Special outing to the Ruth Bancroft Garden

The San Francisco Succulent & Cactus Society (SFSCS) usually meets at the San Francisco County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park. The February meeting last Tuesday was an exception: It was held at the Ruth Bancroft Garden (RBG) in Walnut Creek, one of my favorite places to visit. I don’t often make it to the regular SFSCS meetings because Golden Gate Park is a good 1½ hour drive, even longer if traffic is bad (it often is). The RBG, on the other hand, is just an hour away, which makes it a much more convenient destination for me.

The RBG is usually closed on Tuesdays, and they opened it just for us. The activities started at 4 pm with a tour of the garden. There were three options: a tour focused on the history of the garden, another on cacti, and the third on aloes. That’s the group I joined. It was led by RBG curator Brian Kemble, who showed us many of the aloes currently in bloom. Brian has been with the RBG for over 40 years and has an encyclopedic knowledge of succulents. I could listen to him talk all day.

I took many photos of whatever caught my eye, not just aloes. This post is a bit of a hodgepodge, but it illustrates the wide variety of plants growing at the RBG – not just aloes, agaves and cacti, but other cool plants from South Africa, Australia, and elsewhere.

The first thing I checked out was the new bed along Bancroft Road. This strip is owned by the City of Walnut Creek, but the RBG has received permission to landscape it. What used to be a tangle of ivy is now a spectacular dry garden filled with succulents, a palm tree or two, California poppies, and other perennials. Most of the succulents were donated to the garden.

As you can see, this bed is heavily mounded, which provides excellent drainage and creates far more visual interest than a flat area would. The plants are set off by a number of rocks, many so large that they couldn’t possibly have been lifted by humans.

The new bed is a perfect encapsulation of what the RBG is all about. It fronts a busy street and is seen by hundreds of people driving by every day. I have no doubt it arouses the curiosity of passers-by who may not otherwise have known that the RBG even exists.

The yellow-flowering aloe is a form of Aloe microstigma

Even a hechtia tucked in there

Daffodils growing among aloes and cacti – that’s not a sight you often see

Now we’re inside the garden walls:

A blue Ford Bronco in front of an acacia covered with yellow flowers: Doesn’t that look like a great ad?

Tall aloe outside the men’s restroom – another uncommon sight

One of two mosaic walls outside the RBG nursery. As an extra bonus, the nursery was open for shopping just for us.

Four cardons peeking over the second mosaic wall

Walking into the actual garden now:

Flowering Agave ovatifolia (left) and bloomed out Agave franzosinii (right)

Eucalyptus macrocarpa has a rather unruly growth habitat, but the leaves alone are worth putting up with its free-spirited ways

Agave salmiana pushing an inflorescence. Its days are numbered now. The bed on the right is covered with heavy plastic in the winter months to shelter plants that are either cold-sensitive or need to be kept dry because they’re from a climate that doesn’t get much precipitation in the winter.

Brian Kemble talking about Aloe vanbalenii (front) and Aloe pluridens (back)

Aloe pluridens, a relative of Aloe arborescens. In the wild, most plants are solitary, but in cultivation, the offsetting form (rare in nature) is more common.

Fan aloe (Kumara plicatilis). Brian said its natural habitat gets as much as 60 inches (!) of rain a year. This is one aloe not adverse to generous watering!

Aloe capitata var. capitata from the highlands of Madagascar

Agave victoriae-reginae doesn’t get more perfect than this

A juvenile Agave albopilosa in a small crack between two rocks. That’s how it grows naturally.

Agave oteroi ‘Filigree Devil’

Cephalophyllum alstonii, one of many mesembs now in flower

Cephalophyllum alstonii

Two of many Aloe ferox in the garden

A white-flowering form of Aloe ferox

The RBG has several euphorbias that look like Medusa heads

Another medusoid euphorbia

Guichenotia macrantha, a delicate-looking shrub from Western Australia

Aloidendron ‘Hercules’ and Aloe ‘Creamsicle’

Aloe ‘Creamsicle’, a Brian Kemble hybrid between a yellow-flowered Aloe arborescens and a yellow-flowered Aloe ferox (more info here)

Aloes...

...and more aloes

Aloe pearsonii × distans (from the same grex as cultivar ‘Hellskloof Bells’), Aloe marlothii, and unidentified leucadendron on the right

Aloe marlothii

Aloe pearsonii × distans, a spectacular hybrid created by Brian Kemble (more info here)

A perfect old specimen of Agave nickelsiae

Agave nickelsiae

Agave isthmensis × colorata, a Brian Kemble hybrid, and Hechtia argentea

Agave sebastiana from Baja California

Dudleya brittonii, also from Baja California

Dudleya brittonii and ceanothus make a great combination

If you live in Northern California and have never been to the Ruth Bancroft Garden, go now. You’ll come home energized and inspired. If you live farther away, check out the monthly What’s in Bloom videos on the RBG’s YouTube channel. They’re the next best thing to being there in person.

© Gerhard Bock, 2025. All rights reserved. To receive all new posts by email, please subscribe here.