San Francisco Treats, Part 1

This last weekend I spent in San Francisco. The trip was planned so that I could tour the San Francisco botanical garden in Golden Gate Park, purchase plants at the 47th annual garden sale, and meet some of the fantastic people that I've met through the Passiflora Online Facebook group. I flew up on the morning of Friday, May 2, took BART downtown, hopped in a Lyft driver's car, and paid my admission to the botanical garden.

I walked the grounds for 4 hours straight. I paid special attention to the fences where most of the Passiflora were located. I only had my point and shoot camera, so my pictures aren't the best, but it was fun to document all of my finds. Of particular interest was P. membranacea. There were two of those, once by the main gate, and one in the back of the garden climbing several stories up into the trees and showing blooms from a distance. P. matthewsii 'alba', P. x exoniensis, and P. tarminana were among the Tacsonia in bloom (including one outside the garden from which I snipped a cutting). P. x violacea, P. loefgrenii x P. caerulea, and one other yet undetermined Passiflora were also in blooming in curious locations on the grounds. Each time I "discovered" a Passiflora vine, I had spotted the leaves first. In fact, the only way I found the P. membranacea in the rear of the garden was from the fallen leaves underfoot.

There were plenty of other plants in bloom even though early May was clearly not "prime time" for flowers. However, the Rhododendrons, Peonies, Brugmansia, and Protea were all showing off. My legs and feet were plenty tired after four hours of wandering around, but there was more excitement to come...