sbrobert
By Robert Bernstein
You don’t have to travel far to experience the explosion of poppies happening now! Merlie and I headed to the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden last weekend for our local experience. Here are my photos.
The centerpiece of the garden now is the wonderful field of poppies on the big lawn near the entrance with the mountains as a backdrop:
Of course, we took turns posing there ourselves.
In a very wet year like this, the grasses can actually bury the flowers. Next year could actually be better!
Of course, there is much more to see than poppies. Here is a rare tree-anemone Carpenteria californica. The sign explains it is only known from six populations in the Sierra National Forest. We noticed the similarity to the Matilija poppy, but it is a different plant.
These irises were nearby along the path.
We continued over to the redwoods. No flowers, but a very peaceful world over there.
We crossed a bridge and watched Mission Creek in a more tame state than it had been during the storms.
The Garden is full of other opportunities to relax and contemplate.
We met this young couple who recently moved here from Virginia.
The Garden was also alive with hummingbird sage. Here was a small forest of them!
We also crossed the road to the Island View area.
A pleasant chance meeting there with my former co-worker friends Craig and Yvonne. Yvonne is the powerhouse who brings a steady stream of amazing speakers to the Science and Engineering Council.
Also, some bush lupines.
And, for me, the highlight of the outing: A blue-tailed skink sunning itself on the path!
Please note! If you visit the Botanic Garden, you need a reservation! Even if you are a member! I was very happy for this change. The last time we went, it was difficult to get in. Scheduling visits evens out the load and eliminates the backup of motorists waiting for parking.
We decided to become members of the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden two years ago. Not only does it allow free admission as often as you want and other local member benefits. It also allows access to 345 botanic gardens and arboreta around the US.
You can find more information about the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden and make reservations here at their website!
Thanks for the beautiful pictures! The reservation requirement has meant that we no longer visit the SBBGarden and I will be not renewing my membership at the end of the month. I have been a member for many years. …I appreciate that the neighborhood needs a limit on the number of cars and there is a definite insufficiency of parking so I will be doing my part to help.
Anon at 8:37AM I am curious why you don’t like the reservation system? We found it preferable to getting there and not knowing if we would get in. This way we can plan just a bit in advance and know we will breeze right in. We made the reservation the day before and this was for a busy Saturday.
My family went to Carrizo Plains, then the Figueroa loop and then the Bot Gardens over three days. The Bot gardens was BY FAR the most impressive. There were VERY few people during the week and we needed no reservations. Plenty of parking!
Carrizo was mostly fiddlehead. My family are PhD botanists. On the loop we saw: Butter Cups, Blue Dicks, poppies, Lupines, Goldfields, Popcorn Flower, Mountain Lilac, Manzanita in flower bloom, Fiddleheads, Bush poppy, Chia flowers, Prickly Phlox, Fiesta Flower, Bind weed flowers, Elderberry in bloom and lots of lovely Blue Eyed Grass.
Good to know about the parking; it sounded from R. Bernstein’s that even at 9, the members’ time, there had to be reservations, as is so during the day. Sounds as though there were LOTS of flowers seen on the loop!
SBrobert, reservations are acceptable for the theater or other limited performances but not for being part of the natural world, as on a walk (I do not go on group walks except with a few friends.) Part of the joy of the SBBG has been the unexpected, including the visit itself. Indeed, though, there are positives, being assured onecan be there and,with SB more and more a tourist destination, that’s not always possible. I’d rather not go on the familiar paths than have to have a structured visit.