I noticed this colorful explosion of foliage while driving past the intersection of Cortland and Nebraska last week, and it was so stunning I stopped to admire it. I’m more of a gearhead than a green thumb, so I fired off an email to Neighbor Chuck, an expert on our local flora, to learn what kinds of plants these are. He replied:
Yeah, I’ve taken that picture many times myself. It’s a bougainvillea/geranium mashup.
The geraniums are technically pelargoniums, but only a hardcore plant person would bother to make the distinction.
What he said. All I know is that when I saw this, I had to pull over and say, “Wow!”
PHOTO: Telstar Logistics
Bernalwood 
around the corner from us, like living in the med!
Scott M. Foster, AIA, LEED® AP 369 Prentiss Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415-285-2245- voice 415-695-2936- fax 415-902-8557- mobile foster-scott@sbcglobal.net
We’re lucky we have the best weather in the city. Bougainvilleas don’t always do as well in the less sunny neighborhoods. This one is amazing!
The plant is growing on a south facing wall…
Its time to cut loose with the pruning shears ! What a overgrown mess !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It would really benefit these plants to judiciously prune, possibly extending their life cycles. Then again, it may be too late, as the undergrowth may not be able to send out new shoots. I could be wrong, but as ‘spectacular’ as this is, it cries out for care and maintenance, not neglect.
This is a matter of gardening taste… English gardeners love this overgrown & combination of plants look, even if this is a more unusual combination. One could do some judicious & sensitive pruning to allow easier access to the stairs… Other styles in gardening would approach this differently. If the “edges or interfaces” between the plants & the stairs, the sidewalk, the windows were cleaned up & defined, this planting would really “pop” and appear very much more planned & maintained…
I see this every day, half a block from my house on Putnam, as I turn the corner to catch the 67 at Nevada. Love it.
Very beautiful. Beg to differ on the above comment: Nature in all its glory is not an overgrown mess. Not everyone wants to live in a place where every home looks like a cookie cutter make-over from Curb Appeal. Just my opinion, of course. Thanks for sharing.
I have admired that mash-up for YEARS and always meant to photograph it- so glad you did!
Oh ok is that what we now say abut people who dont like to do yard work Nature in all its glory ?
No. That’s what one person says when she is stating her enjoyment of a flowering shrub that you don’t enjoy and perceive as an overgrown mess. Another beautiful thing… In the land of aesthetics, we both get to be right.
Brazil & South Africa unite!