Strawberry Snowball Tree
Dombeya cacuminum
(DOM-bee-yuh)
Yesterday we had a quick trip to Quail Botanical Gardens in Encinitas, California. It was about 20 minutes from the house. I really didn’t think it would be much as I have always thought of Encinitas as a kind of dry and sleepy suburb of San Diego (note there is no factual basis in that assumption). The garden is located about 1.5 miles off of I-5 and is easy to get to. The admission is $10 and there is a $1 parking fee. That parking fee is quite reasonable considering the NYBG charges $12 for parking.
The garden exceeded my expectations in every way. The design, plant collection and maintenance were all great. I will be going back a couple of times while I am here. This tree is a new one for me and it was beautiful. I think that the flowering tree season hasn’t really started here as some of the other large trees had just started to bud.
The Strawberry Snowball Tree grows to about 50 feet and the leaves are very maple like. The color of the flowers and the green leaves presented a beautiful picture. The flowers were about 20 feet above the ground and this is all I could manage shooting straight up at them.
3 comments:
Hi Chris,
A beautiful and informative bunch of photos, as usual. I've never been to the parks you describe and intend to visit them if possible in the future. The orchid is particularly lovely.
Haven't been to Quail Gardens in a long time and it's only about 20 minutes from us too. And isn't our weather gorgeous???
What a beautiful blog! Great shots and info!
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