to browse hundreds upon hundreds of fantastic plants, many of them rare or brand-new introductions, it’s also a great opportunity to spend some time checking out what’s new in the garden or visiting old “friends.”

I could spend all day walking through the Ruth Bancroft Garden

In fact, the sale tables are scattered throughout the garden, so by the time you’ve looked at all of them you’ve walked through a large part of the garden. I like to bring our old Red Flyer wagon so I don’t have to hand-carry my plant picks as I explore and photograph.

Aloes in bloom

This post is a little different from what I’ve done before. Instead of splitting it into two parts, one covering the plant sale and the other the garden, I’ve decided to make it one big post with lots of photos. The sequence roughly follows the route I took through the garden. This will give you a better idea of what it’s like to be there in person. I’ll keep the commentary to a minimum so you can focus on the beautiful plants.

Echeverias from Succulent Gardens

Succulent arrangements

Great way to display your cactus collection

Another arrangement I liked

New miniature aloe hybrids

Is the pregnant onion making a comeback?

Dyckia ‘Silver Superstar’ (silent auction plant)

Hechtia texensis (silent auction plant)

Tylecodon dinteri (silent auction plant)

Opuntia basilaris (silent auction plant)

30% off table

30% off table

Agave selections

Agave ovatifolia ‘Frosty Blue’. One of the smaller ones came home with me. The large specimen was stunning but at $100 too pricey for me.

Agave ‘Snow Glow’

Agave mitis var. albicans

Agave mitis var. albicans and Lampranthus roseus

Lampranthus roseus, a bushy iceplant

Euphorbia echinus

Euphorbia inermis var. huttonae

Euphorbia inermis var. huttonae

Euphorbia caput-medusae

Agave parryi var. neomexicana

Queensland bottle tree (Brachychiton rupestris)

Ferocactus glaucescens

Sempervivum arachnoideum

Ferocactus pottsii

Ferocactus pottsii

Miscellaneous prickly pears and chollas

Opuntia with particularly large glochid bundles

Agave colorata

Agave colorata

Claret cup (Echinocereus triglochidiatus subsp. otacanthus)

Even in death this agave is beautiful

Paper spine cactus (Tephrocactus articulatus var. papyracanthus)

 

Yucca treculeana (left: trunk of a mature specimen, right: flower of a smaller specimen)

Opuntia microdasys

Unidentified cholla (Cylindropuntia sp.)

Another unidentified cholla (Cylindropuntia sp.)—sorry for being so vague but I’m really bad at ID’ing chollas

Opuntia robusta (?)

Opuntia robusta

Parodia magnifica

Cactus bed

Golden barrel cactus (Echinocactus grusonii)

Golden barrel cactus (Echinocactus grusonii)

Echinopsis formosa

Shoppers

Sale table with majestic Agave franzosinii in the background

Agave franzosinii, Lampranthus roseus, and cart with restios

Restios

Lampranthus roseus

Lampranthus roseus

Agave sebastiana

Agave sebastiana

Agave attenuata

Sale tables glimpsed through the agave bed

Sale tables glimpsed through the agave bed

Agave guadalajarana

Drosanthemum micans

Drosanthemum micans

Glottiphyllum linguiforme

Silver dyckia growing among a sea of euphorbias

Echeveria cante

Echeveria elegans and Aloe capitata var. quartziticola

Echeveria elegans, Aloe capitata var. quartziticola and Echeveria ‘Lace’

Echeveria ‘Lace’

 

Unidentified flowering aloe

RBG nursery

View of nursery

Interesting cart filled with sale plants

Agave franzosinii

Agave franzosinii

Agave franzosinii

Agave franzosinii

Agave striata

Agave striata and Agave bovicornuta

Hesperaloe parviflora ‘Brakelights’.
This cultivar has darker red flowers than the species.

Yucca carnerosana

Yucca carnerosana

Yucca carnerosana

Brunsvigia josephinae, a rare South African bulb, growing near a Yucca flaxoniana

Arctostaphylos 'Ruth Bancroft'

Puya berteroniana with massive flower spikes

Bottle brush (Callistemon sp.)

And finally a few photos of my haul from the plant sale:

Agave mitis var. albicans, Agave guadalajarana, Leucadendron ‘Jester’, Delosperma ‘Fire Spinner’, Acacia pravissima (another 30% bargain I couldn’t pass up), Agave ovatifolia ‘Frosty Blue’ 

Leucadendron ‘Jester’—so happy I finally found one!

Agave mitis var. albicans and Agave guadalajarana, the latter from the 30% off table (at $2.80, I couldn’t pass it up)

Agave ovatifolia ‘Frosty Blue’, a much bluer cultivar than the species

The 2013 spring sale had the best plant selection yet. I spoke with nursery manager Walker Young, and he said that they’ve broadened their offerings in general, especially when it comes to proteaceae such as leucadendrons, grevilleas and banksias. I also noticed that many agaves were from San Marcos Growers in Santa Barbara. This was the first time I’ve seen their plants in Northern California. They propagate many hard-to-find succulents and I hope to see even more of their plants at the next sale.

Speaking of future sales: The Ruth Bancroft Garden has two more scheduled for 2013: Saturday, July 20 and Saturday, October 5. For more information, go to the RBG website.