San Francisco Flower & Garden Show 2012, flower & garden market

This last Wednesday I got up wayyyy earlier than I ever do.  But for a good reason.  I drove to Davis, CA where I met up with fellow blogger Gerhard Bock from Bamboo, Succulents & More.  From there we drove to San Matao, CA where we went to the San Francisco Flower & Garden Show.  What a great day we had.  I will have many more photos on my Facebook page.
Gerhard at Bamboo, Succulents & More already has three blog posts up to my one.  LOL  To see his teaser click here.  For display gardens click here.  And for the plant and flower market click here.

This beautiful succulent mural was put together by Succulent Gardens which is located in Castroville, CA.  They had a very large area with many beautiful succulents for sale!

Loved this ruffled hybrid echeveria!

I believe that this is the 3 or 4" echeveria's that were on sale!  This is just a small portion.  They were up high like this, down below and even underneath the shelves.  Tiffaney who work's at Succulent Gardens was very busy answering questions and replacing the succulents as they were bought.

Succulent Gardens had the most incredible variety of succulents on sale. Most you could get in 6 different sizes. 2", 3', 4', 6", 8", 10" and 50 gallon! It was so hard not to buy and buy and buy!

This aloe was outstanding but I didn't get the name.  It was quite large, I believe it was in a 50 gal pot.  I sure wanted to take it home.

Graptopetalum pentandrum subsp. superbum
All I have to say about this specimen is WOW!  I should have bought it!

Look at the love!

Urban Farmgirls
They were right next  to Succulent Gardens. They manufacture locally hand-crafted garden products & also offer design, consultation, install and maintenance services for container gardens, roof top gardens and small to mid-size outdoor urban living spaces. 

Their distinct line of garden products includes Pozzola artisan pots, pozzola ornamentals, living wreaths and vertical garden boxes for the home & garden.

Owen Gardens

This company traveled all the way from Washington state. They had the nicest selection of tillandsia's I have seen. Of course since I love them I had to get a few!

Sticky Situation

Grower of Quality Cactus and Succulents native to
Deserts around the world including North, Central, South America, Africa, & Madagascar. Their nursery is in the foothills ofTucson, Arizona.




Lemaireocereus marginatus
I really wanted to buy these wonderful succulents but I was running out of money! I did go home with a couple of beautiful euphorbia amak!

GardenLife
We were very pleased to see succulents all through the flower and garden show. Even in the exibit area which I will show you in the next post.

Ecoforms

This company is located in northern California. EcoForms is a family-founded business that grew out of the desire to find an alternative to plastic pots. Their attractive and durable pots are made from renewable grain fibers and are biodegradable.




Vertical herb gardening
Another trend we also saw throughout the flower and garden show was vertical gardening. From herbs, flowers and of course succulents.

There were quite a few booths that sold beautiful orchids.  They were all so lovely!

Big Island Plants

This booth really stood out! It was bright and colorful! And everything was tucked into a big grass hut. They sold many different things including jewelry, books, seeds, bulbs and plants that were very exotic.




Bouquet of Protea's




Annie's Annuals was there too!




At noon we went and listened to a wonderful lecture by Debra Lee Baldwin. I almost walked right by her looking for a seat. She grabbed me, spun me around and gave me a big hug hello! I wish we had more time to talk but I really enjoyed her talk and photos!


I will leave you there for now.  I will post the exhibit hall next.
So until then remember:

It's Another Beautiful Day!

San Francisco Botanical Gardens

Hi Sweetstuff  friends.  I am sorry to be absent for so long but have been having some health problems.  I was having quite a few medical problems and found out I was allergic to quite a few things.  And some of them are foods.  So I am now on a yeast, sugar free diet.  It has been pretty tough because you wouldn't believe the things that yeast and sugar are in.  It's crazy!!!  But I am feeling a whole lot better and have lost weight also.  Sounds like a win, win situation.

So my hubby and I went to San Francisco the other weekend with our best friends.  What a great time we had.  I asked if while we were in the city we could go somewhere I could see some succulents.  They grow so well in the Bay area.  So we decided to go visit the San Francisco Botanical Gardens.  What a pretty place.  I headed straight for the succulent section and was not disappointed.

