Albert's Greenhouse

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.

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"

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:

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.

Went a couple weekends ago to the San Francisco Botanic Garden at Strybing Arboretum. That's a mouthful right there. It was one of the first really sunny Saturdays of the year, and this made parking difficult. With all the new museums there in recent years, it's been necessary to get to the park before 9am on a weekend to have any hope of finding parking.

There are many things of botanical interest in the park, including some rainforest displays at the California Academy of Sciences, the always interesting Conservatory of Flowers, and of course the Botanical Garden. The SFBG is the only one of the three with no lines and free admission, though I hear that is planned to change.



Strybing has several excellent collections - I like their South African and South American Cloud Forest gardens a lot. They're well situated in an area which almost never freezes, and doesn't really get very hot except a couple days a year. Spring and Fall are probably the best times as this part of San Francisco can be covered in fog in the summer - a welcome respite from the heat further south. This allows them to grow some things that will not grow anywhere else in California.



Strybing has a really great philosophy about plant sales - they try to propagate most of their collection and hold monthly sales which are relatively low-key to distribute the plants. You can pick up California natives, cloud forest plants, rare passionflowers, and alpines to name just a few of the choices. Their yearly Spring Sale is a lot bigger, a lot more crowded, and a lot more hectic - but they say they have around 20,000 plants available there.