Monday, December 31, 2012

More Pictures - Desert Garden and Bamboo

Happy New Year's Eve! I wanted to share some more pictures from yesterday's visit to the Huntington Gardens. Here they are, in no particular order. I'm trying to practice taking pictures (and posting!) for my own January challenge.

The Aloes are really starting to bloom:
In the Desert Garden (top)
 A lot of the agave were putting on bloom spikes too, but none were blooming yet.
Golden Barrel and Agave parryi planting
Here are some random snapshots of some of the agave and aloes I saw. I always end up with a ton of pictures, and never remember what anything is. 
the one in the lower right is Agave cellsi
 This next picture is one of my 'favorite' plants - if I were forced to pick one. It's actually behind the cactus house (structure on right), and when the sun hits it right, it just glows.
The Aloe blooms are color-coordinated!
 The weather on Sunday was "wintry" for southern California - overcast and mid-fifties. It even rained and hailed at one point! Which meant a lot of people were hiding inside the museums, and not in the gardens.
The sky and trees made for some neat combinations.
 There were some animal visitors too, like this one at the waterlillies' pond.
He was watching the Koi - all of which were bigger than him...
 The Huntington just got done renovating the Japanese garden, and adding the new Chinese garden. Thankfully, all the construction has left the bamboo groves untouched. The ones at the end of the Japanese garden are especially huge:
Towering bamboo - I have no idea what kind
 The big grove is some kind of green bamboo, but they have some smaller groves of yellow, variegated and black bamboo also. Not much grows under the bamboo, but there was this blooming Camilla in the big grove:
The Camilla in the Camilla garden are also starting to bloom...
 Here is a picture of one of the culms, with my hand for scale. These things are huge!
Giant grass...
 It's like being in a forest - but made of grass. I wonder how much maintenance they have to do to keep the bamboo from growing through things (like the pathways!)
It is pretty cool though
 I hope everyone has a happy and healthy New Year! May 2013 bring you the best garden ever!

7 comments:

  1. Happy New Year to you too, Renee! I love the look of a mass planting of aloes in bloom. That variegated agave is massive! Some day I'll see one that big.

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    1. The aloes are so pretty, but that agave is my favorite. I'll be sad when it blooms. Happy new year,and thanks for visiting!

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  2. Happy New Year Renee! How fun that you can visit the Huntington gardens and bring us photos of such beautiful plants.

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    1. Happy new year to you as well, Shirley! I always worry my pictures don't do the plants justice... Thanks for commenting!

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  3. I very much like this posting. Have always liked our dry southwest area, succulents and I love bamboo. Se you soon. Jack

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