Ruth Bancroft Garden

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Ruth Bancroft Garden

The Ruth Bancroft Garden is a 2.5 acre (10,000 m²) public dry garden containing more than 2,000 cactus, succulents, trees, and shrubs native to Africa, Australia, California, Chile, and Mexico. It is located at 1552 Bancroft Road in Walnut Creek, California, USA.

History

The Garden began in the early 1950s as a private collection of potted plants within Bancroft Farm, a 400-acre (1.6 km²) property bought by publisher Hubert Howe Bancroft (grandfather of Ruth's husband Philip) in the 1880s as an orchard for pears and walnuts. In the 1950s, Ruth Bancroft brought home a single succulent, an Aeonium grown by Ms. Glenn Davidson. By 1972, the collection had outgrown its location and was moved to its current site, then an orchard of dying walnut trees.

In 1989, it became the first garden in the United States to be preserved by The Garden Conservancy, and has been open to the public since 1992. Today the Garden is an outstanding landscape of xerophytes (dry-growing plants). It is open to the public for an admission fee.

Collection

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A collection of succulents

Garden collections include: Aeoniums; Aloes, agavaceae-Agaves; Brachychiton trees including Brachychiton rupestris; Brahea palms including Brahea armata; Bromeliaceae-Bromeliads including Dyckias, Hechtias, and Puyas (including Puya chilensis); Butia palms; Dasylirions including Dasylirion longissimum and Dasylirion wheeleri; Dudleyas, Echeverias; Echinocacti; Furcraeas including Furcraea cabuya; Hesperaloes including Hesperaloe parviflora; Hesperoyuccas including Hesperoyucca whipplei; Jubaea chilenensis palms; Nolinas; Xanthorrhoeas including Xanthorrhoea preissii; and Yuccas including Yucca filamentosa, Yucca gloriosa, and Yucca rostrata.

References and external links

• Official Ruth Bancroft Garden website
• The Garden Conservancy

See also

• Gardens in California
• List of botanical gardens in the United States