Filoli

Last week I took a trip out to San Franciso for a conference. I went a few days early to relax a bit and spend time with the family. My mother has been whining that none of her children have been visiting her lately, especially me, since I'm the only one who lives out of the area. She wanted to know what I wanted to do while I was there. Having no idea what would be appropriate for my elderly parents, and my bored-of-plants BF, the first thing that came to mind was Filoli. It would satisfy my plant craving, and would be beautiful even for those not supremely plant-oriented, without a huge amount of walking. If you don't know about Filoli, check out their website Filoli.org It's basically a very large home formerly owned by a couple of very wealthy families in an area south of San Francisco (read: VERY expensive real estate). The house was built for $500,000 but of course now it would be worth quite a few million and the land at least in the double digit millions. Of course it is priceless for the beautiful gardens.

The problem with travel, especially to places like this, is that I want to grow everything I see. It's a good education to see how differently people design, but I usually come home with a few little pots of things that won't necessarily do well in my climate. This time I didn't. Sigh.

As for the rest of the trip, I'm sure you don't want to hear about my endless hours in the bowels of the Nikko Hotel, listening to speakers and suffering simultaneously from the flu.

Front of House, with my parents and Will


Back of House


Knot Garden


Mini Knot Garden (don't you want to make one?)


The Yew Walk (Irish Yews - yes, each was imported from Ireland)