{"id":30358,"date":"2018-07-08T18:30:37","date_gmt":"2018-07-09T02:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/?p=30358"},"modified":"2018-07-13T20:12:36","modified_gmt":"2018-07-14T04:12:36","slug":"beautiful-but-thorny-at-the-ruth-bancroft-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/2018\/07\/08\/beautiful-but-thorny-at-the-ruth-bancroft-garden\/","title":{"rendered":"Beautiful But Thorny at the Ruth Bancroft Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cactus<\/a>\"Aloe<\/a>\"Cactus<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Agave<\/a>\"Cactus<\/a>\"Tree<\/a><\/p>\n

Ruth Bancroft Garden<\/a> in Walnut Creek, California is packed with incredible cacti and succulents. As my mother-in-law said, “This garden just screams OUCH!” Spines, thorns, and barbs abound, along with stunning flowers, brilliant leaf colors, and striking plant forms. The 2.5 acre (1 hectare) public garden features thousands of drought tolerant plants, from tiny succulents to tall trees.<\/p>\n

\"Dudleya,<\/a>\"Variegated<\/a>\"Cactus<\/a><\/p>\n

Walnut Creek is about 30 miles (48 km) inland from San Francisco, but many climate zones away from the cool, foggy coast. Hot, dry summers are the norm, with little or no fog. The area can be +35\u00b0F (+19\u00b0C) warmer than the coast, with days over 100\u00b0F (38\u00b0C) in summer and autumn. It’s not suitable for most orchids, but many orchids are also succulents<\/a>. We spotted a blooming Epidendrum<\/a> in a shaded area, shown in the final photo below.<\/p>\n

\"Aloe<\/a>\"Succulent<\/a>\"Epidendrum<\/a><\/p>\n

Ruth Bancroft was a walnut farmer’s wife who became fascinated with succulents. She started acquiring plants, skillfully designed her garden, and became an expert in low-water, or xerophytic<\/a>, gardening. Ruth Bancroft died in 2017 at the age of 109, a quarter century after her creation had opened to the public<\/a>. The incredible collection she built is thriving, and continues to inspire plant lovers who don’t mind screaming OUCH! See more with The Bold Dry Garden: Lessons from the Ruth Bancroft Garden<\/em>.<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek, California is packed with incredible cacti and succulents. As my mother-in-law said, “This garden just screams OUCH!” Spines, thorns, and barbs abound, along with stunning flowers, brilliant leaf colors, and striking plant forms. The 2.5 acre (1 hectare) public garden features thousands of drought tolerant plants, from tiny succulents […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,17,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-general-gardening","category-photos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30358"}],"version-history":[{"count":55,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30427,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30358\/revisions\/30427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}