Phelan Cactus Garden Opening . . .

Cereusly · Post by **Cereusly** » Mon Apr 26, 2010 2:40 am

Spent a great day today with Byron Fan aka Saguaro123 at the Phelan Cactus Garden Opening at Villa Montalvo, Saratoga, CA. Hey Byron, can you share some pictures? Cereusly, Tony

Saguaro123 · Post by **Saguaro123** » Tue Apr 27, 2010 6:34 am

Tony, I apologize for not logging on sooner to post the pics. Now, I'm sure that your thread is not a stub any longer!

We had our little cactus grand-reopening on Sunday afternoon. Tony, and I and the volunteer group had a great time! First, I should give you an overview of the gardens.

Villa Montalvo is a Italian-Mediterranean style mansion nestled in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains in Saratoga, California. In 1912, Senator and San Francisco Mayor, James Duval Phelan constructed the mansion on his estate. After Phelan's death, the land was donated to the state. When it became a historic landmark in 1978, it was renamed "Villa Montalvo". One of the things Phelan loved were plants, so he built a cactus garden and an Italian Rose Garden on his estate. Sadly, the cactus garden was neglected over the years and became overgrown with weeds.

Fortunately, a volunteer group and I stepped up to help restore the garden, and a lot of magnificent changes were made. Most of the new plants you see here are generous donations from nurseries around the area, and various people who wanted to donate.

Here's the garden as of May 2009

Here's the garden on April 25, 2010

As you can see, we made a lot of changes with the landscaping and remade the rock wall.

apacholek10 · Post by **apacholek10** » Tue Apr 27, 2010 1:35 pm

Looks fantastic! I am sure many hard hours went into making it look that good!

Post by **daiv** » Tue Apr 27, 2010 3:18 pm

Nice! You'll have to try and sneak in some more cactus species!

I see they have a piece of metal from the last space shuttle disaster - a memorial?

Buck Hemenway · Post by **Buck Hemenway** » Tue Apr 27, 2010 4:12 pm

Nice work Byron. All of that youthful energy put to good use.

The bloom on Yucca endlichiana is very different from most of the genus.

Post by **daiv** » Tue Apr 27, 2010 4:30 pm

Buck Hemenway wrote:The bloom on Yucca endlichiana is very different from most of the genus.

Is that the third one up from the bottom? I would not have guessed that was a Yucca -very interesting.

GeneS · Post by **GeneS** » Wed Apr 28, 2010 6:45 pm

I don't think that is Y. endlichiana. It has a very distinctive inflorescense ... like this:

and, a bit closer

Looks closer to a Sansevieria to me but I don't think that is correct either.

Cheers ... GeneS

Buck Hemenway · Post by **Buck Hemenway** » Wed Apr 28, 2010 10:07 pm

GeneS wrote:I
Looks closer to a Sansevieria to me but I don't think that is correct either.

Cheers ... GeneS

Boy, is my face red. I guess that I don't know what it is either. Looks like Sansevieria to me, now that Gene points it out.

Saguaro123 · Post by **Saguaro123** » Thu Apr 29, 2010 5:20 am

Thanks for the kind words everyone!

daiv wrote: I see they have a piece of metal from the last space shuttle disaster - a memorial?

Daiv, it's not a piece of metal from a space shuttle disaster. It's really a sculpture that was designed to blend into the setting. There is also a theme behind the sculpture too.

Buck, thanks for pointing that out! There are a few mis-labeled plants in the garden that I will be posting in the identification section soon.

Post by **daiv** » Thu Apr 29, 2010 2:48 pm

Saguaro123 wrote: Daiv, it's not a piece of metal from a space shuttle disaster. It's really a sculpture that was designed to blend into the setting. There is also a theme behind the sculpture too.

Byron,
I know. That was just me expressing my lack of "artistic enlightenment" -especially regarding "modern art". I think I read too much Carl Barks material as a kid.