Succulents and More™

Last Saturday, my friends John B, Justin, Kyle and I visited John Miller’s aloe garden in Oakland. John is the president of the Institute for Aloe Studies (IAS), a non-profit organization dedicated to the study and conservation of aloes, both in their natural habitats and ex situ in collections. The IAS propagates a large variety of aloe species, often from habitat seed, and sells them through their web site . The plants are grown in a greenhouse at the Oakland Zoo and in John’s personal garden. Pre-Covid, the annual winter pilgrimage to John’s garden coinciding with the peak of the aloe bloom had become somewhat of a tradition. Somehow, I don’t know how, four years managed to go by since my last visit. While a few things have changed, most of the aloes I remembered fondly were still there. That’s the wonderful thing about plants, and gardens in general: They reward your initial investment of time and effort for many years to come. John lives on a ½ acre hillside lot with sweeping vie...

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...