Miscellaneous: Why It's Called The Golden Gate

Driving north from San Francisco yesterday I had an opportunity to gaze at the waters between San Francisco and the Marin Headlands, just before sunset. I imagined this place was given the name "Golden Gate" because San Francisco was the gateway to the gold fields during the 19th century California Gold Rush, but I had a simultaneous feeling the name may have preceded gold fever--that this view of the straits bathed in golden light was the source of the name.

Naturally, I looked it up. According to the website of the Golden Gate Bridge Highway & Transportation District, it was Captain John C. Fremont who gave the strait its name, the name we now associate more closely with the bridge across the strait, but he is said to have been inspired not by the view at sunset (or yet-to-be-discovered gold), but by the potential for trade with the East that San Francisco's harbor seemed to represent. He is quoted in 1846 calling the strait "a golden gate to trade with the Orient." According to the same source, the name first appeared in print "in Fremont's Geographical Memoir, submitted to the U.S. Senate on June 5, 1948" [sic--no doubt 1848 was intended]. So, gold, meaning the potential rewards of trade, but surely this view and then the Gold Rush--shortly after Fremont spoke about trade potential--have played a role in associating San Francisco forever with gold. In any case, the name seems wholly appropriate when you see the water gilded by the sun like this, just as golden brown, dormant grasses--in summer the main feature of our natural landscape--seem justification enough for calling California The Golden State.

The bridge, at my back, was visible through light fog.

Plants I'm Growing: In the Garden Now (May 18, 2014)

This is perhaps the prettiest time of year in the garden. Everything that blooms in the spring sees to be blooming at once. The late Rhododendrons, several different Phlomis varieties, roses, rock roses, and various other flowers. The first blossom on the potted beavertail cactus in the driveway opened yesterday, May 17.

The garden is neglected at the moment, the result of too much time spent working, but the flowers are still pretty. The photo above is the Cistus (or rock rose) called "Sunset." Below pictured are Phlomis fruiticosa (Jerusalem Sage) and one of my favorite roses, a single-petaled variety called "Nearly Wild."

Plants I'm Growing: First Blooms--Cistus "Sunset," Phlomis Lanata

First blooms of 2012 today on the rock rose called "Sunset." I love its cheerful magenta blooms. This has been among the most successful of the rock roses I've tried to grow here. Once established, it can pretty well be ignored. First blooms today also on Phlomis lanata, a close relative of the better known Phlomis known as Jerusalem sage. Another tough plant that does well in Santa Rosa with virtually no supplemental water once established.

Plants I'm Growing--First Blooms: Roses, Phlomis Lanata, Cistus "Sunset," Sulfur Buckwheat

New flowers coming fast and furious in the garden. First blooms today on the large, pink, single-petaled climbing rose "Sally Holmes," on the pink, old-fashioned climber beside it on the back fence, called "New Dawn," on the rock rose called "Sunset," and on Phlomis lanata. First flowers on sulfur buckwheat (Eriogonum umbellatum) came on the 25th (below).

Plants I'm Growing--First Blooms: Phlomis Fruiticosa, Cistus "Sunset," Penstemon Heterophyllus (April 24, 2010)

First blooms of 2010 on three plants in the garden today: Phlomis fruiticosa, the big Jerusalem sage; Cistus "Sunset;" and the purply-blue wild penstemon Penstemon heterophyllus. Phlomis is one of the first plants I put into the garden here, not realizing how big it would get. It's now about seven feet across and the flower stalks are nearly as high as me. The photo shows buds in an axial whorl. A pair of big yellow petals will pop out of each of the "cells" visible here. This plant bloomed much earlier last year (April 10). A year according to Phlomis fruiticosa was 379 days.

"Sunset" has been blooming around town for about a week. The one here is comparatively shaded, so it has bloomed later than many. The plant bloomed in 2009 on April 9--much earlier than this year. A year according to "Sunset" was 380 days.

Penstemon heterophyllus is one of my favorite plants. It's almost irridescent. I've seen it growing wild in rocky, higher-altitude areas in California and elsewhere. It doesn't seem to last very long (2-3 years) and doesn't seed itself much, but I'm happy to keep planting it. I have a note of it blooming in early June along Highway 97 in the north-eastern part of the state, but no record of its first flowers in the garden last year.

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Plants I'm Growing--First Blooms: Cistus "Sunset," Rose "Nearly Wild," Rose "Livin' Easy," Echium Vulgare

At this time of year, keeping up with the garden begins to get difficult. Every day brings new flowers. Today the first blooms of 2010 came on the rock rose (Cistus) called "Sunset," on two roses--"Nearly Wild" and "Easy Livin," on Echium vulgare, and on one plant that I can't identify any more. "Sunset" is pictured above, Echium vulgare below.

Echiums are generally very tall plants with spikes of tiny flowers sometimes as much as 20 feet high. They are native to places like the island of Madeira. You've probably seen them on the coast if you live in California or visit here--at places like Bodega Bay and Mendocino. They have common names like "Tower of Jewels."

Vulgare is the smallest and least showy of the Echiums I know, but it's pretty nevertheless. The flowers bloom in loose spikes (the photo here shows only a single small blossom). They start out clear blue and fade to a washed-out violet pink. The plant is only about 18 inches tall. It's strong (tolerating neglect), but it tends to look a bit ratty late in the season. Still, it's a nice addition to the spring color parade.

Like many of the Echiums, it will reseed itself if you let the flowers go. There are about 8 Echium boissieri plants around the garden this year--none of which I planted. The original, single plant was put in about four years ago. It's long gone, but its descendants continue to thrive. The Echium vulgare is a volunteer, too, from a single plant I put in several years ago. Two or three Echium wildpretii are set to bloom this year as well. A few of the Echiums are perennials. Most are biennials (producing a rosette of low leaves the first year, a tall flower spike the second year and then dying). Echium vulgare is an annual.