Eric Hupperts, Horticulturist Up in the Berkeley hills, the Asian temperate forest at the UC Botanical Garden is beginning its spring awakening. Amongst the Magnolia and Camellia blooms is another iconic genus: Rhododendron. This speciose genus has a storied past here at the Garden and includes many of the earliest Garden accessions. In fact, the Rhododendron collection…
Dear Garden Family, There has been a major change in the administration of the Garden; namely, as of October 16, Eric Siegel has moved from the Garden to work on special projects for the UC Berkeley Campus and I have been asked to return as Interim Director through the remainder of the current academic year…
Vanessa Handley, Director of Collections & Research The last few months have been a flurry of activity at UCBG, both at the Garden and in the field. In the later realm, I recently had an exciting opportunity to join biologist Héctor Gómez-Domínguez for field work in Chiapas, Mexico. Héctor is not only a gifted botanist…
Justin R. Cannon, Guest Writer My fiancé Max and I are members of the UC Botanical Garden and find it to be a truly magical place. It’s one of our favorite places in the world and we visit at least weekly. Our latest visit to the garden led to an unforgettable adventure. Strolling through the…
Delanie Lowe, Marketing & Communications Specialist Not one, but two plants of the world’s largest bromeliad species, Puya raimondii (Queen of the Andes), are flowering here at the UC Botanical Garden. In the wild, this rare plant species is found at about 12,000 ft in the Andes Mountains of Peru and Bolivia and doesn’t flower…
Clare Al-Witri, Horticulturist The summer that I began working in the Garden’s Australasian collection, the Dianella we grow had an exceptional flowering and fruiting year. Dianella fruit at its most eye-catching is a deep, clear blue-purple. That summer there were cascades of berries suspended on wiry black stems throughout the collection. I became fixated with…
Meghan Ray, Horticulturist The University of California Botanical Garden was established on the Berkeley campus in 1890. It is approaching its hundredth anniversary in the Strawberry Canyon location where the garden was relocated in the mid-1920’s. As you can image, there have been a great many changes to the landscape over the course of nearly…
Corina Rieder, Horticulturist It’s been a long seven years since Maladora the titan arum last bloomed and, boy, was I was taken by surprise this week. My observations of the emerging bud during these last few weeks pointed towards a new leaf – the new shoot was quite slim until recently when it fattened up…
Anthony Garza, Supervisor of Horticulture & Grounds The Mexican/Central American Collection has long been one of my favorite areas of the Garden. It contains some of my favorite plants (read agave family), and being one of the farthest flung and quietest areas in the Garden, it can really feel like you’re out in the wilds…
Jason Bonham, Horticulturist The Garden’s 34 acres is not only a phenomenal collection of plants, but also a rich habitat for amphibians, birds, reptiles and mammals. As a horticulturist for the Garden I have been able to observe some amazing creatures like the California newt (Taricha torosa). In the winter they breed in the Japanese…