Friday, May 15, 2009
Bloom Day May 15th, 2009
May Dreams Gardens sponsors a celebration of what's in bloom on the 15th of each month. This blog is not quite your standard gardening blog, but here's a 2nd posting of the somewhat normal and the not so much...
 Aristolochia fimbriata |  Musella lasiocarpa |  Arum pictum |
 Celosia argentea var. cristata |  Drosera filiformis "Florida Giant" |  Anigozanthos x |
 Aloe sp. |  Arisaema candidissimum |  Amorphophallus obscurus |
 Drosera adalae |  Pinguicula x "John Rizzi" |  Impatiens niamniamensis |
 Epiphyllum x |  Epiphyllum x |  Lisianthus nigrescens |
Friday, May 01, 2009
A Tale of Two Sales
In the past week, I've attended what are probably the two biggest botanical garden spring plant sales in the San Francisco Bay Area. Last Friday was the UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley, and this evening was the SF Botanical Garden sale at Strying Arboretum. These were both actually pre-sales for garden members - the public sales were the next day - but it's fairly common knowledge that if you would like to have the best selection, you need to be at the members sale.
In fact, if you really want the hard to get plants, you probably want to show up a couple of hours early and stand in line. Having been blessed with a more-or-less 9-5 job somewhere down in the South Bay Area means that this is not really a viable option for me, unless I want to burn some vacation time in the hopes of standing in line during it. I also happen to hate standing in line. I showed up for each sale a little after the 5pm start time - early enough to see what plants were in generally okay supply, but not early enough to snap up anything that was both famous and rarely offered. One must remember that the people who really know what's uncommon are also the people waiting for hours at the head of that line with membership cards in hand. They are the competition for the really rare stuff ... not the general public that will come in the next day looking for stuff that will stay green.
There's been a few people who seem interested in a comparison of the sales. This is in no way a competition - there's no reason on earth you can't go to both sales ... or neither one. Though if you have a limited amount of vacation time, or expendable cash for purchasing a membership, you might be swayed to concentrate on one or the other. I'm also comparing the member pre-sales, not the public sales. Both institutions seem to be able to provide plenty of very nice, very interesting plants which are not easy to find elsewhere, at very reasonable prices - both to their members on Friday and the public in Saturday - but there are a few concerns that are particularly strong at the member sales which might not effect the general public sale the next day.
So ... on to comparison:
Parking: Strybing > UCBG
It turns out that the museums in golden gate park close at 5pm, just when the sale opens. I had no problem at all finding free street parking in the park within an easy walk of the Strybing sale. They also have valet parking for $10, if you're so inclined.
Contrast this to UCBG, with only pay parking, and a close parking lot that can fill up by 4pm. Overflow parking is plentiful, but quite some distance up a narrow curvy road, and serviced by slow and rather infrequent shuttles ... and if you have your own cart or wagon, it's not an easy fit onto the aforementioned shuttles. Paying for parking in the overflow lot was complicated by the fact that all the signs pointed to a single pay kiosk up a bunch of stairs that had been vandalized and was not working - luckily, there was another working machine across the street near the bus stop, but that wasn't particularly obvious from the signs. And of course, the machines will only take $1 and $5 bills - no credit cards... Parking at UCBG was, in a word, painful.
UPDATE 5/19/09: I've been informed by the management ( thanks, Paul ) that the close parking lot at UCBG is actually free during the sale, and that spaces tend to open up there on a continuing basis somewhat after the sale begins. My wife did notice that a little after 5:00pm is probably not the optimum time to arrive at the sale - too late for the really rare plants, and too early to find good used parking.
The Lines: Who Knows?
Probably somebody who showed up before the gates opened at 5pm. I didn't have a significant wait to show my membership card and get in to either sale, though I did cause some confusion by trying to get into Strybing with my UCBG membership card. It didn't work.
The Crowds: UCBG > Strybing
Strybing is slightly more crowded, it would seem. They also have a number of shopping carts and somewhat more narrow aisles, including several pinch points between the different rooms. More of the UCBG sale is outdoors, and the wagons seem less intrusive than the carts by far. Both sales are crowded, but Strybing is much less easy to navigate.
