The amazing beauty intrinsic to nature was highlighted this weekend at the San Diego Cactus and Succulent Show and Sale in Balboa Park.
I moseyed down the aisles in Room 101 of the Casa del Prado, gazing at prize-winning specimens of very different cacti and succulents.
Some of the entries had flowers. Some were tiny, like gems. Many of the plants tickled the eye with perfect symmetry or an interesting geometric shape. Others appeared oddly misshapen.
If you missed this year’s summer show, make sure to check it out next year. Until then, enjoy a few photographs…
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The San Diego Cactus and Succulent Society’s big annual Summer Show and Sale takes place this weekend!
Vendors and members of the society were setting up at the Casa del Prado in Balboa Park this afternoon. In addition to cacti and succulents, visitors this Saturday and Sunday can check out gardening information, art, crafts, and perhaps purchase something beautiful for their home!
I happened to be walking through the Casa del Prado’s outdoor courtyard when I saw the long tables full of potted plants that will be for sale. I then peeked into Room 101 where the show will take place.
To see the San Diego Cactus and Succulent Society’s web page concerning their 2024 Summer Show and Sale, click here!
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
The construction fences are down! The San Diego Natural History Museum’s new outdoor native garden has opened, and there’s a trail that follows the newly planted greenery around the museum!
Native plants, flowers and trees now abound, but since the garden is just getting started, most plants are small and the landscape appears a bit bare. Once everything is grown, the garden should be much more beautiful!
Right now there’s plastic fencing along the pathway, protecting the new plantings from careless visitors and dogs. It appears to be temporary.
Informative signs can be read along the looping trail, and smaller signs indicate the native species planted nearby. There’s a boulder-filled sitting area and short side trail, too, on the museum’s north side–you know, the side with the enormous Moreton Bay Fig.
The “Nat’s Nature Trail” features various themed segments. As you walk around the Natural History Museum building, you encounter Pollinator Paradise, Spiny Sidewalk, Boulder Garden, Discovery Path, Wildlife Walkway, First People’s Garden, and Container Corner.
What a great addition to an already amazing Balboa Park!
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
Fantastic examples of bonsai could be viewed by the public this weekend in Balboa Park. The San Diego Bonsai Club hosted their Spring Show and Sale in Casa del Prado’s Room 101.
A series of long, narrow tables appeared to be lined with tiny, ancient, wind-blown trees. It’s uncanny how the beautiful art of bonsai can trick and fascinate the eye.
These bonsai were carefully sculpted by members of the club. The show and sale also featured supplies like pots, soil and starter trees, and expert bonsai technique demonstrations.
Check out these photos. I felt like I was walking beside a miniature forest!
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
An inspirational art exhibit is now on display at the Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park. Beautiful paintings remind us that rebirth can come unexpectedly after a period of destruction.
Boatloads of Mizuaoi are works by artist Shintaro Araki, who is a member of the Mizuaoi Project.
As the Japanese Friendship Garden’s website explains:
The Mizuaoi Project, initiated by a group of artists receiving a seed found in Fukushima from an artist, Shigenobu Yoshida, celebrates the “rebirth” of the nearly extinct Mizuaoi plant…a genus of flowering plants…considered a weed species in Japan…exterminated so as not to corrupt rice cultivation.
Thought to have been eradicated throughout most the country, the Mizuaoi lay dormant until the Great East Japan Earthquake, on March 11, 2011, and tsunami, brought the Mizuaoi seed back to life and sparked a poetic Movement, spreading the Mizuaoi image as a symbol of hope, and regeneration throughout Japanese society.
Members of the Mizuaoi Project cultivate the plants in pots, metaphorically referred to as “Boats” and distribute their boats nationwide…
These individual works by Shintaro Araki do indeed resemble boats filled with robust green life. Their simplicity and beauty float before our eyes, flower in the mind. The art expresses hope. It reminds us of nature’s inherent power to renew living things.
The exhibition can be viewed in the garden’s Exhibit Hall through April 28, 2024.
Here are just a few of the beautiful pieces on display…
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
A new tree-filled, park-like space is coming to San Diego’s waterfront!
The Manchester Pacific Gateway project’s 1.9 acre plaza will be located west of the One Broadway Hotel, which is now in the early stages of construction. The sunny outdoor plaza will be open to the public, just across Harbor Drive from Broadway Pier.
A small army of workers was out today planting greenery in the new plaza. When completed, this popular stretch of the North Embarcadero should be even more inviting and beautiful!
The tall building you see in the background of my next photograph is one of five new buildings at the adjacent Research and Development District. I spotted more new public art at RaDD during today’s walk. I’ll be blogging about that shortly!
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
A group of volunteer Garden Stewards were busy in Balboa Park today working in the Casa del Rey Moro Garden!
Garden Stewards were trimming plants, pulling weeds, sweeping away debris, and contributing to the celebrated beauty of this elegant Moorish garden behind the House of Hospitality.
When you walk through Balboa Park, especially on a weekend, there’s a good chance you’ll see these volunteers working in one or more of the park’s eighteen gardens. Their efforts supplement work performed by City of San Diego Parks and Recreation Department employees.
Now that Spring is here, expect to see happy Garden Stewards working their magic among many colorful flowers! Say hello! They like that!
Do you love sunshine, plants and flowers? Do you live in San Diego? Would you like to become a Garden Steward and magnify the beauty of our city? Check out this web page to learn more!
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
Three years ago I posted a blog titled Balboa Park’s hidden Australian Garden. You can read it here.
I’ve learned the San Diego Floral Association has downloadable maps of this large, little-known garden. The two maps show where different species of plants and trees (that were donated by the government of Australia for the United States Bicentennial) are planted.
Click here for a .pdf map of the Australian Garden’s lower area, which stretches along Paseo del Oro in Gold Gulch. There are different species of Acacia, Brachychiton, Eucalyptus, Grevillea, Melaleuca, and many others.
For a map of the upper area, where you can observe more beautiful plants below Presidents Way, click here.
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
Another amazing orchid show is being held this weekend in Balboa Park. The San Diego County Orchid Society hosts the spectacular Orchids in the Park event, and I’m glad I stumbled upon it today!
In addition to displays of stunning, award-winning blooms, the free show allows visitors to purchase orchid plants and listen to gardening experts.
I saw an enthusiastic crowd wandering about Room 101 of the Casa del Prado, where the orchid show and sale takes place. Who doesn’t love beautiful flowers? My camera battery was very low, so I took only a few photos. Thankfully, a few came out okay.
If you love natural beauty, and orchids in particular, you must not miss this show. It continues tomorrow, Sunday, January 28, from 10 am to 4 pm. Signs are posted around Balboa Park. Follow the arrows!
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
Visitors to Balboa Park during the winter might walk past the sunken Zoro Garden without seeing its enduring beauty.
On a cold, gray day late in the year, fallen leaves, puddles and a big patch of bare dirt might seem the main attraction of this stone grotto garden. But those who stroll down any of the winding pathways will discover small flowers, surprising color, and perhaps gleaming raindrops on bright green leaves.
Please enjoy these photographs. I took them today on a New Year’s Eve walk through Balboa Park. It had been drizzling earlier in the day.
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
Cool San Diego Sights! 