Arboretum Visit

 Way back on Mother's Day I made a journey with my parents out to the UCSC Arboretum to see what was blooming.  They have a great variety of small gardens and plant collections. The succulent/cactus garden had so many eye-catching shapes.  Seeing this picture again reminds me that I want to make a stamp out of this image, there's something about the star, almost spiral shape that gets me.

 This fan shape really made me think of an appliqué pattern.

 The Arboretum has an enormous collection of plants from Australia and New Zealand they are so different than the plants we're used to seeing. So many different structures and forms, it's kind of boggling. I took a lot of detail pictures.

The South African collection has so many varieties of proteas, and I can never choose my favorite.

 I think our favorite plant of the day was this one, a turquoise puya, which had us super curious from very far away down the path. The color looked almost artificial, the glowing turquoise had a painted or dyed coloring to it. But closer up it got even better.

 Here's my mom next to it for size comparison. I think she liked matching the plant with her clothing colors. Yes that's a sweatshirt jacket I made for her a long time ago.

Here's the close-up so you can see the color a bit better. And yes it's on my to-buy list at Annie's.