The Checkout: Strybing == UCBG
Strybing has more cashiers. UCBG has more lines that take credit cards, and a more organized line in general ... but seemingly fewer or slower cashiers. Both had plenty of boxes at checkout, and neither provided a particularly useful or enlightening receipt ... which means I have no idea or record of what the individual plants I bought cost, though I do know the totals from both sales. The fact that one is left with basically no way to tie price to plant once the price tags are pulled at checkout is irksome to me.
Plant Pickup: Strybing == UCBG
You can leave your plants across the street from the UCBG entrance while you go get your car from the far parking lot. Strybing has a similar attended setup in the back of the building. Both appeared to work well, though we did see the UCBG setup get backed up a bit. I imagine that the Strybing plant pickup could have suffered a similar fate later in the evening had we stuck around.
Pricing: Strybing > UCBG
I don't have particular price points, but it seems like Strybing was slightly cheaper than UCBG. It wasn't all that far apart, any obviously subject to quite some variation, but it seemed that there were a lot more low priced plants at Strybing, and some things like passiflora were going for a few dollars less.
Members Refreshments: UCBG >> Strybing
I bring my wife to these events. She has basically no interest in plants, but does have an interest in food, wine, and finding something to do while I'm out shopping. UCBG had a generous amount of professionally catered food available, and pretty much all the wine you wanted, all free for members. Strybing was charging $4 for a plastic cup of wine, and had a few appetizers available for free - but nothing remotely approaching UCBG. It appeared that higher level members and volunteers may have had access to nicer food, but not us commoner members. This sort of this is an issue to those of us who might want to justify a trip to the plant sale as a night out to other less plant oriented members of our family.
Rare Plant Availability: UCBG == Strybing
These are two plant sales with a lot in common, and a few differences. Neither sale had plants which I would consider REALLY rare in cultivation easily available. I suspect that there were a few of these things that were snapped up by those who came early and stood in line, but frankly the assortment left to those of us a few minutes into the sale while unusual would not qualify as exactly hard to obtain through other specialist venues or at the Strybing monthly sales and UCBG Plant Deck. I picked up an uncommon Raoulia at Strybing as well as a not easily available Chiranthodendron pentadactylon tree. At UCBG, I bought a rarely available named Lapageria and a generally hard to find Irid. Really hard to get stuff that is reasonably suitable for the climate like Deppea splendens, Brugmansia vulcanicola or Passiflora parritae were simply not in evidence. Even somewhat less uncommon things like Haemanthus sp., species Clivia, Brunsvigia sp. and so on were either poorly represented or not available.
Plant Diversity: UCBG == Strybing
The preceding is not to say that there was not a good selection of many genera that are uncommon and interesting. Both sales had excellent selections of California native plants. UCBG had an amazing amount of Lapageria cultivars and Bomarea, while Strybing had an excellent selection of cooler growing Tasconia Passiflora species and hybrids. Neither garden did terribly well in the tropicals, though UCBG offered Amorphophallus titanum seedlings and Strybing had a good selection of Begonias. Strybing is aided by several local societies and had the edge in Alpines, Rhododendrons, Bromeliads, Bamboo, Epiphyllum and Roses. UCBG had a significantly better set of succulents and carnivorous plants, and may have edged out Strybing in the South African section. Both gardens did very well in the Protea/Banksia/Grevillea department, and neither garden had a particularly good selection of South African bulbous plants, as I many have hinted at before. Both gardens offer pretty well similar selections of Ferns, for some reason.
Plant Quantity: Strybing > UCBG
There seem to be more plants available at Strybing - they carry a few more categories than UCBG seems to have the time for, though the plants in these categories are not really all that rare. For instance, you could buy tomato starts at Strybing ... not a big deal to me.
Silent Auction: Strbying > UCBG
Actually, I'm not quite sure about this one. The Strybing silent auction was bigger. Many of the plants were simply well-grown specimens and not in my mind quite as uncommon as some of the things offered at UCBG. I bid on a plant at UCBG, and I did not find anything that I wanted to bid on at Strybing ... but your results may vary. It seemed to me that the UCBG auction was more about larger specimens of uncommon things, while the Strybing auction was more about just very nice, large specimens.
