Here's a pretty Wife of Bath

This pretty antique was going strong

A Magnolia that looked like a rose

Snowy Mt. Baldy out the window of the car as we drove up the 57 to Pasadena. I love these rare days when we see the snow from where we are. I can see the snow on the mtns of Big Bear if I go out on the Santa Ana river bed trail ( almost makes up for the nasty winds we get ).

Thanks for the guided tour!

I love hearing about your garden in Italy too. It's interesting to me what your climate is and how you feel about it as you garden. I got a membership for this year and I thought I would try to go once a month and share a very informal year in the gardens there. The camelia Japonicas are just getting underway with some sasanquas still blooming. A few flowering plums are blooming but the majority of them in the classical Chinese garden haven't started yet. They filled up that garden with flowering trees and they are just now becoming fine adolescents.

This is basically my winter - mostly sunny skies, cold air, some rain, a few roses, tangerines and camellias and on lucky days some snow topped mountains to look at in the distance.

I was talking to the volunteer in the rose garden there last week, because I noticed with surprise that finally finally FINALLY they had mulched the rose beds. Previous management did not approve of mulch, I was told by the volunteer.

Also noticed they replaced the 'Mermaid's on that large structure with 'Renae's. While I prefer 'Renae' to 'Mermaid', I wonder how 'Renae' is going to do because it's quite a shaded spot from the large trees to the south and west. Also 'Renae' is not going to achieve the size of 'Mermaid', tho that's probably okay.

The volunteer also said they were mixing floribundas in to the formerly all-Austin bed for more color throughout the year, and also adding bulbs around the edges for pruned-state interest.

Thank you for the pictures Kitty. I haven't been at the Huntington in years and never at pruning time. Interesting that previous management did not approve of mulch. Wouldn't that be Clair Martin, an expert rose man?

Ingrid

No, not Clair. He knows the benefit of mulch and put it down every chance he got (budgetary and permission issues). In many things, Clair did what he was permitted to do. Unfortunately, he had to choose which battles he wished to fight until he apparently gave up. When they had the AARS test beds, Clair put them on drip. The grounds superintendent didn't like drip, so he hacked up the system and Clair had to install rain birds, which the superintendent preferred. One spring, Clair bitterly complained about the superintendent requiring a Cygon drench be used to kill the aphids when there were many, far less toxic methods they were able to employ. The politics were about what you'd expect from an "ivory tower" situation. There is a wonderful joke about body parts arguing which is the most powerful. It boils down to the "sphincter" being the most powerful. No matter how strong, intelligent or visionary you are, when "that" slams shut and the poop backs up, nothing works. You don't have to be strong or smart, just a "sphincter". During the years I volunteered there, the place had several "sphincters". Kim

Wow! Love that picture of Mt. Baldy...you can tell I was born and bred on the East Coast, I'm not used to seeing the more rocky mountains. Even here in the smokies our mountain tops have vegetation :)

Tammy

My partner & I just signed up for our membership at the Huntington and were planning on visiting once a month too. My mother & I are suppose to sign up this week as volunteers for the rose garden. Hope it's smooth and no conflicts like what Clair had! :)

It got the pet name ol' Baldy from early California Miners. When I was small, my dad would always point it out to us. When we could see the snow, we would beg dad to take us up to play.

Good old Mt. Baldy watching over us all these years.

What a sad story about Clair and the "management". I wonder why it's always micromanagement instead, usually by people who are on power trips but don't know much. To his credit the rose gardens were beautiful but obviously at personal cost.

Ingrid

Just reporting what the volunteer said--I wondered who he meant--didn't think it was Claire. He was obviously working on a nothing-budget and without much if any support. Thanks for the details on the politics of that place, Kim. I imagined they are byzantine and cutthroat, and I guess I didn't over imagine.