Ruth Bancroft — renowned gardener planted for drought
She planted with an architect’s eye and gave Californians new ways to see their own landscape: Ruth Bancroft, the influential founder of the renowned Walnut Creek gardens that bear her name, died Sunday at the age of 109.
Born in Massachusetts in 1908 to a Latin professor and a schoolteacher, Ruth Petersson moved with her family to Berkeley shortly after her birth, and entered UC Berkeley after high school. It may come as no surprise to those who have toured her garden, with its brilliant swells and curves, its color variations both subtle and bold, that Bancroft studied architecture in college. The stock market crash of 1929 scuttled her aspirations, however, and she switched to education, teaching home economics in Merced after graduation.
In 1939, she married Philip Bancroft Jr., grandson of Hubert Howe Bancroft, who had purchased a 400-acre farm in the 1880s near what became Walnut Creek. The newlyweds moved onto the farm, which was dominated by pear and walnut orchards, and had three children.
In the 1960s, with the city expanding into former farmlands, the Bancrofts sold off most of their property to real estate developers.
Even before Ms. Bancroft amassed the acres’ worth of succulents for which she would become famous, she channeled an autodidact’s passion into other collections, including irises and recipe cards. For decades, she gathered seashells along the California coast. Her collection was so meticulously preserved and annotated that the California Academy of Sciences eventually added it to its holdings.
“She was a scientist,” said Gretchen Bartzen, director of development at the Ruth Bancroft Garden.
In 1971, at the age of 63, Ms. Bancroft took charge of a 3-acre plot after the last of the family’s walnut orchards were razed. It meant to be a home for her succulent collection, which had begun in the 1950s. She hired local nursery owner Lester Hawkins to lay out the paths and beds, and then she began planting.
Early on, she focused on succulents, cacti and drought-tolerant plants and trees, all planted in tiny pots, spaced far enough apart for them to grow over the course of decades. The plot of land had only a single well, and so thriftiness, more than ecological sensitivity, initially influenced her choices.
“I thought it seems foolish to plant things that need so much care in the way of constant watering,” she said in a 1999 interview filmed for Martha Stewart Living. “And in our climate, it seemed more appropriate to plant things that needed less water.”
“She was brave, and playful and fearless,” said Johanna Silver, author of “The Bold Dry Garden: Lessons from the Ruth Bancroft Garden.”
By 1989, her work had turned into a miraculous environment, tended daily. When East Coast plantsman Frank Cabot visited that year, he was so astonished by what he saw, as well as the 81year-old gardener’s concerns that no one would continue taking care of the land after she died, that he founded the Garden Conservancy, a national organization that preserves private gardens for the public good — starting with Ms. Bancroft’s.
The Ruth Bancroft Garden incorporated as a nonprofit in 1992, when the family donated the land. Since then, its programs have grown to include docent tours and trainings, schoolchildren tours and workshops. A visitor education center is under construction.
Ms. Bancroft continued to be the principal gardener until the age of 97. “She genuinely gardened for herself, never assuming that anyone else would really be interested in what she was doing way out in Walnut Creek,” wrote the garden’s first executive director, Richard Turner, retired editor of Pacific Horticulture magazine.
Although she would spend many days working from dawn until dusk, Ms. Bancroft and her husband supported the San Francisco Opera, as well as arts and civic organizations in Walnut Creek. According to Turner, the Bancrofts also donated some of their land to the city to create Heather Farm Park.
“In the trade, and professional circles, she is nothing short of iconic,” Silver said. Although Ms. Bancroft gardened with curiosity and form as her two polestars, she eventually realized that her work might have a broader impact on Northern California as climate consciousness took hold.
“Once it was made clear just how important the garden was, and she realized people could be learning from her garden, then she wasn’t going to stand in the way,” Silver said. “She was thrilled and supportive.”
In her last years, when she could not visit the garden regularly, friends would bring her photos of the plants. She died at home, in her sleep, surrounded by family.
She is survived by her children Peter Bancroft; Nina Dickerson; Kathy Hidalgo; and four grandchildren. Her husband died in 1983.
The Bancroft family and the garden plan to honor Ruth’s life and work in the garden in early 2018. Details will be shared at www.ruth bancroftgarden.org. Jonathan Kauffman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jkauffman@sfchronicle. com Twitter: @jonkauffman