Would You Go Back?
This was the question my wife asked me. Are we going back to the sales next year?
I know it will certainly be easier to convince her to go back to UCBG with the plentiful appetizers and free-flowing wine. That's a sure bet. But I'm dreading the parking. Moreover, I'm not exactly clear on whether I'll be able to add interesting plants to my collection in a civilized manner, without standing in line for a few hours and joining the mad rush. A friend of mine recently reminded me - it's not about the rarity of the plants you grow - it's about how much you enjoy growing them. I left both sales with a few very interesting plants - perhaps not the most rare, but certainly ones I will enjoy growing for years to come.
So Who's the Winner?
I know it sounds like chickening out, but the purpose of this exercise was not to figure out who has the best sale ... and given the above, it's not obvious. It depends on what you're into, and even then, it isn't clear at all. Say you're into passiflora. Well - Strybing has a wider selection of passiflora. But it doesn't overlap much, if at all, with the selection at UCBG, which includes a couple quite rare ones. The only way you're going to be a winner is to go to both sales. And that will make both you and the gardens that rely on your support winners in the end.
In fact, if you really want the hard to get plants, you probably want to show up a couple of hours early and stand in line. Having been blessed with a more-or-less 9-5 job somewhere down in the South Bay Area means that this is not really a viable option for me, unless I want to burn some vacation time in the hopes of standing in line during it. I also happen to hate standing in line. I showed up for each sale a little after the 5pm start time - early enough to see what plants were in generally okay supply, but not early enough to snap up anything that was both famous and rarely offered. One must remember that the people who really know what's uncommon are also the people waiting for hours at the head of that line with membership cards in hand. They are the competition for the really rare stuff ... not the general public that will come in the next day looking for stuff that will stay green.
There's been a few people who seem interested in a comparison of the sales. This is in no way a competition - there's no reason on earth you can't go to both sales ... or neither one. Though if you have a limited amount of vacation time, or expendable cash for purchasing a membership, you might be swayed to concentrate on one or the other. I'm also comparing the member pre-sales, not the public sales. Both institutions seem to be able to provide plenty of very nice, very interesting plants which are not easy to find elsewhere, at very reasonable prices - both to their members on Friday and the public in Saturday - but there are a few concerns that are particularly strong at the member sales which might not effect the general public sale the next day.
So ... on to comparison:
Parking: Strybing > UCBG
It turns out that the museums in golden gate park close at 5pm, just when the sale opens. I had no problem at all finding free street parking in the park within an easy walk of the Strybing sale. They also have valet parking for $10, if you're so inclined.
Contrast this to UCBG, with only pay parking, and a close parking lot that can fill up by 4pm. Overflow parking is plentiful, but quite some distance up a narrow curvy road, and serviced by slow and rather infrequent shuttles ... and if you have your own cart or wagon, it's not an easy fit onto the aforementioned shuttles. Paying for parking in the overflow lot was complicated by the fact that all the signs pointed to a single pay kiosk up a bunch of stairs that had been vandalized and was not working - luckily, there was another working machine across the street near the bus stop, but that wasn't particularly obvious from the signs. And of course, the machines will only take $1 and $5 bills - no credit cards... Parking at UCBG was, in a word, painful.
UPDATE 5/19/09: I've been informed by the management ( thanks, Paul ) that the close parking lot at UCBG is actually free during the sale, and that spaces tend to open up there on a continuing basis somewhat after the sale begins. My wife did notice that a little after 5:00pm is probably not the optimum time to arrive at the sale - too late for the really rare plants, and too early to find good used parking.
The Lines: Who Knows?
Probably somebody who showed up before the gates opened at 5pm. I didn't have a significant wait to show my membership card and get in to either sale, though I did cause some confusion by trying to get into Strybing with my UCBG membership card. It didn't work.
The Crowds: UCBG > Strybing
Strybing is slightly more crowded, it would seem. They also have a number of shopping carts and somewhat more narrow aisles, including several pinch points between the different rooms. More of the UCBG sale is outdoors, and the wagons seem less intrusive than the carts by far. Both sales are crowded, but Strybing is much less easy to navigate.
