The Bold and The Beautiful

No, I am not talking about the soap opera, but the plant material I saw while in California for this year's Garden Bloggers Spring Fling.  As previously stated, I was dazzled by all that I saw.  Plants that I use as houseplants were growing in the gardens, like skyscrapers, towering over my tiny specimens.   The colors are bold, even in the window displays in Chinatown.

The blue-green foliage against the orange of the California poppy, Eschscholozia californica jumped out at me....have been trying to grow this in my garden.  I had tiny seedlings in multiple places then the monsoons came.

Another plant  I would love to have in my garden, Abutilon, Flowering Maple,  There were some stunning examples of it on our tours.

Arbutus, or Strawberry tree was another plant in many of the gardens.  Its tiny flowers remind me of Lily of the Valley or Pieris or Blueberry blooms...all in the Ericaceae family.

At the nursery of Annie's Annuals we were greeting with an explosion of color --

I would love this variety and boldness of color in my garden!

 If the blooms weren't enough color, some of the garden art will fill the bill!

Agapanthus, African Lily or Lily of the Nile was a mainstay in commercial and residential gardens.  Here is is in front of the Conservatory of Flowers.

While inside the Conservatory there were also some great blooms with intense color.

I think Sunset Headquarters took the bold color theme to the highest level.  Love this orange trellis, it frames the pathway into a colorful garden.

If you have a blank wall, Sunset has an idea of what you can do.  Wall art as a planter.  Bold is where it is at baby!

Leaving the bold and colorful gardens we arrived at Filoli, the estate in Crystal Springs.  I included this photo in the bold and beautiful posting because I see so much depth in it.  This lovely grove is a grove of olives....the whole walkway seemed to glow in the pale olive color.  Beautiful in its richness of color.

Also in the Filoli was the Knot Garden.  Love the sea of color, even with the bright sunlight the colors popped.

Here is that Dianella caerulea in another garden, think the universe is telling me I need to find some for my garden!

Another beauty spotted a few places is Melaleuca nesophila or Showy Honey-myrtle-- isn't it lovely?

I think even the bark on some of the trees was bold and brightly colored.  Think this is  a Manzanita or Arctostaphylos 'Ruth Bancroft' at the Ruth Bancroft Garden.   I love the curls.

Two of the gardens were bright and bold and colorful and full of all sorts of plants that I had no idea what they might be....and I loved being amongst the blooms.  The Wave Garden was one of these gardens.   This one is Trailing Princess Flower or Centradenia floribunda.  I am a fan of hot pink!

The Wave Garden had this big and bold collection of Aeonium with other succulents, houseplants gone wild!

Of all the color combinations at the Wave Garden, my favorite was this purple bloom, Trachelium caeruleum, against the chartreuse foliage, Banksia spinulosa....wow and double wow!

This next bloom looks like striped ribbons threaded through yellow strands of hair.  I have no idea what this one is, maybe someone can ID it for me.

Noticed in a couple gardens was Kangaroo Paws, Anigozanthos, we saw some yellow ones here and some red ones at another garden.  Love the fuzzy blooms.

The Nichols garden was bold in their use of living plant material as an arbor.  Here, flanked by boldly colored Canna, it beckons you to enter.

Keeyla Meadows' Garden was beyond colorful.  The plants were colorful, the artwork was colorful, the house was colorful, EVERYTHING was brightly colored.   Along the front walk was Clarkia, tall and bright pink (did I mention I like pink?).  Great native plant of  Western North America.  

Rose Campion, Lychnis coronaria against the bright blue sky....again pink!!  I have seedlings of this plant, hoping one day that it will bloom for me.

This little blue bloom is so cute, my sister in law gave me some when we lived in Virginia, not hardy to that zone but I did keep it for a couple years.  It is Tweedia caerulea, love the pale blue and the fuzzy leaves and petals.

Like I said, there was color everywhere in the garden.  Love the color combination of the tiles in the pathway.

Yes, this Cuphea cyanea, Pink Cigar Plant, is great, complementing the colors in the hardscapes.   I think Cupheas have little faces.

Color at every turn,  I love this garden.

Won't this bench be wonderful to have in your garden?   

We were able to go inside Keeyla's home and inside was just as vibrant as the outside.   I like color and  this is incredible.

Finally, the bold and beautiful extends to a water treatment plant's grounds, designed by Flora Grubb.  The plantings were large statements of color and texture, simple and easy maintenance, a bright spot in the neighborhood.

Flora Grubb's Wall-O-Succulents caused many of us to stop and ohh and ahhh.   Now this was bold!  I saw a succulent wreath a few years ago that I really liked, this totalling took my breath away.  

This concludes my Fling posts.  I hope you enjoyed the way I presented our time in San Francisco.  Sometimes these Fling visits are larger than the gardens themselves, it is the overall sense of the location.  Did you like reading about the Fling like this?  Would you rather have learned about each garden and viewed pictures of the garden in a single post?  

©Copyright 2013 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet,The Queen of Seaford.