Aeonium with beautiful red tips!

Agave Lophantha
This beautiful agave likes full sun. The flowers are greenish yellow. This plant will die after blooming but there is usually a pup ready to take over.

Aloe Distans

This great aloe is from South Africa and is a summer bloomer. The blooms have a great coral color to them. It likes sun or shade and is hardy to 20-25F. This one is showing the red stress of cooler temps this time of year!

Agave salmiana

What's cool about this photo is the bloom stalk getting started. Also you can see the old agave in front that is now dead and the stalk has been cut off. This pup took over and is now blooming. But it has more to pups to come. This agave will get 6 feet tall and 12 feet across. The bloom stalk will get 15 to 40 feet tall. It usually blooms after 15 years. It likes sun to shade and hardiness zones of 7b on up.

Here is a photo of another agave salmiana with new bloom stalk forming and you can see another to the right that is old.

Aloe aborescens

This was a huge clump of aloe aborescens! They were everywhere in the S.F. Botanical Gardens succulent section. They originated in Southern Africa.

Aeonium undulatum

Oh baby, these are so large! These amazing aeoniums get 2 to 3 feet high and can be 1 to 2 feet in diameter. They are from the Canary Islands. They can tolerate temperatures down to 25-30F.

Aloe plicatilis

I love these fan shaped aloe's. They were just starting to send out some bloom stalks. It's also a good shot of the bunch of Trichocereus Pachonoi 'San Pedro'.

Aeonium undulatum with friends

These succulents looked so good together they were begging for a photo!

Aloe Ferox

They had so many beautiful aloe's! This is one of my favorite's. Those spines on the leaves can really be sharp so take care when handling. It likes full sun and does well in hardiness zones 9b and up. It has many different color of blooms from red, orange, gold to nearly white. Most of these were blooming! It was incredible!

Aloe Saponaria

A beautiful aloe that took a little beating over the winter. It is also known as the soap aloe. It is from the arid regions of South Africa. It can be grown in hardiness zones of 8b and up. This one has some damage on one of it's leaves. Could have been a bug, animal or disease that started it. It will be fine though.

Aloe Speciosa 'Tilt-head aloe'

Another beautiful aloe from South Africa! The rosette of this aloe always is tilted towards the north. Very interesting. The flower stalk is spectacular on this aloe and the hummingbirds love it. The blooms look red to pinkish in color and are long and fat.

Beaucarnea Recurvata 'Elephant Foot Tree'

This slow growing palm is great for small gardens and can tolerate temp's down to 15F.

Cereus monstrose

This is a beautiful cereus plant that growing tip's have mutated. We call this form monstrose. In monstrose plants the dominant tip is lost and every growing tip thinks it is dominant and it results in this knobby growth.

Cordyline Australia 'Albertii'

It can get 20 to 30 feet tall and likes full sun! It is single stemmed and does not get offshoots!

This beautiful plant is from New Zealand. I just had to show you the top of this tall succulent!

Cotyledon Orbiculata

These plants can reach 4 to 6 feet in height. This one was huge but I wanted to show you details. They like full sun and flowers are a pretty orange. USDA planting zone 9b and above. But it is not unheard of for them to tolerate lower temperatures.

Puya Alpestris

This is a super plant from South America. They get 4 to 5 feet tall and enjoy full sun! The bloom spike produces the most incredible turquoise flowers.

Puya Alpestris bloom stalk

I wish I had been there when the flowers on this stalk were open! I would have loved to see the beautiful turquoise color!

Dracaena Draco

This wonderful plant is from The Canary Islands. Below it at the base is quite a few aloe distans. This tree can reach 40 feet tall. Dave's garden says hardy down to 10a. They want full sun!

There were rock walls all around the succulent area. Aeonium's and other succulents were growing in different nooks and cranny's.  It looked so pretty!

Xanthorrhoea sp. Grass Tree

This amazing tree is from Australia. This is a subtropical tree found all over in Australia. It likes full sun and can stand temperatures of 30F for short periods of time. It likes moderate water and dry conditions.

I hope you enjoyed our little journey through the S.F. Botanical Garden.  I took more photos of other beautiful things but I will show you some of them in another post.  Until then remember:

It's Another Beautiful Day!