March Group Shoot – San Diego Botanical Garden

March 13^th - 8:30am

http://www.sdbgarden.org/

The Garden opens at 9:00am, so let’s meet at 8:30am for the group picture prior to heading in. Bring your tripod and your close up lenses and diffusers if you have them, and maybe a squirt bottle to get that “fresh dew” look.

Located 20 minutes north of San Diego in Encinitas, California, San Diego Botanical Garden features over 35 acres of exhibits, including rare bamboo groves, desert gardens, a tropical rainforest, California native plants, Mediterranean climate landscapes, and a subtropical fruit garden. Scenic walks and trails along deep canyons and sunny hillsides allow visitors glimpses of many different horticultural habitats. Look for:

• The Mexican Garden: The Mexican Garden celebrates the botanical and horticultural wealth of Mexico;
• The Undersea Garden: succulents and other plants in a landscape that simulates an undersea coral reef;
• The Seeds of Wonder, an interactive children’s garden;
• Landscape for Fire Safety: a demonstration of fire-safe landscape plants, design and maintenance practices;
• California Gardenscapes: a demonstration of many native California plants in a variety of landscape situations with information on planting, watering and maintenance; and
• That humungous bullfrog that keeps eluding John Wright!

Admission is $12.00 for adults, and $8.00 for seniors, students, and active military. Your kids may enjoy this outing too – bring $6.00 for entry for kids 3-12, while those 2 and under are free. Parking is $2.00.

San Diego Botanical Garden is just 20 minutes north of downtown San Diego in Encinitas, California. It covers approximately 35 acres at 230 Quail Gardens Drive, which runs parallel to Interstate 5 between Encinitas and Leucadia Blvds.

Lunch will be at Oggi’s Pizza at 11:30am. Address is 305 Encinitas Boulevard in Encinitas – 760.944.8170.

It's getting close to that time of year again, when for a very short time in early Spring the local deserts bloom with wildflowers.  Desert USA has a pretty good set of web pages with wildflower reports for most of the desert areas.  The page for Anza Borrego is here.

Update 3/7/10: I was out there today, it was quite wet and grey all day, but still fun.  There are a lot of desert lily this year, they look pretty good right now.  That area to the north of Henderson Canyon Road is covered in green leafy Saharan Mustard. When that stuff pops it should be a sea of yellow. (Yes, I know it's a non-native "invasive" species and all that, but I like the color.)  There are also some nice displays of lupine at the east end of Henderson Canyon Road. I'm told that the dunes out towards the dump will likely be covered in sand verbena pretty soon, but I don't know the exact spot.  Depending on when the sun comes back out, next weekend might be really nice out there.

Update 3/1/10:  We went out to Anza Borrego on Sunday, and found quite a few flowers. The bloom is still not at its peak, but there is a lot to see.  That area on the north side of Henderson Canyon Road is really green right now; hard to say, but maybe in a week it will be covered in colors, perhaps sooner depending on sun.  We found quite a variety of blooms both along Henderson Canyon and in the sandy washes south of S-22 (the Borrego-Salton Seaway) around Arroyo Salado.

Update 3/4/10:  Here is a link to an article in todays SD Union about the wildflowers, mostly Anza Borrego but mentions some other areas as well.

The rangers at the Ocotillo Wells Off Highway Vehicle Area also told us that they had quite a nice bloom going over there, and that there were interpretive programs being set up at their main ranger station.

Took this today (3/7) at 17 Palms Oasis.  Be sure to check out Rae's shots further down in this thread.