I almost passed up an opportunity to visit Hudson Ranch and Vineyards with a group of my Master Gardener friends. Thankfully, good sense and curiosity prevailed and I made the trip.

What a glorious sight greeted a succulent lover like me–agaves and yucca on the left, a beautiful barrel colony on the right and a delightful assortment of aloes everywhere I looked. To the west at the top of the hill were flowering curly leaf Echeveria gibbiflora in bloom. Their inflorescence positively glowed in the late afternoon light.

We met our host, Lee Hudson, a charismatic fellow who warmly greeted each of us in turn. It didn't take long to feel his passion and excitement for Hudson Ranch and Vineyards as he shared his bubbly enthusiasm for his operation and belief that employees are every bit as valuable as the commodities he sells. He started the tour with a history lesson about the operation, but I was distracted by all the loveliness I could see out the windows. Closest to us was a Japanese style minimalist garden comprised of Dasylirion wheeleri and olive trees. Around the corner, we were treated to the sight of tree aloes whose gnarled trunk shapes echoed the 150-year-old olive trees.

The next round of oohs and aahs were the fault of an Agave ovatifolia or whale's tongue agave. She looked like a spiky dream right out of a watercolor painting with her soft blue-green variegated toothy leaves. Then I got to see that adorable barrel cactus (Echinocactus grusonii) colony up close. The spines have grooves on them like a deadly version of a zip-tie. We saw yucca, palms, Dracaena draco, aloes, and several more species of agave. Lee Hudson named each plant with ease and shared a story about where it came from or why it was chosen for the garden.

We wound our way down the hillside to Leo's garden and the famed Gourd Alley. Who's Leo? He is Leonardo Urena, Production Manager, responsible for supervising the garden, landscaping, and livestock crews.A lovable and humble host, he shared his vast knowledge, beautiful garden, and his infectious love of gardening and plants with us. He showed us a giant steel structure in the middle of the garden that had 4 small vines starting to reach up the supports at each corner. Those gourd vines now cover the whole structure sprouting impressive long thin cucuzza squash reaching to the ground. Leo and Lee would like to break a world record, but this year's batch is coming up a few feet short. Finally, we made our way to gourd alley where we encountered several varieties of gourds, some larger than I could wrap my arms around hanging in custom hammocks made by Leo.

 

As we left Leo's garden, we rounded an impressive wall of opuntia cactus over 7 feet tall. We took a break for a group photo around Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival's third place pumpkin grown by Leo!

We continued our tour loop back up the hill towards the tasting room where we encountered a Hercules aloe over twelve feet tall. We next passed an agave that was starting to bloom. This is both a cause for excitement and sadness as agave are monocarpic, meaning they only bloom once and then die. Looking at the eight-foot-tall bloom spike, it was easy to see that the agave is in the Asparagaceae family. Across the path were several Agave vilmoriniana (octopus agave) that bloomed 7 months ago. The spent leaves of the plant were removed leaving the ten-foot bloom spike. After flowering, the spike is covered in bulbils, tiny clones of the mother plant. Lee let us pick one from the stalk to take home. The baby agaves are so tiny and soft at this stage it is hard to imagine it in its adult form.

We finished the tour just west of the parking area at the top of the hill with a breathtaking view of blue glow agave backlit by the setting sun, several palms, and more agave. I'm thankful that I seized this opportunity and grateful to Lee Hudson for sharing his magical property with us.