The Ruth Bancroft Garden is a public dry garden established by

Ruth Bancroft Ruth Bancroft ( Petersson; September 2, 1908 – November 26, 2017) was the creator of the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek, California. A native of the Bay Area, Bancroft began the xeric garden in the 1950s on land originally purchased b ...

. It contains more than 2,000

cactus A cactus (, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae, a family comprising about 127 genera with some 1750 known species of the order Caryophyllales. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, from the Ancient Gre ...

, succulents, trees, and shrubs native to

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...

, and Australia. It is located at 1552 Bancroft Road in

Walnut Creek, California Walnut Creek is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, about east of the city of Oakland. With a total population of 70,127 per the 2020 census, Walnut Creek s ...

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territor ...

History

The Garden began in the early 1950s as Ruth Bancroft's private collection of potted plants within Bancroft Farm, a property bought by publisher

Hubert Howe Bancroft Hubert Howe Bancroft (May 5, 1832 – March 2, 1918) was an American historian and ethnologist who wrote, published and collected works concerning the western United States, Texas, California, Alaska, Mexico, Central America and British ...

(grandfather of Ruth's husband Philip) in the 1880s as an

orchard An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit- or nut-producing trees which are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of la ...

for pears and walnuts.Relocation Walnut Creek (retrieved 29 October 2010)
/ref> In the 1950s, Bancroft brought home a single succulent, an

Aeonium ''Aeonium'', the tree houseleeks, is a genus of about 35 species of succulent, subtropical plants of the family Crassulaceae. Many species are popular in horticulture. The genus name comes from the ancient Greek αἰώνιος / aiōnios (agele ...

grown by plant breeder Glenn Davidson. By 1972, the collection was moved to its current site, when the orchard was cut down and the land was rezoned. 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 A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...

xerophytes A xerophyte (from Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assu ...

(dry-growing plants). It is open to the public for an admission fee of $810.

Collection

Garden collections include the following plants: *

s * Aloes *

Agavoideae Agavoideae is a subfamily of monocot flowering plants in the family Asparagaceae, order Asparagales. It has previously been treated as a separate family, Agavaceae. The group includes many well-known desert and dry-zone types, such as the agave ...

Brachychiton ''Brachychiton'' (kurrajong, bottletree) is a genus of 31 species of trees and large shrubs, native to Australia (the centre of diversity, with 30 species), and New Guinea (one species). Fossils from New South Wales and New Zealand are estimat ...

trees ''including Brachychiton rupestris'' *

Brahea ''Brahea'' is a genus of palms in the family Arecaceae. They are commonly referred to as hesper palms and are endemic to Mexico and Central America.Govaerts, R. & Dransfield, J. (2005). World Checklist of Palms: 1-223. The Board of Trustees of th ...

palms including ''

Brahea armata ''Brahea armata'', commonly known as Mexican blue palm or blue hesper palm, is a large evergreen tree of the palm family Arecaceae, endemic to Baja California, Mexico. It is widely planted as an ornamental. Description It grows to a height of ...

'' * Bromeliaceae-Bromeliads including

Dyckia ''Dyckia'' is a genus of plants in the family Bromeliaceae, subfamily Pitcairnioideae. The genus is named after the Prussian botanist, botanical artist and horticulturist The Prince and Earl of Salm Reifferscheid-Dyck (1773–1861). Dyckias, w ...

Hechtia ''Hechtia'' is a genus of plants in the family Bromeliaceae, and is the sole genus of the subfamily Hechtioideae, containing 75 species. Its species are native to Mexico, Central America, and Texas. The genus is named for Julius Gottfried Conrad ...

s, and

Puya Puya may refer to: * ''Puya'' (plant), in the family Bromeliaceae * Puya (river), in Russia * Puya, a variety of Guajillo chili * ''Puya'' (Meitei texts), traditional or mythological texts of the Meetei people * ''Culoepuya The ''culo'e puya'' dr ...

s ''(including

Puya chilensis ''Puya chilensis'' is a terrestrial bromeliad originating from the arid hillsides of Chile. Description An evergreen perennial, it forms large, dense rosettes of grey-green, strap-like leaves edged with hooked spines. The green or yellow flowers ...