The Checkout: Strybing == UCBG
Strybing has more cashiers. UCBG has more lines that take credit cards, and a more organized line in general ... but seemingly fewer or slower cashiers. Both had plenty of boxes at checkout, and neither provided a particularly useful or enlightening receipt ... which means I have no idea or record of what the individual plants I bought cost, though I do know the totals from both sales. The fact that one is left with basically no way to tie price to plant once the price tags are pulled at checkout is irksome to me.
Plant Pickup: Strybing == UCBG
You can leave your plants across the street from the UCBG entrance while you go get your car from the far parking lot. Strybing has a similar attended setup in the back of the building. Both appeared to work well, though we did see the UCBG setup get backed up a bit. I imagine that the Strybing plant pickup could have suffered a similar fate later in the evening had we stuck around.
Pricing: Strybing > UCBG
I don't have particular price points, but it seems like Strybing was slightly cheaper than UCBG. It wasn't all that far apart, any obviously subject to quite some variation, but it seemed that there were a lot more low priced plants at Strybing, and some things like passiflora were going for a few dollars less.
Members Refreshments: UCBG >> Strybing
I bring my wife to these events. She has basically no interest in plants, but does have an interest in food, wine, and finding something to do while I'm out shopping. UCBG had a generous amount of professionally catered food available, and pretty much all the wine you wanted, all free for members. Strybing was charging $4 for a plastic cup of wine, and had a few appetizers available for free - but nothing remotely approaching UCBG. It appeared that higher level members and volunteers may have had access to nicer food, but not us commoner members. This sort of this is an issue to those of us who might want to justify a trip to the plant sale as a night out to other less plant oriented members of our family.
Rare Plant Availability: UCBG == Strybing
These are two plant sales with a lot in common, and a few differences. Neither sale had plants which I would consider REALLY rare in cultivation easily available. I suspect that there were a few of these things that were snapped up by those who came early and stood in line, but frankly the assortment left to those of us a few minutes into the sale while unusual would not qualify as exactly hard to obtain through other specialist venues or at the Strybing monthly sales and UCBG Plant Deck. I picked up an uncommon Raoulia at Strybing as well as a not easily available Chiranthodendron pentadactylon tree. At UCBG, I bought a rarely available named Lapageria and a generally hard to find Irid. Really hard to get stuff that is reasonably suitable for the climate like Deppea splendens, Brugmansia vulcanicola or Passiflora parritae were simply not in evidence. Even somewhat less uncommon things like Haemanthus sp., species Clivia, Brunsvigia sp. and so on were either poorly represented or not available.
Plant Diversity: UCBG == Strybing
The preceding is not to say that there was not a good selection of many genera that are uncommon and interesting. Both sales had excellent selections of California native plants. UCBG had an amazing amount of Lapageria cultivars and Bomarea, while Strybing had an excellent selection of cooler growing Tasconia Passiflora species and hybrids. Neither garden did terribly well in the tropicals, though UCBG offered Amorphophallus titanum seedlings and Strybing had a good selection of Begonias. Strybing is aided by several local societies and had the edge in Alpines, Rhododendrons, Bromeliads, Bamboo, Epiphyllum and Roses. UCBG had a significantly better set of succulents and carnivorous plants, and may have edged out Strybing in the South African section. Both gardens did very well in the Protea/Banksia/Grevillea department, and neither garden had a particularly good selection of South African bulbous plants, as I many have hinted at before. Both gardens offer pretty well similar selections of Ferns, for some reason.
Plant Quantity: Strybing > UCBG
There seem to be more plants available at Strybing - they carry a few more categories than UCBG seems to have the time for, though the plants in these categories are not really all that rare. For instance, you could buy tomato starts at Strybing ... not a big deal to me.
Silent Auction: Strbying > UCBG
Actually, I'm not quite sure about this one. The Strybing silent auction was bigger. Many of the plants were simply well-grown specimens and not in my mind quite as uncommon as some of the things offered at UCBG. I bid on a plant at UCBG, and I did not find anything that I wanted to bid on at Strybing ... but your results may vary. It seemed to me that the UCBG auction was more about larger specimens of uncommon things, while the Strybing auction was more about just very nice, large specimens.
