Expanded retail nursery at the Ruth Bancroft Garden

I never need an excuse to visit the Ruth Bancroft Garden (RBG) in Walnut Creek, but it’s even better when I have a real reason for going. Yesterday (February 21, 2015) was the grand opening of the new section of the RBG’s retail nursery. Needless to say I had to check it out for myself.

Over the past number of weeks, nursery manager Troy McGregor, garden staff and a bunch of handy volunteers had been busy enlarging the nursery to twice its size. Now there’s room for many more plants and for larger specimens that are ready to go in the landscape. The new selection rivals what’s available during the twice-yearly plant sales—but every day of the year.

Aside from Succulent Gardens in Castroville, there’s no other succulent nursery in Northern California that can hold a candle to the RBG. But there’s more than just succulents. Troy, a native of Australia, has brought in a large variety of southern hemisphere shrubs, including grevilleas, banksias, hakea, proteas, leucadendrons and leucospermums. The RBG is now the go-to nursery for Proteaceae in the Bay Area and beyond.

Let’s take a look at the expanded nursery.

As you can see, we had absolutely perfect spring weather. There was a steady stream of visitors while I was there so clearly I wasn’t the only one who felt the urge to buy plants and play in the garden.

I love being greeted by rows of plants just begging to be explored

The nursery also sells their own soil mix, arranged here in a rather—ahem—interesting way around a multi-stemmed Cleistocactus

Volunteer weeding sale plants

Paddles from a large Opuntia ellisiana that used to grow outside the garden along Bancroft Road but fell over during a recent wind storm

$3.00 for all this is certainly a fair price!

Lots of shrubby goodness

Grevillea ‘Ned Kelly’ or similar hybrid (forgot to check the label because the plant was already sold)

Leucadendron argenteum, beautiful large specimens in 5-gallon cans for $40

Leucadendron argenteum is hard to photograph, but the silver sheen on the leaves is breathtaking

Leucospermum ‘Scarlet Ribbon’, one of several leucospermums ready to bloom

Another Leucospermum ‘Scarlet Ribbon’. I walked by it several times…

…before I decided I just had to have it

I’d been looking for Agave vilmoriniana ‘Stained Glass’ ever since I read this post on one of my favorite blogs, A Growing Obsession

Yes, one of these Agave vilmoriniana ‘Stained Glass’ came home with me, too

The photos above were taken in the “old” nursery, i.e. the area under the shade sails. The photos below are of the new area.

Lots of goodies in the Sold area…

…including these multi-trunked Aloidendron ‘Hercules’

Cute little cacti

Assorted agaves

Agave schidigera ’Shira ito no Ohi’

Agave sebastiana ‘Silver Lining’

Agave parrasana ‘Fireball’

Agave parrasana ‘Fireball’

Agave gypsophila ‘Ivory Curls’

Agave gypsophila ‘Ivory Curls’—so tempting, but it’s not very hardy, and after my recent Agave guiengola ‘Crème Brûlée’ fiasco I need a break from fussy agaves

Dyckia ‘Arizona’ × ‘Brittlestar’

Sempervivum ‘Forest Frost’

Take a look at what’s planted in the ground…

×Mangave ‘Espresso’ and a spectacular restio (Cannomois grandis)

Cannomois grandis and ×Mangave ‘Rio Verde’

Agave weberi ‘Arizona Star’

Agave weberi ‘Arizona Star’  from the other side. Could this be the one to replace the flowering Agave desmettiana ‘Variegata’ next to the front door?

Planting strip/demonstration garden

Check out this massive Echeveria agavoides!

Aeonium undulatum

Echeveria lilacena

Echeveria lilacena

Echeveria agavoides ‘Ebony’

More echeverias and Beschorneria yuccoides ‘Flamingo Glow’ in the back

Beschorneria yuccoides ‘Flamingo Glow’, Aeonium ‘Sunburst’, Sansevieria cylindrica

Aloe tongaensis

Aeonium ‘Sunburst’ and ‘Zwartkop’

Troy is working hard to bring even more plants in so the selection will be changing regularly. Time to stop by periodically to see what’s new. Seriously, if I lived in the East Bay, I’d be there once a week!

So what I did buy? Just three plants, but they’re oh so fine!

Agave salmiana var. ferox ‘Butterfingers’. Not sure where it will go, frankly, since it has the potential to become quite large. For now it’ll live in a pot.

Agave vilmoriniana ‘Stained Glass’. I bought it to replace the flowering Agave desmettiana ‘Variegata’ by the front door, but if I do get an Agave weberi ‘Arizona Star’ for THAT spot, ‘Stained Glass’ will go in the desert bed.

Agave vilmoriniana ‘Stained Glass’

Leucospermum ‘Scarlet Ribbon’. Most likely it will go in the front yard outside the fence, replacing a Salvia ‘Hot Lips’.

Leucospermum ‘Scarlet Ribbon’

Leucospermum ‘Scarlet Ribbon’

Updated on 2/26/15 with input from Troy McGregor