Black Friday visit to the Ruth Bancroft Garden

If you’ve followed Succulents and More for a little while, you probably know that the Ruth Bancroft Garden (RBG) in Walnut Creek, California is my favorite public garden (click here to see my previous posts). Started by Ruth Bancroft when she was in her 60s, this dry garden is a wonderland of succulents and other plants adapted to survive with little water. Ruth lived to the venerable age of 109 (!) and saw her garden become a world-renowned showcase for xerophytic landscaping.

There was no specific reason for me to go to the RBG on Black Friday, other than I didn’t have any commitments that day. As I was heading out, I realized that I hadn’t been there since February and that I hadn’t written about the RBG since my Garden of D’Lights post last December. High time to remedy that!

Speaking of Garden of D’Lights: The RBG’s annual holiday light display opened on November 22 and will run until January 11 (tickets here). The hardware (power cords, lights, lasers, etc.) was visible, but not to the point of becoming a distraction.

The display beds along Bancroft road have never looked better, especially the bed to the south of the driveway.

This bed has been completely rebuilt and several tons of boulders have been added (literally). Visually speaking, the bed now matches the aesthetics of the garden itself.

For comparison, this is what this bed looked like...

...in December 2021, i.e. three years ago

Much of the plant material for this project was donated to the RBG, including large golden barrels, ocotillos, even a large Myrtillocactus. The garden crew under the direction of curator Brian Kemble and garden manager Walker Young did an outstanding job creating a cohesive tapestry of succulents and rocks. I’ll take a closer look at this bed the next time I visit.

Outside the Visitor and Education Center, there are now two sculptures by Los Angeles landscape designer and ceramic artist Dustin Gimbel. Inspired by agave flower stalks, they’re a great match for the vertical elements in the garden, including columnar cacti and, of course, real agave inflorescences.

On that note, let’s check out the garden proper.

Sentinels at the garden entrance: Yucca rostrata and Agave franzosinii

Flowering Agave ovatifolia

Another Agave franzosinii is in the late stages of flowering

Agave franzosinii flower stalk in between two yuccas

Bloomed out Agave franzosinii

Dudleya pachyphytum, arguably the most beautiful species in this genus

Dudleya brittonii

Opuntia littoralis, one of about 10 prickly pears native to California

Thorny burnet (Sarcopoterium spinosum), a shrub native to the southeastern Mediterranean and the Middle East. Some scholars believe the crown of thorns placed on Jesus’s head before his crucifixion came from this shrub.

Boojum tree (Fouquieria columnaris) and chapparal yucca (Hesperoyucca whipplei)

Agave shawii, one of three agave species native to California

Agave isthmensis × colorata, a beautiful hybrid made by the RBG’s curator Brian Kemble, and Hechtia argentea

Agave isthmensis × colorata

Agave isthmensis × colorata

Agave parryi var. truncata

Agave parrasana

Another Agave isthmensis × colorata, this one getting ready to flower. It truly is a spectacular agave. It’s sad knowing that it will die after flowering.

Agave isthmensis × colorata

Bloomed out Agave parrasana turning shades of red and brown as it’s declining

Bulbils on a mangave flower stalk

Ferocactus latispinus, one of just a few cacti in bloom at this time of year

The RBG has managed to keep several Aloe polyphylla alive. This aloe species, one of the most beautiful of them all, is notoriously difficult to grow in hot-summer climates like ours. I’ve killed my fair share over the years.

Glottiphyllum linguiforme, a member of the large ice plant family (Aizoaceae)

La Palma sow thistle (Sonchus palmensis), one of the tree dandelions endemic to the Canary Islands

Medusa head euphorbia

What fall looks like at the Ruth Bancroft Garden

Impressive specimens of Agave americana underplanted with aeoniums

Many aloes are pushing inflorescences. The hummingbirds are waiting impatiently for the flowers to open.

Furcraea macdougalii

The large metal shade structure in the middle of the garden...

...becomes a giant winter shelter for more tender plants

The plastic typically stays up until late February when the danger of frost is past

Agave victoriae-reginae

Agave pablocarrilloi × potatorum, another Brian Kemble hybrid

Euphorbia echinus

Cleistocactus strausii

Cleistocactus strausii

Prickly pear fruit. I found it like that, on top of a prickly pear pad. Maybe an animal tore it open?

The pads on the prickly pear on the right (probably the Eastern prickly pear, Opuntia humifusa) lie horizontally on the ground in the winter. Come spring, they’ll plump up again and stand back up.

Mammillaria geminispina forms mounds of silvery white. I’ve been trying to recreate this in my garden, but all I have is one small plant that hasn’t done much. I need to get myself at least a few larger clumps.

Mammillaria geminispina with long spines. Not all specimens have spines this impressive.

Looks like a giant egg sac, but I have no idea what it really is. I assume it’s part of the Garden of D’Lights installation.

Dioon spinulosum, a Mexican cycad

Trichostema ‘Midnight Magic’, a hybrid of the native California woolly blue curls

Yucca ‘Bright Star’ and a juvenile Queensland bottle tree (Brachychiton rupestris). Seeing this vignette makes me miss my own Yucca ‘Bright Star’. It flowered a few years ago and split into multiple heads, marring the symmetrical look you see above.

The Ruth Bancroft Garden is home to many South African bulbs. Some flower in the winter (like the lachenalia below), others leaf out in the fall/winter and flower in the spring/summer.

Lachenalia punctata, one of the earliest flowering species in the genus

Lachenalia punctata

Brunsvigia josephinae

Smaller Brunsvigia josephinae

Boophone disticha

Haemanthus sanguineus

On to a few Australian shrubs:

Eucalyptus macrocarpa

Eucalyptus pleurocarpa

Hakea petiolaris with immature flower clusters. At this stage, the styles are folded inward, as you can clearly see on the flower cluster in the middle.

Hakea petiolaris with a mature flower cluster. The styles have straightened and now extend outward. This gives the cluster the appearance of a small sea urchin, hence the common name “sea urchin hakea.”

Grevillea ‘Kings Fire’...

...flowering virtually nonstop throughout the year

Chamelaucium ‘Matilda’. The common name “waxflower” comes from the waxy feel of the petals.

Chamelaucium flowers resemble those of tea trees (Leptospermum), a related genus in the myrtle family

The Ruth Bancroft Garden also has an excellent nursery, well stocked with succulents large and small as well as shrubs (especially from South Africa and Australia), perennials, and California natives. Needless to say I had to take a closer look at the current offerings. Here are some plants that caught my eye.

Agave potatorum ‘Cherry Swizzle’, a particularly beautiful form with reddish brown teeth and spines. It was found in a garden in Santa Barbara and is propagated and sold exclusively by San Marcos Growers.

Yucca rostrata at 50% off – at $112.50 quite a bargain for 15-gallon plants

Stetsonia coryne, a tree-like cactus from South America commonly known as “toothpick cactus.” One look at the spines, especially those toward the top, and you know why. One of these four jumped into my cart somehow.

Euphorbia canariensis cuttings from the garden for $10 each

And the bargain of the day: bare-root golden barrels for $10. These are from the same source as the donated plants used in the new sidewalk bed. I couldn’t resist and grabbed three of them. I’ll find room for them in a sunny spot somewhere.

My haul from the nursery: a toothpick cactus, three golden barrels, and two beargrass seedlings (Nolina microcarpa) from seed collected in the garden. With my 20% member discount, I didn’t even pay $50, including sales tax.

With all the wonderful things I saw, and the inexpensive plants I bought, I had quite a wonderful Black Friday!

© Gerhard Bock, 2024. All rights reserved. To receive all new posts by email, please subscribe here.