Berkeley Arboretum Sale trip

Yesterday John and I went to the Berkeley Arboretum sale and silent auction. We got there 15 minutes before the members-only time opened, and the line was already huge. When the gates opened it was mayhem!

We scurried in and picked out some plants (Agave ovatifolia, Aloe speciosa and a Dudleya for me), then looked at the silent aution items. They had several impressive, rare specimens up for bid,a nd it was very hard for me to stop myself bidding on a Yucca "Bright Star" that ended up going for $85 and a Dendroseris litoralis (Cabbage Tree - photo above) that went for $63... but I managed to stay sane.

I felt the prices on most plants were comparable to retail - some a good bit higher though. On the whole I think it's good to support the Arboretum though, so that's OK with me.

After the sale we drove to the CVS Pharmacy in Oakland that John said had some nice plants... and he was right! Oddly labelled, oddly priced, and many of them looking like they'd been dropped on their heads, but I got an Aloe polyphylla and another Dudleya (unnamed). I somewhat regret leaving behind some nice Agaves there though...

Next we went in search of some Aloe "Goliath" plants reputed to be at the Piedmont ACE hardware. They ended up only having the more-desireable (to me) Aloe "Hercules" but it was a 10 gallon plant in poor shape, for $80... so I skipped it (think about it - coulda had a much rarer plant for less at Berkeley Arboretum!).

We went home via Berkeley Horticultural Nursery (grabbed some large pots for the garden) and so ended our plant shopping odyssey. Good times. Second pic shows the middle back bed this morning, looking lovely with all the flowers.