BCSS Macclesfield & East Cheshire Branch

Newsletter December 2005 - California, here I come

“You’ve never been to America”, said my sister-in-law last Christmas, “how about coming with us to California next August?”. So 2005 became “California, here I come” year. After Easter detailed planning began – “We’ll go straight after the Manchester test match. Is there anywhere you’d especially like to visit?” asked my brother. “Huntington Botanical Gardens” I said. “Never heard of it, where is it?” But, in late August, all three of us went for a day.

Getting there involved a detour and staying at a nearby Pasadena motel. Already the trip had been eventful - on the way from San Francisco through Yosemite National Park I almost trod (wearing sandals!) on a black and yellow snake in long grass near our motel, and at a visitor centre in Death Valley encountered a scorpion in a book I picked from a shelf. My brother reckons I still have “pretty good reflexes”!

Back in 1919 Henry Huntington, almost seventy, was a Californian billionaire with dollars rolling in daily from railways, water and power, plus real estate around Los Angeles and southern California. What to do with it? He founded a trust to pursue his cultural interests in art, books and plants. His gallery isn’t huge but its contents are breathtaking. With bulging cheque books his agents got busy in Britain (and France). Large Constables, Turners and Gainsboroughs adorn the walls. Gainsborough’s “The Blue Boy” resides here. Then there’s the library. His agents assembled a world class collection of very early editions of Shakespeare’s works, a manuscript edition of Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales”, a Gutenberg Bible on vellum, rare books by, for instance, Isaac Newton, plus a huge folio edition of Audubon’s “Birds of America”, and countless other rarities. Then there’s the acres of botanical gardens : subtropical, jungle, palm, rose, and Japanese (better than Tatton’s I have to admit), and the desert(cactus) gardens. A “Desert Conservatory” housing thousands of cacti and succulents hides behind a high fence so viewing is solely from within. Is every succulent of the Americas here?

We arrived at Paradise(!) at 10.30am, paid our $15 admission fees, and went in. I led straight to the large cactus garden. What can one say about dozens of eighty year old Echinocactus grusonii growing and flowering outdoors? About colossal Cereus and tall Cleistocactus columns and huge Opuntias of so many species? About Euphorbias like trees? Superb mature Agave victoria-reginae. And thousands of smaller plants scattered around. All clearly labelled, too. A notice board by its fence announced the adjacent Desert Conservatory was open only 2pm-4pm so while I gawped around muttering “unbelievable”, “incredible” etc, the others, honestly disinterested, went off to explore the jungle and Japanese gardens instead. After a Huntington cafe lunch we again divided : of course I was at the Conservatory by PM. Peering through the keyhole into Cactus Heaven, and seeing beautiful Mammillarias, Matucanas, Gymnocalyciums, and so on. BUT come 2.10pm the door was still locked and no-one else was waiting to view. 2.15pm, 2.20pm..... ..I rushed into the desert garden looking for a gardener – “When will it open?”. Answer : “Don’t know”. I went to the information centre : “Maybe they’re doing work on the plants in there”. Back to the Conservatory - still locked. Disconsolate, I joined the others in the Art Gallery which was delightful but - a dash back to the Conservatory at 3.30pm. No joy! On the way out 4.15pm the gateman shrugged “We’re short-staffed”. Before leaving I went to sign the visitors book only to find that my brother, sensing my disappointment, had already written a sharp comment. Nevertheless I added mine! We left our protests and addresses but have heard nothing. I see the Curator is at the 2006 BCSS convention - now there’s temptation......

David Poole