San Francisco Treats, Part 2

After making my rounds inside the botanical garden, I headed out to where I found a small group of people lined up for the members only plant sale. I had a guest pass gifted to me by one of my new Passiflora friends. I was prepared to wait outside the gates with my sticker on my shirt until a pair of other Passiflora friends emerged from the adjacent building. They ushered me inside, handed me a plate of treats, and a plastic cup of red wine. I met the whole bunch of Passiflora fanatics and spent the whole hour prior to the sale talking about plants; in person!!

Once the doors to the sale started there was a mad dash. The cactus and succulent people headed to their table. The protea people headed to theirs. And, of course, I headed with my small group to the Passiflora table. The plants there were larger than I anticipate, but within the first minute I was able to snag a small P. antioquiensis. It looked like that was all that I would fly home to LAX from SFO with in my suitcase, but after speaking to one of the curators, I found myself holding another plant. One rare P. bicuspidata was more or less gifted to me. I'm not sure why I deserved it, but I was all too happy to accept the gift nonetheless.

After the sale, we stumbled through the wind back to our cars. One of my friends offered to store my plants in his while we went to dinner, and on our way I spotted something pink hanging in the roadside trees along the park. It was some Tacsonia that looked like P. tarminiana. I snapped off a length about 4 feet long and stored it my my purchased Passiflora in the car. Dinner was as loud as it was flavorful as we liberally discussed plants in a small reverberate room for a couple of hours.

After flying to San Francisco in the morning, walking Strybing Botanical Garden for hours, chatting and shopping, and a satisfying dinner, I was ready to end day one in Norcal.