It's Magnolia Time Again!

The 55-acre San Francisco Botanical Garden in Golden Gate Park is just starting to burst into bloom with a variety of magnolia trees that delight the senses.  Every year at this time, the garden publishes a map so visitors can follow a walking tour through the various "rooms" in the well-laid out garden acreage, on the look-out (or more like "look-up") for the white or pink blooms - some the size of dinner plates. But magnolias are only one of the charms of this plant-fest. A few favorites: the succulent garden, which is ablaze with red-hot pokers, the redwood grove for the cool peace of giant sequoias, and the little ancient plant walk near the north entrance. Entry is free for San Francisco residents; for non-residents, single entry is $6-12. If you're thinking you might like a place to walk and unwind during the workday though, consider membership: individual membership is $70 a year, allowing free entrance any time to both the botanical garden and the park's fabulous Conservatory of Flowers, the oldest building in the park, a Victorian wedding cake filled with exotic orchids and tropical plants - a great place to warm up on a chilly day. 

If greenery is your thing, there's plenty of free plantings around the park, in bloom every season of the year. And it's almost time for the ornate tulip plantings to spring up around the windmills on the west side of the park!

The Roar Heard 'Round the World: San Diego Zoo

The San Diego Zoo grew out of exotic animal exhibitions abandoned after the 1915 Panama-California Exposition,as did neighboring Balboa Park (more about this verdant and multiple-use setting in the next blog).

The temperate, sunny maritime climate of San Diego was well suited to many plants and animals. Besides an extensive collection of birds, reptiles, and mammals, it also maintains its grounds as an arboretum, with a rare plant collection. The botanical collection includes more than 700,000 exotic plants including some rare animal foods: 18 varieties of eucalyptus trees to feed its koalas, and when Chinese pandas were in residence, the zoo grew 40 varieties of bamboo for their dining pleasure.

The San Diego Zoo also operates the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, which displays animals in a more expansive setting than at the zoo. Animals are regularly exchanged between the two locations, as well as between San Diego Zoo and other zoos around the world, usually in accordance with Species Survival Plan recommendations.

Exhibits are often designed around a particular habitat. The same exhibit features many different animals that can be found side-by-side in the wild, along with native plant life. Exhibits range from an African rain forest (featuring gorillas) to the Arctic taiga and tundra in the summertime (featuring polar bears). Some of the largest free-flight aviaries in existence are here and afford an amazing opportunity to view exotic species up close from the many benches and rest areas that dot the walkways. Many exhibits are "natural" with invisible wires and darkened blinds (to view birds), and pools and open-air moats (for large mammals).

The San Diego Zoo has had a number of notable escapees through the years, the most noteworthy of them is Ken Allen, a Bornean orangutan who came to be known as "the hairy Houdini," for his many escapes (undoubtedly related to Richard Parker, the stowaway tiger in Yann Martel's fabulous book "Life of Pi" (and the equally wonderful movie of the same name).