All Too Soon It Ended - Visiting Flora Grubb Gardens

The climate (USDA zones 10a and 10b but it seldom gets horribly hot in the summer) in the San Francisco Bay area allows for a wide variety of plants to be grown out of doors.  After three days of admiring gardens which beautifully utilized this wide palette of green goodness, we flingers were brought to Flora Grubb Gardens, an exceptional nursery with an emphasis on design, for our closing party.  I could live at this nursery!

Flora sells these letters empty and ready for you to plant.  Think of the fun words you could hang in your own garden!

Giant metal flower sculptures.  These could make quite a statement in your garden yes?

Paradise

Agave (mediopicta alba?) in a waterfall of acacia.

The day had been unusually warm but as evening approached there was a nice breeze and cooler temperatures.  I can still feel the excitement of walking among all of these great plants and deciding that in a future life, I should live in this area.

These sempervivum are hardy to very low temps so this idea could be used just about anywhere!  It's been widely copied but I still think it's cool.

It was about at this point that I heard the most interesting cackling from overhead.  Looking up I saw a flock of wild parrots flying overhead chatting with each other, their brilliant chartreuse color glowing in the slanting sunlight. 

No visit to this nursery is complete without checking on the car!

Vertical gardening is not my personal cup of tea but these are so well done that they won my admiration. 

 

 

While Grubb tends to lean toward modern design, there are pieces of all styles to be found.

 

Next time I visit, it will be with a car so that I can bring home more plant treasures!

The well known wall of chairs.

The fling was such a great experience and we lingered hoping to make it last as long as possible.

I'm sure that the organizers of this great event were very happy that it went so well and that their hectic pace would shortly be a bit more relaxed.

Got the blues? 

Still loving these glorious palms. 



Cool combination to copy!

An imaginative way to display sarracenias.

 

Happy trio of Alison, Scott, and Judy

I bet these would be comfortable but might be a little interesting to get in and out of.  Who cares, they look great!

Ah to grow phormium without loosing them every few years.

Loved this combination of powdery blue with burgundy foliage. 

All good things must come to an end and all too soon the Garden Bloggers' Fling of 2013 had flung.   I hope you've enjoyed visiting sunny California with me as much as I enjoyed experiencing it myself!