109-year-old Ruth grows succulents, and reveals the two most important words for a woman

Ruth Bancroft Garden

Ruth BancroftThe garden is located in Walnut Creek, USA, in the Ignacio Valley of California.

This is America's most legendary, most special, and most outstanding drought-tolerant succulent garden.

It is also the first private garden to receive sponsorship and protection from an American garden conservation organization.

Richard Turner, editor-in-chief of Pacific Horticulture magazine, called it "the most significant private garden on the West Coast of the United States."

This 109-year-old grandmother, when she was nearly 70, began planning her own succulent garden on a piece of barren land.

Work started at 8 a.m., and she labored until sunset; she personally designed and planted everything.

Today, after nearly 40 years of cultivation, the plants in the garden have grown to a considerable scale.

This garden covers 3.5 acres and is planted with more than 2,000 kinds of cacti, rare succulents, palm trees and various desert plants of all sizes and shapes.

They are there all year round, with blossoms and colors in rich profusion, as if the plants were immersed in each other's fascinating conversation.

Walking one loop and carefully reading the labels and descriptions takes several hours.

A person's preferences do not change; when you meet the right person, those preferences are magnified, and perhaps become a lifelong career.

When she was young, Mrs. Ruth studied architecture at UC Berkeley; because of the stock market crash and the economic depression, she switched to studying education.

Before marriage she worked as a teacher, but she never gave up her love of architecture.

If you have the chance to visit her garden, you will surely see the influence of architecture and geometry in its design and arrangement.

While teaching at school, Ruth met her husband Philip Bancroft, and after marriage she devoted herself to gardening.

At home she grew irises, roses, herb plants, alpine plants and various perennials.

Until the 1950s, her gardening hobby changed, and she began to fall in love with those strangely shaped succulents.

After that, she began to devote herself full-time to growing and collecting cacti and succulents.

If she had the chance to make a trip to Southern California, she would certainly visit small shops selling nursery plants along the way, making sure to return with a full load.

The main house where Mrs. Ruth lived still retains the style of the 1950s.

The house's most distinctive feature is the plant library, which is also where Mrs. Ruth usually worked. The shelves hold more than 4,500 books about plants, and the desk is covered with notes she used for recording.

Through the window, you can see wisteria blooming in the yard.

In an interview at the age of 100, Mrs. Ruth said: "I don't know how I got to be 100. I just feel that my strength is not what it used to be."

At the age of 100, she could still make her own breakfast and lunch, and ordinary people looking at her would think she was not like a 100-year-old.

The garden holds various sculpture exhibitions, bonsai exhibitions and various art activities from time to time, and has become a popular science teaching base for the local community and schools.

This centenarian, who immersed herself in nature all her life and never hesitated to share beauty with others, left to later generations not only this great succulent kingdom, but also a kind of spiritual pursuit.

Mrs. Ruth tells us that as long as you have a dream, it can surely be realized.

So, for women of any age, the most important thing is nothing but two words: persistence.

2018

More than 800 people came to the Ruth Bancroft Garden for a gathering, to celebrate and remember her.

2017

Ruth Bancroft passed away at the age of 109.

Her garden continues to encourage everyone and will carry on in many ways.

1992

The garden opened to the public.

1972

The "Great Freeze" in December killed most of the plants in the garden. But

she fearlessly started over.

1971

She began planting succulents on a large scale.

1952

She bought and planted her first succulent.

1908

Mrs. Ruth was born in California, USA, in 1908.

Her parents were professors of classics at UC Berkeley.

She loved plants from childhood and often gathered all kinds of flowers and plants in the yard at home.

In the garden you can often also see people taking wedding photos and people visiting on holidays; they are all people with a special feeling for plants.

Coming here not only relaxes your mood, but also lets you learn a lot of knowledge about plants.

Follow Mrs. Ruth and learn how to live life thoroughly and clearly.

May we all live our lives like poetry!

Mrs. Ruth's Garden

Mrs. Ruth,

planted with her own hands, tending life with her heart for half a century.

As time piles up, let us walk into this scroll that interprets life and happiness.

?Become a starred friend with you?

From then on we are starred? good friends!

It will also be easier for everyone to find me!

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