UC Botanical Gardens, Berkeley
Old "Cool" bus
After breakfast at Bette’s Oceanview Diner, we took a short drive over the railroad tracks and around an industrial part of town. The UC Botanical Gardens do not open until 9, so we had some time to kill. This being Berkeley, we saw a couple of avant garde traveling homes. One was an old school bus, now painted many different colors, and renamed ‘Cool Bus’. Nearby there was a small RV covered in profound statements.
With ten minutes to spare, we drove past the gardens and continued uphill to the Lawrence Hall of Science. Although the sun was shining up there, the whole of San Francisco City on the other side of the bay was shrouded in fog. We could see Berkeley below us and the Sutro Tower poking out of the fog in the distance.
At 9, we returned to the botanical gardens and parked the car. Parking has to be paid for. I put fourteen quarters in the machine for three hours. The entrance fee to the UC Botanical Gardens is $7 for adults. Seniors are $5 but you have to be over 65. Tom and I are not quite there yet so we paid the full amount. We were given a color brochure with a map showing the layout of the gardens.
Just inside the gate there were plants for sale. One particularly caught my eye – a Californian native named Ceanothus Wood Blue. It looked pretty healthy and I wanted it for our garden. Problem being I did not want to buy it and then have to carry it around with me, so I decided to buy it on the way out.
The first section we entered was the New World Desert. Tom was soon engrossed taking photos. He was using a new 50 mm prime lens today and this was his first chance to use it. I hasten to add it was no where near as large as the ones we saw at the Sacramento NWR a couple of weeks ago.
I wandered off. The night before at my firm’s annul company dinner we were all given Flip videos and I was having fun using it. I can take short movies on my camera but this little gadget is so much simpler to use. When I saw the results at home they were OK but not good enough to post. I will have to practice a bit more first.
From the New World Desert region I crossed the roadway into the California Section. As I walked under a large Foothill Pine tree. I heard a
Secluded bench in the UC Botanical Gardens
noise. It sounded like a bird nibbling on a pine cone. I stopped and looked up. There was a squirrel darting around but the noise didn’t come from him and the nibbling sound continued. For ten minutes I searched but had to give up. Not far away I found a bench so sat down to write in my journal.
There was nobody else around at all and it was glorious sitting there in the sun. From where I sat I could see the tree and still hear the nibbling sound. Unfortunately my binoculars were left in the car but I kept checking the tree to see if I could see any movement. A small covey of quail ventured out of the undergrowth, pecked around for a bit and then disappeared into the shrubbery on the other side of the path.
Eventually I decided to return to the car to get the binoculars. On the way there I bought the plant by the entrance, just in case it was gone when we finally left. Very soon I was back on the bench and concentrated on checking out the pine tree. Still I could not detect what would be making the noise. Tom found me and we sat and chatted. He had visited a lot of other regions whilst I had spent my time in just two. He couldn’t work out what bird could be making the noise but deduced it could be two branches rubbing together. If that was the case, I’d spent a lot of time over nothing but it was a pleasant way to spend half an hour.
I decided to take a wander and left Tom in California while I walked back through the New World Desert section and climbed up hill passing through the Asia region. This time of the year I had not expected to see much color around but I was pleasantly surprised. Some of the Blue Dicks were showing pink flowers and there were blue flowers on the Island Ceanothus in the California area and in the New World Desert there were several Coast Prickly Pears which had lots of red fruit on them – called cactus figs. The Asia region had a lot of camellias and there were white flowers on the Camellia Crapnelliana and a few red flowers on the Sasanqua Camellia. On the Rhododendron Arboreum there were large red blooms.
Just one of the thousands of plants at the UC Botanical Gardens
Almost at the top of the hill is the Garden of Old Roses and even here there was some color – white blooms on the Tea Roses, rose hips on the Noisette Rose and a couple of yellow flowers on the Modern Shrub Rose. Of course this is not the best time of the year to see the roses in bloom. May/June they should be in full flower.
On my meandering way back down the hill I walked through the Australasia region and over the lawn to the Herb Garden. Even though there was not a riot of color around, I kept getting wafts of unidentified frangrances as I walked around. The herb garden is separated into several categories, including culinary, medical and fragrant. I was particularly looking for a sage whose leaves have a wonderful smell. I saw one in Redding at the Botanical Gardens but didn’t write the name down – silly me!
There were so many paths all over the gardens here. You feel you are miles from anywhere but they all eventually meet up with wider paths and there is no way you could get lost for long.
One last place to visit before meeting up with Tom again near the entrance and this was to the Tropical House. As soon as I walked inside my glasses steamed up so writing was a slight problem. There was even a little color around in there – leaves on the Flowering Lily, purple flowers on the Sweet Potato, a white flower on the Amazon Lily and flowers on the Costus Igenus and the Fiery Costus.
After a very pleasant two hours at the Berkeley Botanical Gardens it was time to make our way home.
Related posts:
- University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley
- Santa Cruz Botanical Gardens
- Berkeley Kite Festival
- Berkeley – 4th St between Virginia St and University Ave
- Cafe Durant, Berkeley
February 18 2010 10:01 pm | Special Places
