A New Look at the BOG

Nicknamed the Biological Orchard and Gardens (BOG), it still contains the heritage fruit trees and mini-gardens, but one landscaped section that used to showcase phacelia, lupine, tidy tips, desert bell, baby blue eyes and other bee plants is now a haven for cacti and succulents.
"We just recently made a succulent garden," related Marlene Simon, curator of the UC Davis Botanical Conservatory and a UC Davis alumna. "We needed to move our large cacti collection and figured it would be nice for the public to see it. We plan to add more succulents such as agaves in the near future. It was going to be the Mediterranean section but we have moved that to the area next to the South African section."
BOG has been described as a living museum. The orchard contains heritage fruit tree varieties threatened with commercial extinction. They include the Gravenstein and Johnathan apples; the Suncrest peach; the Bleinheim apricot, the Mariposa plum and the Meyer lemon.

"Her home away from home is the magical UC Davis Botanical Conservatory...Here Marlene grows and cares for over 3,000 species of the world's most exotic/rare plants and flowers. In her spare time between appearing on Good Day Sacramento and work at the Conservatory, she guest lectures on all topics of organic gardening. As a fervent animal lover, Marlene donates her expertise to establish a wildlife garden at a regional non-profit wildlife center. When not immersed in the plant world, she can be found training daily for her next adventure, spanning from mountaineering to triathlon."
BOG is located in front (or back) of the Mann Laboratory on Kleiber Hall Drive, depending on which way you're going! If you park in Lot 26, off Kleiber Hall Drive, it's a short walk down the sidewalk to BOG.