San Francisco Treats, Part 3

My first day in San Francisco was exhausting, but a total success. I had been teased about the pitiful number of plants that I had purchased; two, but the trip was more about meeting the people with whom I had been conversing with online. In that regard, day one was a complete success.

Day two started late. I slept in to rest my feet and legs and generally just recover from yesterday's whirlwind. After a slow start, I took a ride from downtown to Berkeley to visit a close friend's collection (and family). His space was a little larger than mine and his collection a lot more mature and numerous (albeit desiccated from a recent heat wave.) Open flowers weren't readily available, but the breadth of his collection was evident and impressive. At his home, I picked up a score of seeds before taking a quick road tour of the local plants.

A few fences were adorned with Tacsonias, but the most impressive stop was a home with a mature P. parritae covering the side yard. There weren't any buds to be seen, but imagining it full of blossoms was easy to do. But, after missing the P. parritae in Strybing as well, I knew I had to come back to see this species in bloom in person soon. Of course, there are also all of my new friends and their collections to visit too. I'll have to wait until next year.

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.

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...