You can rent bicycles at Stow Lake inside GG Park: San Francisco- Golden Gate Park 50 Stow Lake Drive Next to the Boat House San Francisco, CA 94118 (415) 668-6699 (805) 688-0091 And it's too early for tulips, I'm afraid, so don't worry about going to the windmill at the west end of the park. You didn't mention where you are staying in the city. If in the downtown or financial district: You can get a spectacular view of SF and the Bay by going to the Bank of America headquarters in downtown SF, 555 California St. @ Kearny, and having a drink after 3pm at the Bankers Club on the top floor (it's a private club during lunchtime). It shares space with the Carnelian Room restaurant (adequate food but not exciting). Sit facing northeast and the view will literally take your breath away. Big comfortable plush chairs around marble-topped tables. People fight for the tables nearest the windows so it's worth getting there early before 5p. Go only if the weather is clear, however! Rather than staying around at the Carnelian Room for food, there are better, really excellent restaurants around that area for dinner as well (but make reservations WELL in advance, like 2-3 weeks minimum). Boulevard, Slanted Door (Vietnamese), Ame, Jeanty @Jack's, and Aqua all cost $$$ but are fabulous dining experiences. If you are staying in the downtown area and need any recommendations on breakfast or lunch places that won't bust the budget, you can email me. I recently posted some stuff on the "other" gardening forum that we aren't allowed to mention, where they also have a travel/vacation forum and were looking for member recommendations. I'm an exec. assistant who worked in downtown SF for decades, so eating out is not only a passion but was part of my duties to make good recommendations!

sng: I like the way you research. Do a copy and paste for -- Callistemon phoeniceus -- and you will find considerable info on the web via Google. I have a feeling you've misspelled it somehow. It's a shrub to about ten to fifteen feet, easily trained into a "standard" or multi-trunked "tree". "Escallonia x exoniensis ÂBalfouriÂ, E. laevis, E. rubra ESCALLONIA We excluded Escallonia for making the following assumptions:" Your assumptions are inaccurate. The common Escallonias are almost always trimmed into tight hedgelike masses; hence making it hard to see the potential as a small tree. Along the coast, especially, the listed ones (not so common) make great multi-trunk small trees. -Melaleuca armillaris BRACELET MYRTLE -Melaleuca ericifolia HEATH MELALEUCA "I have probably seen these plants somewhere but do not remember if they are dense enough for our purpose. I will try finding them in our neighborhood and do more research." Although these species have fine-textured foliage, they do grow into densely-foliaged small trees. I'm attaching a photo of one (they look alike). -Metrosideros collinus ÂSpringfire NEW ZEALAND CHRISTMAS TREE "I always liked this tree but never knew the name. The street I take every day to work is dressed with this tree on both sides and they are quite tall, probably 20-30 feet (may be M. excelsus?)." The "trees" you see are M. excelsus and they get bigger than 30 feet. M. collinus is smaller. And conseuqently slower growing. -Pittosporum crassifolium KARO "I see this planted practically everywhere I go. (Maybe because I live near ocean and work near SF bay?) SF Botanical Garden uses it to screen chain link fences and it does the job so well. I really love the slivery blue green foliage of this plant that goes beautifully with the deep maroon color of its flower. Urban Forest Ecosystems Institute marked all PittosporumÂs health hazard as allergy, except for P. tenuifolium that was marked as unknown. I had no way of telling likelihood of causing allergy but did not want to take any risk so dropped all Pittosporum from my list except for P. tenuifolium. But now I have a further reference on this so I will definitely reconsider P. crassifolium. Thank you again." There are over 160 species of Pittosporum. I doubt that all of them are allergenic. The two most common ones (P. undulatum and P. tobira) are highly fragrant and, because of that, highly allergenic to many people. P. crassifolium is not significantly fragrant (as with P. ten.). Joe Here is a link that might be useful: Melaleuca ericifolia

My suggestion is that you rent before jumping in to buy. It is very likely the housing sales will not pick up until 2009 and this will give you the chance to look around carefully to decide what works best for you. Unlike Juno we ended up in the Oakland hills. We find the traffic on the 580 freeway faster and less clogged than any other EBay freeway, an important consideration when it can take you over an hour to go 35 miles at peak commute times. We live in an older neighborhood where lots are large, crime is moderate (lots of 'casual crime' but virtually no 'heavy' crime) but the mailman can leave pkgs on my front porch at any hour and no one takes anything. OTOH, it will cost you between $450K-$500K to buy a 2- or 3-bdrm older cottage in any reasonable shape. Our lot is 5600 sq. ft. with a small cottage - 2bd 2 ba with attached 1 car garage: Many Bay Area cities are under mandatory water rationing. You will need to learn an entirely new way of gardening with a wider variety of plants than you are accustomed to. I second the suggestion of EBMUD's 'Dry Climate' book, it's one of the finest available for our area. The Sunset magazine and garden books are also essential info sources. Consider resale carefully here. Some stay here forever, some move around a lot. Buying the wrong location can really hurt when you realize your house would be worth $100K more if it was located 2 miles away. Or that it takes you so long to hassle with the daily commute, you hardly have any time to garden at all!

"What used to be Strybing Arboretum is now San Francisco Botanical Garden (at Strybing Arboretum). There is no San Francisco Arboretum." Who the hell cares? This is petty. IT doesn't matter. It's an arboretum IN san francisco. I'm not writing a report on the place. I'm not trying to get into specifics when 90% of the people on this board aren't going to care or know the difference. Let's keep the conversation relevant. How about those athrotaxis? Also, just found out they have a pretty healthy looking sciadopitys and two young fitzroyas (about eight feet tall), though you'll have to ask to see these as they're behind a fence and haven't been planted out yet. The SAN FRANCISCO ARBORETUM (that is, THE ARBORETUM IN SAN FRANCISCO) is located on 9th avenue and lincoln in golden gate park and is totally free and worth going to.