Magical Morocco, a country where magnificent landscapes unfold. Cities rich with history and culture beckon travelers, while expats from the far corners are lured to put down roots. And in Marrakech… garden lovers discover the world renowned Jardin Majorelle.

Majorelle Garden Main Building   © Alice Joyce

Now under the auspices of Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent, the main building houses an exquisite collection of Berber art and artifacts.

Restored in 1980 by Saint Laurent and Bergé, the garden’s lush plantings and visually stunning layout and structures are deserving of a lengthy visit, while the Berber Museum is filled with entrancing displays.

Jardin Majorelle Pavilion © Alice Joyce

The setting boasts a panoply of color used to full effect, where a blending of Islamic and Art Deco architecture and elements arise.

Jardin Majorelle Central Pool & Fountain © Alice Joyce

Bamboo groves, countless species of mature cacti and arrays of rare euphorbias are among the treasure trove of flora.

Majorelle Yellow Planter ..  Play of Shadows © Alice Joyce

Jardin Majorelle … Tiled Steps © Alice Joyce

When the Garden Bloggers came to town,

they visited a trove of the Bay Area’s great gardens, all lined up in a stellar itinerary that included Filoli to the iconic landscape of the Ruth Bancroft Garden and The Wave Garden,

Wave Garden Vista View © Alice Joyce

A few more special settings have been highlighted here on Alice’s Garden Travel Buzz. You may want to include them in your itinerary when traveling to the City By The Bay!

Thomas Church-designed pocket park ~ one of San Francisco’s Secret Gardens … Fay Park

Fay Park – Thomas Church Design Photo © Alice Joyce

Another must-see: the city’s beautiful community effort mosaic work ~ the Tiled Steps … 

San Francisco Tiled Steps © Alice Joyce

Perhaps if you’re reading this and you’ve recently seen Andy Goldsworthy’s Spire in the Presidio …

Andy Goldsworthy The Spire  © Alice Joyce

you might leave a comment to tell me how it’s holding up.

That’s all for now.

  The Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park: Click Below….

to read my 2004 Garden Walks column, when the Conservatory of Flowers celebrated its 125th birthday!

Wave Garden Bay View

Wave Garden © Alice Joyce

Wave Garden Sculpture Concrete Detail  © Alice Joyce

Species from all 5 Mediterranean regions–from California to Mexico and South Africa, Europe to Australia–thrive in the waterside microclimate of Point Richmond, California, where succulent plants serve as stunning accents.

Wave Garden Vista © Alice Joyce

Garden designer Kellee Adams created a plant-scape that pivots upon “the goal of a garden with no trees.” And so, ground covering Sedum ‘Angelina adds golden tones alongside the walkways, with the brilliant rosettes of Aeonium ‘Sunburst’ a standout amid rush-like restios. Fleshy, colorfully splashed, spiky leaves of Mangave ‘Macho Mocha,’ an Agave hybrid is representative of the Wave Garden’s trove of eye-catching specimens.

Wave Garden Ironwork

During my visit to the garden, the variegated bracts of Leucadendron salignum present a glowing display, to decorate planting beds and play off the terra-cotta hue of the garden’s curving walls, staircases, and intimate patios.

Amador added sculptural texture by hand, as in an element that suggests waves. Rounding a bend, the expressive lines of hand-forged ironwork railings add a unifying, artful effect to the landscape.

The Wave Garden is open daily, year-round, 8am to 6 pm — 615 Western Drive, Point Richmond.

  

Wave Garden Stairway

Wave Garden Sculpture © Alice Joyce

Fay Park Gazebo Cotoneaster lacteus © Alice Joyce

Walk down toward North Beach, just beyond the city’s ‘crooked’ landmark street – where Lombard twists & turns to the delight of photo-snapping tourists – and you’ll find Fay Park tucked away at Leavenworth and Chestnut Streets, adjacent to a spacious Edwardian home on the corner. Mrs. Mary Fay Berrigan bequeathed this historic property — the house and its rare attached garden, to the City of San Francisco.

Renowned American landscape architect, Thomas Church designed the garden for Mrs. Berrigan in 1957. A San Francisco resident, Church lived nearby for more than 4 decades, until he passed away in 1978. Fay Park is now thought to be the only residential garden designed by Thomas Dolliver Church that is open to the public. (I invite readers to contact me if they know of any other Church garden that may have a similar history.)

Fay Park Gazebo © Alice Joyce

The park’s twin gazebos represent a design element closely associated with Church’s landscape projects.

Fay Park – Thomas Church Design   © Alice Joyce

From the park’s Russian Hill locale, you can look beyond to take in views of the San Francisco Bay.

Opened to the public in 2006, the park has been restored by city’s Parks and Recreation Department, and is now ADA accessible. The Friends of Fay Park include volunteers who work with the city to lavish care on the rose beds, lawns and topiary; reflected in the meticulous maintenance of this gem of a space.

The berries of mature cotoneasters provide a colorful winter backdrop at the perimeter of the upper terrace.