Would You Go Back?
This was the question my wife asked me. Are we going back to the sales next year?
I know it will certainly be easier to convince her to go back to UCBG with the plentiful appetizers and free-flowing wine. That's a sure bet. But I'm dreading the parking. Moreover, I'm not exactly clear on whether I'll be able to add interesting plants to my collection in a civilized manner, without standing in line for a few hours and joining the mad rush. A friend of mine recently reminded me - it's not about the rarity of the plants you grow - it's about how much you enjoy growing them. I left both sales with a few very interesting plants - perhaps not the most rare, but certainly ones I will enjoy growing for years to come.
So Who's the Winner?
I know it sounds like chickening out, but the purpose of this exercise was not to figure out who has the best sale ... and given the above, it's not obvious. It depends on what you're into, and even then, it isn't clear at all. Say you're into passiflora. Well - Strybing has a wider selection of passiflora. But it doesn't overlap much, if at all, with the selection at UCBG, which includes a couple quite rare ones. The only way you're going to be a winner is to go to both sales. And that will make both you and the gardens that rely on your support winners in the end.
Friday, April 17, 2009
A Trip to the UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley
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There are two big-time botanical gardens in the San Francisco Bay Area. Last week, I posted some pictures from Strybing BG, which is currently considering charging for admission. This week, I'd like to put up some photos from the UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley, which I visited on the same day.
Unlike Strybing, it can be expensive to go to the UCBG - you have to pay for both parking and admission ( unless you're a member like me - then you just pay for parking ). Admission is $7, and parking is usually plentiful and convenient, though requiring of small bills. You'd think they'd get a credit card machine installed there - every single time I visit I hear grumbling from the people who are both mystified and annoyed by the parking ticket machine.
The UCBG is 34 acres and was established in 1890. It seems a lot bigger than 34 acres when you're walking it because it's built in a canyon and paths can be steep. They have very nice collections from Asia ( check out the Arisaema and Rhododendrons ), South America and South Africa ( great Bulbs! ), as well as a small but well-kept tropical conservatory. Their succulent collection is also very impressive and partially under glass. Unfortunately, a lot of it is behind metal fencing due to theft concerns, which makes is very difficult to take good pictures.
If you ever get a chance for a tour behind the scenes, you'll find that their research collection is actually a lot larger than what's on display in the glasshouses - as befits a university garden, I suppose. Another great thing about UCBG is that their accession database is available online - you can find out what they're theoretically growing.
Like Strybing, UCBG is very much into propagation and distribution of their collections. Unlike Strybing, they have an extensive plant sale every day of the year on their plant deck. Their selection of South American vines for sale is impressive including many rare Passiflora, named Lapageria, and Bomarea. They also carry tons of cloudforest plants, succulents, native plants, and neat stuff like Arisaema and Podophyllum. Apparently, some people have made a business of buying plants from their plant deck and selling them on E-Bay.
UCBG is having their spring plant sale in about a week - Members preview night is Friday, April 24th, and the sale runs from the 25th through the 26th. Some of the plants that will be available are listed on their website, but I figure that list is not really completist. I'll definitely be there.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Bloom Day April 15, 2009
May Dreams Gardens sponsors a celebration of what's in bloom on the 15th of each month. This blog is not quite your standard gardening blog, but I thought I'd try a posting ... somehow my flowers don't look like everyone else's.
 Arisaema intermedium |  Arisaema ringens |  Arisaema thunbergii |
 Lobelia "Candy Corn"  Scadoxus multiflorus ssp. katherinae |  Brugmansia "Double White" | |
Friday, April 10, 2009
Garden Admission Prices
There's talk that the San Francisco Botanic Garden is going to be charging for entry sometime in the not too distant future. This of course brings up the question of how Strybing compares to other gardens out there. It's a complicated question. Different gardens work differently. Some are run for profit, some by government, and some by non-profit organizations. They all have different facilities, and they all have different types of collections. Here's a survey of a few, and what they charge:
*NOTE: Single admission during high season with access to glasshouses, if any, and all parts of the garden excepting "attractions". Many gardens have free days, and lower prices during times of lower demand. Some gardens offer a discounted or free pass to just wander the grounds. Some prices are in CAD.