)'' *

Butia ''Butia'' is a genus of palms in the family Arecaceae, native to the South American countries of Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina. Many species produce edible fruits, which are sometimes used to make alcoholic beverages and other foods. ...

palms *

Dasylirion ''Dasylirion'' is a genus of North American plants in the asparagus family, all native to Mexico, with the ranges of three species also extending into the south-western United States. In the APG III classification system, it is placed in the fa ...

s ''including Dasylirion longissimum and

Dasylirion wheeleri ''Dasylirion wheeleri'' (desert spoon, spoon flower, sotol, or common sotol) is a species of flowering plant in the asparagus family (Asparagaceae), native to arid environments of northern Mexico and the southwestern United States. Description ...

'' *

Dudleya ''Dudleya'', commonly known as liveforevers (Spanish: ''siemprevivas'') is a genus of succulent plants in the stonecrop family, Crassulaceae, consisting of about 68 taxa in southwestern North America and Guadalupe Island. The species come in m ...

s *

Echeveria ''Echeveria'' is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Crassulaceae, native to semi-desert areas of Central America, Mexico and northwestern South America. Description Plants may be evergreen or deciduous. Flowers on short stalks (cym ...

s * Echinocacti *

Furcraea ''Furcraea'' is a genus of succulent plants belonging to the family Asparagaceae, native to tropical regions of Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America and northern South America. Some species are also naturalized in parts of Africa, the United S ...

s ''including

Furcraea cabuya ''Furcraea cabuya'' is a species of plant in the family Asparagaceae that is native to South America. The fibres in its leaves, known as fique Fique is a natural fibre that grows in the leaves of plants in the genus '' Furcraea''. Common name ...

'' *

Hesperaloe ''Hesperaloe'' (false yucca) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Agavoideae. It contains perennial yucca-like plants with long, narrow leaves produced in a basal rosette and flowers borne on long panicles or race ...

s ''including Hesperaloe parviflora'' *

Hesperoyucca ''Hesperoyucca'' is a small genus of two recognized species of flowering plants closely related to, and recently split from, ''Yucca'', which is in the century plant subfamily within the asparagus family. Description ''Hesperoyucca'' is distin ...

s ''including

Hesperoyucca whipplei ''Hesperoyucca whipplei'' (syn. ''Yucca whipplei''), the chaparral yucca, our Lord's candle, Spanish bayonet, Quixote yucca or foothill yucca, is a species of flowering plant closely related to, and formerly usually included in, the genus '' Yuc ...

'' * Jubaea chilenensis palms *

Nolina ''Nolina'' is a genus of tropical xerophytic flowering plants, with the principal distribution being in Mexico and extending into the southern United States. They are large, dioecious plants. Some botanists have included the genus ''Beaucarnea ...

Xanthorrhoea ''Xanthorrhoea'' () is a genus of about 30 species of flowering plants endemic to Australia. Species are known by the name grass tree. Description All are perennials and have a secondary thickening meristem in the stem. Many, but not all, ...

s ''including Xanthorrhoea preissii'' *

Yucca ''Yucca'' is a genus of perennial shrubs and trees in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Agavoideae. Its 40–50 species are notable for their rosettes of evergreen, tough, sword-shaped leaves and large terminal panicles of white or whitish ...

s ''including

Yucca filamentosa ''Yucca filamentosa'', Adam’s needle and thread, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae native to the southeastern United States. Growing to tall, it is an evergreen shrub valued in horticulture. Description Usually trunk ...

Yucca gloriosa ''Yucca gloriosa'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae, native to the southeastern United States. Growing to , it is an evergreen shrub. It is widely cultivated as an ornamental for its architectural qualities, and has repo ...

, and

Yucca rostrata ''Yucca rostrata'' also called beaked yucca, is a tree-like plant belonging to the genus ''Yucca''. The species is native to Texas, and the Chihuahua (state), Chihuahua and Coahuila regions of Mexico. This species of ''Yucca'' occurs in areas th ...

References and external links

History

Collection

References and external links

See also