Sunday, July 23, 2017

Huntington Gardens - Palm Gardens

The first weekend in July, i went down to the Huntington gardens. There are so many different parts of the gardens, and they are all great. I flooded Instagram Stories with pictures, but here i wanted to show one of the gardens i usually don't spend a lot of time in - the Palm garden. Warning - this is a very picture heavy post! [is there such a thing as a blog post about the Huntington without a lot of pictures?]

The palm garden is across the walkway from the desert garden, which is normally what distracts me. They have all kind of palm trees, and they are all labeled. I of course didn't pay attention to the labels, so only some of them have names.

this is near the middle of the garden, which is on a pretty steep slope

a lot of the palms were blooming

i'm not sure how the staff decide which to trim and which to leave natural like this one

the path leads into the jungle garden

this is a bismarckia nobilis -its blue!

so many textures

this one was "cute" - i'm not used to seeing short palms like this one

most of them were giant

this is near the bottom of the garden - there's an entire forest of small/short palms here

this one is caryota gigas - there were several of these along the upper path.

palms and cyads
Speaking of cyads - the Huntington has a bunch of new ones, received as a bequest from Loran Whitelock (Huntington Magazine Article). There are several in the palm garden, and they're building a new area (behind the mansion) for a large number of them as well. They somehow managed to move over a thousand plants, with only 10 casualties!
in the palm garden

also in the palm garden

this one was blooming/making a seed cone

this is new area - looking towards the palm garden (mansion is on the left)
One last set of pictures from the Palm garden - all the different bark/stem/truck textures were awesome:
caryota gigas - with a crack

young caryota gigas

mature caryota gigas

bismarkia up close

cleaned trunk!

with all the shaggy stuff still on it
And here is something that i'm going to assume is not common, unless your world-class palm garden is across the way from your world-class cactus garden:
cactus in a butia capitata

different palm - but this cactus had been there a while!
I may not have any palm trees in my own garden, but they are pretty cool to see, especially all together!

6 comments:

  1. A day that begins with a picture heavy post from the Huntington is a very good day indeed! Good to know about the Cycads, I must visit soon! Oh and that cactus in the palm, how fabulous. I've seen Opuntia doing that but love this version.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There was an opuntia as well, I think. Definitely visit the cycads - if you like that kind of plant their new collection is breath taking! And all the in the ground!

      Delete
  2. I've yet to visit the palms section of The Huntington myself but this is the second time I've seen a succulent take root in a palm. They seem so happy there you have to wonder if this should become "a thing."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hahaha, im sure it will show up on Pinterest soon! It is hard to concentrate on the palms when the desert garden is right there... Thanks for commenting!

      Delete
  3. The game is on - a post about a Huntington visit w/ few pics! A cactus growing out of a palm trunk - too cool.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'd love to see your take on the Huntington - you should come visit! Cactus + palm is probably one of those 'only in so cal' things...

      Delete

Please share your thoughts!