Tales of Trips & Tours by Patty Gaffney … the Botanical Building in Balboa Park
On a beautiful day in October, we took an easy drive to the Balboa Park in San Diego to explore a little further afield for our first Trips & Tours (T&T) of the garden club year. Our highlight destination was the newly renovated, historic Botanical Building in Balboa Park. Built for the 1915-16 Exposition, along with the adjacent Lily Pond and Lagoon, the historic building is one of the largest lath structures in the world. The Botanical Building plantings include more than 2,100 permanent plants, featuring collections of cycads, ferns, orchids, other tropical plants, and palms including bromeliads enthusiastically putting forth long, eye-catching bloom spikes.
After more than a century of weather and wear, the historic Botanical Building has been carefully revitalized, bringing it back to its 1915 grandeur while incorporating cutting-edge updates. According to the Forever Balboa Park website, the once deteriorating structure, with its graceful arcades, Palladian windows, and long-missing romantic pergola, now stands proudly, enhanced with modern features. For the first time in its history, the building includes interior misters, state-of-the-art lighting, and new water features, creating an immersive and dynamic space for visitors.
Down the road, we whisked through the desert garden to bask in the colorful fragrance of the adjacent Inez Grant Parker Memorial Rose Garden. While not the peak of rose blooming season, we still feasted on a stunning display of approximately 1,600 roses, including more than 130 varieties. The display was in theme with the tactile and scented experience that Danielle Dall’Armi Hahn of Rose Story Farm brought to our general meeting. Brand new member Cheryl Garbett shared that her favorite rose is the fragrant hybrid pink tea rose, Gemini, a lovely blend of cream and coral.
This garden is recognized as outstanding by several renowned organizations: Outstanding Rose Garden in the U.S.A. by AllAmerica Rose Selections in 1978; Award of Excellence in 2003 Continued on the next pagefrom the World Federation of Rose Societies, and in 2014, named in the Great Rosarians of the World Hall of Fame.
For a literal feast, we lunched at Artifact in the Mingei museum. Our menu choices ran the gamut from artfully plated plant-based meals to spicy shrimp dumplings and an envyinspiring burger plate. Yum!
We topped off the day with a visit to the family-owned Walter Anderson Nursery where we ogled gigantic mounted Stag horn ferns and a balloon plant milkweed, Gomphocarpus physocarpus. This nursery offered so many options, and our happy purchases included a variety of scented native plants, uniquely shaped succulents plus the fall color of pretty purple salvia, vibrant yellow daisy like flowers and decorative kale. More yum!
The Daytrippers had a lovely, full sensory day, and the T&T duo (Patty Gaffney & Synthia Scofield) looks forward to seeing more of you in the future.
