Garden packed with earthly delights
By: Elisabeth Laurence
November 6, 2008
 |
| Spooky setting: The Primitive Garden at the Botanical Garden, left, feels like it could be in a horror movie. The Red Hot poker Plant, below left, is reminiscent of a torch. |
SAN FRANCISCO — The new Primitive Garden at the Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum in San Francisco looks like Jurassic Park — it has a scary, what-if-a-raptor-rushes-out-of-the-bushes feel.
There are spooky Australian tree ferns, wild ginko and Norfolk Island Pines that tilt menacingly toward the sky.
Podocarpus nivales, an exotic tree fern, is covered in yellow and brown hairs, while rangy chain ferns, weird-looking western sourgrass and an assortment of old-growth palms — Norfolk and pineapple — give the place a bit of familiarity.
The fog, too, just seems to sit in its Golden Gate Park location.
The Primitive Garden, along with other micro-gardens at the Botanical Garden, encompass a world of geographical diversity and history from modern times to ancient millennia.
With 55 acres and 7,500 different kinds of plants — 100,000 in all — the gardens are like a museum for plants. There’s a personality and story to go with almost every one.
The most fun are the brightly colored exotic Mexican, African, South American or Pacific-rim plants with orange and scarlet blooms.
At the entrance is a 5-foot scarlet protea plant that looks carnivorous. It dates back 300 years and was named after Proteus, the Greek god of changeability.
Other exotics are the Red Hot Poker plant with spiky yellow and red blooms that resemble a torch. Also, there’s a scarlet Safari Sunset and an agava that burns crimson.
Executive director Michael McKechnie calls the garden “a great place to travel the world and see plant collections from Australia and New Zealand and travel through time to see how plants developed. And it’s also a great place to forget about it all, and enjoy it, be calm and relax.”
Another popular micro-garden is the Garden of Fragrance, originally developed for visitors with limited eyesight and operated with assistance from the Lighthouse for the Blind. Rosemary, salvia, pineapple sage, lavender, a strawberry tree and a gum rock rose bloom brightly, serving up a mélange of aromas. At the center of the garden, there’s a waterfall, pool and statue of St. Francis of Assisi.
Other attractions include two cloud gardens, a new rhododendron garden, Japanese Moon-Viewing gardens and an extensive collection of books at the Botanical Garden Society bookstore.
Operated by the San Francisco Park and Recreation Department and the San Francisco Botanical Garden Society, the Botanical Garden opened in 1940, facilitated by an endowment by philanthropist Helene Strybing.
IF YOU GO
San Francisco Botanical Garden
Where: 1199 Ninth Ave., San Francisco
When: 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekends and holidays
Admission: Free
Contact: (415) 661-1316 or www.sfbotanicalgarden.org