Some of the more pricey ones are display gardens that have become tourist attractions in their own right, as opposed to simple botanic gardens. Some of the gardens are allied with Aquariums or Zoos. Many of them have conservatories or other enclosing structures. And everyone has a different price structure.
It becomes evident that those gardens with glasshouses feel free to charge more than those without. And those gardens with large display areas seem to be more expensive as well. Or perhaps the higher fees allow them to provide more display areas and more glasshouses. A chicken and egg question.
$20 seems to be about the upper limit, and $7 is a popular pricepoint.
The Birmingham BG seems to be a good deal, with free parking, admission, and apparently a nice glasshouse. The US BG also is a good deal, but it's in Washington, D.C. - city of free admission to all manner of things.
I have not been to all these places, but I will say that Strybing competes favorably with the South Coast BG. Strybing is disadvantaged in competition against many of the other gardens by the complete lack of any conservatory space, but the collections are actually excellent in both breadth and rarity. You'll see some things at Strybing that you won't see anywhere except Andean cloud forest ... and that is actually worth something.
| Garden | Admission* | Yearly Dual Membership | Glasshouses? |
| United States BG | FREE | N/A | YES |
| Birmingham BG | FREE | $60 | YES |
| North Carolina BG | FREE | $60 | NO |
| UC Riverside BG | $1 Suggested Donation | $50 | NO |
| San Francisco BG | FREE | $75 | NO |
| Fort Worth BG | $4 | $60 | YES |
| Memphis BG | $5 | $75 | NO |
| Tucson BG | $11 | $45 | YES |
| South Coast BG | $7 | $50 | NO |
| UC BG at Berkeley | $7 | $65 | YES |
| Rio Grande BG | $7 | $59 | YES |
| San Antonio BG | $7 | $60 | YES |
| Los Angeles County BG | $7 | $70 | YES |
| Brooklyn BG | $8 | $75 | YES |
| Missouri BG | $8 | $150 | YES |
| UBC BG | $8 | $75 | NO |
| Quail BG | $10 | $75 | NO |
| Atlanta BG | $12 | $75 | YES |
| Denver BG | $12.50 | $55 | YES |
| Desert Botanical Garden | $15 | $75 | NO |
| Longwood Gardens | $16 | $105 | YES |
| Marie Selby BG | $17 | $90 | YES |
| RBG Kew | $19 | $132 | YES |
| Chicago BG | FREE, but $20 Parking | $70 | NO |
| Huntington Library | $20 | $120 | YES |
| Fairchild Tropical Garden | $20 | $77 | YES |
| New York BG | $20 | $100 | YES |
| Butchart Gardens | $28 | $104 | NO |
*NOTE: Single admission during high season with access to glasshouses, if any, and all parts of the garden excepting "attractions". Many gardens have free days, and lower prices during times of lower demand. Some gardens offer a discounted or free pass to just wander the grounds. Some prices are in CAD.
Some of the more pricey ones are display gardens that have become tourist attractions in their own right, as opposed to simple botanic gardens. Some of the gardens are allied with Aquariums or Zoos. Many of them have conservatories or other enclosing structures. And everyone has a different price structure.
It becomes evident that those gardens with glasshouses feel free to charge more than those without. And those gardens with large display areas seem to be more expensive as well. Or perhaps the higher fees allow them to provide more display areas and more glasshouses. A chicken and egg question.
$20 seems to be about the upper limit, and $7 is a popular pricepoint.
The Birmingham BG seems to be a good deal, with free parking, admission, and apparently a nice glasshouse. The US BG also is a good deal, but it's in Washington, D.C. - city of free admission to all manner of things.
I have not been to all these places, but I will say that Strybing competes favorably with the South Coast BG. Strybing is disadvantaged in competition against many of the other gardens by the complete lack of any conservatory space, but the collections are actually excellent in both breadth and rarity. You'll see some things at Strybing that you won't see anywhere except Andean cloud forest ... and that is actually worth something.
