This is the first
Garden Conservancy sponsored garden. It is of especial interest to me
and gardeners of Austin because there are many environmental similarities
to Austin Texas. It freezes in the 20s, it is very hot in the summer, and
it is at a very low elevation (so there are no sea breezes to temper the extreme
heat or cold.If you have an interest in aloes, dudleya, aeoneum, agaves, hechtia,
dyckia really anything in the bromeliaceae, agavaceae then this is your garden.
I recommend that they plant more acacias and legumes for shade over the aloes
and were ever there is shade cloth, as i recall UC
Davis Arboretum has an incredible collection of acacias. By planting more
of these desert trees they could get rid of the shade cloth and recent research
suggests that legumes as a host plant help many cactus and succulents withstand
colder weather for longer.
This garden really has many specimen plants growing in a climate that you
really won't see anywhere else in one place like this. I suspect in the future
the work they are doing on hybridizing aloes that are hardy will become more
public and really be a benefit to gardeners in Texas.
More later