Huntington Botanic Gardens

[Peter]

Went up to the Huntington today in the drizzle. The succulent garden is just coming into it's best season.

[Peter]

[Peter]

[Peter]

[Peter]

[Peter]

And that's it!

[virtualpalm]

Absolutely incredible photos, Peter! Thanks for sharing.

Jody

[bubba]

Peter, Wow! Did you photoshop that in Dylan's neighborhood? Friggin incredible!

[_Keith]

Fabulous

[Jerry@TreeZoo]

My son was looking over my shoulder when I was looking at those great pics. He said it looked like the Planet Pandora in Avitar.

[Jeff in St Pete]

The Huntington has the best succulent garden I have ever visited.

Stunning photos. Thank you Peter!

[ariscott]

I know I have seen the photos before somewhere... but it always blows me away how colourful those succulent can be.. I don't actually mind them, unfortunately... they don't grow too well for me...

Regards, Ari

[freakypalmguy]

Absolutely amazing. It looks like something out of a Dr. Zues book. When my wife and I first visited the Huntington we were there to look at palms and were completely taken in by the Cactus/Succulent garden.

Thank you for the pics Peter, great shots.

Matt

[BS Man about Palms]

WOW.

[Matt in SD]

These are some of the best garden photos I've seen posted. Just amazing photography. I need to show my son tomorrow, he's really into succulents. I see a visit to the Huntington in the near future.

Matt

[realarch]

You got skills Peter! The color saturation is unbelievable and the overcast day perfect for photographs.

The succulents look like they are from another world.

Thanks.

Tim

[Peter]

Thanks for the compliments everyone. And believe it or not, the succulent garden is still not quite at it's peak-should be there in a few weeks.

[fastfeat]

Truly outstanding--both the plantings and the photography!

Peter, LMK when you're going back. I'll see if I can make it.

[palmmermaid]

Wow! Stunning pictures and plants. When it comes to weird plants, succulents are hard to top.

What is the tree (?) in the 4th picture in post #3? That bark is really interesting.

[Peter]

Thanks Kitty-and that's the bark of an Aloe Hercules, which is a hybrid between A. bainseii and dichotoma.

[Shon]

Absolutely stunning Peter. Thanks for sharing.

[tikitiki]

WOW! Your pics have changed my whole prospective of this plant group.

[Peter]

Was up at the Huntington again today and took a few more pics.

[Peter]

Delonix trunk on the right:

[Peter]

[Dave H]

I finally dragged the old lady with me to see the palm garden at the Huntington, and low and behold we were blown away by the succulent and cactus gardens... Much more so than the palm garden.

[Dave H]

a Huntington bird...

[Dave H]

a chilly Jube...

[Dave H]

a childs tale...

[Dave H]

[Dave H]

And for those who have never been... The entrance.

[Dave H]

A nice coning Encephalartos Ferox.

[Dave H]

[Dave H]

and finally...

P. Reclinata... Hybrid ?

[ariscott]

Thanks for the pics... very nice and colourful!!

Regards, Ari

[epicure3]

The specimens are awesome but it is definitely your photography that brought out the colors. Oh yeah, you are a photographer.

[bahia]

Some great shots of the Aloes in bloom, thanks for sharing. We don't really have any similar gardens up here in the SF Bay Area that have so many Aloes in bloom all at once, although the Ruth Bancroft Garden is very nice and puts on a good show as well, but many of the more tender Aloes need protection in winter here, so there are box shelters up over the tender species still, which tends to detract from the naturalism. This part of the Huntington is definitely a favorite of mine, and it looks like I need to get down there within the next couple of weeks!

Just one minor quibble about the species of Aloe with the interesting bark, 3rd photo group, fourth photo, I think this is much more likely to be Aloe dichotoma than A. 'Hercules', which up here anyway, has rather boring bark without all that color contrast. I remember seeing dozens of A. dichotoma at the Karoo Botanic Garden in South Africa, also while it was raining, and those trunks are just fantastic to look at.

Again, thanks for the photos at the Huntington, who can resist an entire Aloe/succulent garden when they are so well displayed and in such massive bloom?

[Peter]

Hi Bahia,

the Aloe in post #3 is definitely A. 'hercules' and not dichotoma. Herc. does take alot of the interesting bark characteristics from dichotoma, as opposed to it's other parent A. bainseii, an example of which can be seen in Dave. H's photo in post #29.

[OverGrown]

incredible shots!

[Succulentum]

superb pictures they look like paintings, it was the fog down or have you increased the contrast ?

Succulents was my first wife

jean-bernard