To learn about Church’s work, read Marc Treib’s book: Thomas Church, Landscape Architect: Designing A Modern California Landscape

The park’s harmonious layout creates a peaceful oasis, where the hardscape allies with the living structure of greenery – clipped boxwood outlining planting beds and postage-stamp size lawns. The active linear forms of deciduous trees and roses serve to play off the simple yet eye-catching white gazebos, balustrade, and stair railing.

The Upper Terrace Walkway: Stairs lead to the lower level and a gateway to the street.

Terraced Rose Beds .. A Winter View

Note: As of March 2019, the San Francisco Rec & Parks Web Site lists open hours as 5am – Midnight

For More Info visit: https://sfrecpark.org/destination/fay-park/

Below: Streetside view of the fence and gate; alongside tidy rose beds, lower lawn with sun dial, and bench.

Fay Park Terraced Rose Beds Winter  © Alice Joyce

La Cocina que Canta! ~ The Kitchen That Sings

Rancho La Puerta La Cocina Gardens  © Alice Joyce

Cooking School &  Culinary Center – Rancho La Puerta

The lush six-acre kitchen gardens of Tres Estrellas are located a bit north of the Rancho’s main landscape.

Rancho La Puerta La Cocina Que Canta © Alice Joyce

Encompassing 3,000 acres overall, the Rancho property takes in a 2,000-acre parcel set aside by the Szekely as a permanent nature preserve.

Equally impressive:  The gardens have been farmed organically since 1940, yielding delectable produce for the Rancho’s Mediterranean-style meals & for ingredients used at the cooking school. Below: Set within the pavement, a circular design combines pebble paving & wooly thyme, releasing its lovely scent with each footstep.

Rancho La Puerta – Wooly thyme Paving La Cocina © Alice Joyce

In the entryway courtyard leading to the kitchen, bougainvillea scrambles up the red brick wall, while the rich fragrance of Brugmansia ‘Charles Grimaldi’ is most potent at the end of the day.

© Alice Joyce

Edible flowers garnish many dishes to add flavor and color, like the delicious blooms of  broccoli rabe – aka Broccoli Raap or Rapini.

Head Gardener Salvador Tinajero © Alice Joyce

Head Gardener Salvador Tinajero cares for the gardens, and assists students in harvesting herbs and vegetables to be added to the school’s mouth-watering recipes.

The gardens thrive in a valley nestled in the foothills of Mount Kuchumaa .. a sacred site for Native Americans.

Rancho La Puerta La Cocina Que Canta Culinary Gardens © Alice Joyce

Echinopsis hybrid

After her husband, Philip, had phased out his family’s extensive walnut orchards, Mrs. Bancroft began in 1972 to plant her dry garden, containing a realm of plant life that characteristically requires limited water to thrive.

Bancroft Garden Photos ~ Courtesy Brian Kemble

Mrs. Bancroft developed a keen eye for form and structure as an architectural student in college. Such skills served her well in the garden’s early years, as she sited important palm trees and other arboreal specimens and shrubs.

After being ushered through the garden’s folly, you encounter the intriguing rosette forms of aloes, detecting great variety and scope in plants set off by spotted patterns and menacing pink teeth. Among the strange shapes and dramatic textures are tree-like aloes emblematic of the garden’s maturity.

View with Dasylirions in flower

All sorts of blooms materialize year-round in the garden. In spring and summer yuccas produce a host of towering, cream-colored flowering stalks, while the bizarre attributes of cactus plants indigenous to America are ornamented by pretty flowers followed by plentiful fruits. Aloes are garden curator Brian Kemble’s area of expertise. Among new hybrids developed by Kemble are plants producing flowers over a long period; with clouds of orange blooms creating a brilliant spectacle.

Bristly rotound cacti, yuccas with fibrous sharp-tipped, lance-like leaves, spiny agaves and escheverias with fleshy foliage assume their positions in mounded beds like a sculptural installation composed of living plant material.

Some years ago, I walked the paths guided by Mrs. Bancroft, and found that the assertive plant shapes enhance the garden’s organic layout. Mrs. Bancroft pointed out an area of slightly higher ground with an enticing planting of cacti, where she believed it to be a little warmer than the rest of the garden. Some cactus plants exhibit vivid red spines, while Eucalypts make alluring compatriots for the garden’s vast range of succulents.

Aloe folly – Courtesy Brian Kemble

Dodging raindrops, we entered a tunnel-like cover sheltering countless varieties of echeverias and gasterias: The wide cover built so that people could walk through and enjoy the plants in winter. I gazed down upon a topography composed of hairy-textured to felted to smooth and sleek leaves revealing a rosy pink glow. Huddled en masse, the gleaming flora boasted a scintillating palette of glaucous pale gray to olive green and blushed mauve, with red and violet tinges.

Mrs. Bancroft’s design artistry and gardening prowess as creator of this iconic landscape inspired the founding of The Garden Conservancy in 1989. Having set its sights on preserving our country’s horticultural legacy, the Conservancy championed Mrs.Bancroft’s 3-acre garden, selecting it as the first to be listed on the organization’s register.