Celebrating Ruth Bancroft Garden's Curator, Brian Kemble's 45th Anniversary

This year, we are celebrating Brian Kemble's 45th anniversary at the Ruth Bancroft Garden! To celebrate this milestone, we've released some excerpts from his oral history and will have a special tour and evening reception to honor Brian in September. We also released a limited-edition 100% cotton t-shirt featuring some of Brian’s most iconic plant hybrids, and an Agave greeting card set featuring Brian's photography.

All proceeds support one of Brian’s top priorities: the renovation of Bed 12, a historic and cherished part of the Garden.

September 6th at 10am - Garden Tour with Curator Brian Kemble

September 25th at 6pm - An Evening with Brian Kemble

Brian Kemble's introduction to the Garden came in 1979, when he first visited alongside Clive Innes, a speaker for the Oakland chapter of the Cactus and Succulent Society, where Brian served as vice president. The following year, Ruth Bancroft invited Brian to begin working at the Garden one day a week, tending to her extensive collection of potted plants. This marked the beginning of his long tenure, which would see him rise to the role of Curator and become one of the Garden’s most influential figures.

His knowledge and shared passion for succulents soon led to his involvement in plant acquisitions and placement, particularly after Phil Bancroft (Ruth's husband) stopped accompanying Ruth on her annual trips to Southern California. Brian began to travel south, using his expertise to select new agaves, echeverias, and yuccas that aligned with Ruth’s interests and the garden’s aesthetic.

The Garden’s transition to a public space under the Garden Conservancy in the early 1990s brought about significant changes in Brian’s role. He took on additional responsibilities beyond plant care, including contributing to fundraising efforts through plant sales and managing the logistics of public events. A significant aspect of his evolving role was in education and outreach, as he began writing monthly plant highlights for the member newsletter and later for the garden’s website. He also became the author of the newspaper column “Ruth’s Tips” (later “On the Dry Side”), further expanding the garden’s reach and providing educational content to the wider community.

As Ruth began to withdraw from active planting, more of the planting decisions fell to Brian. Eventually, Brian became the Curator, focusing on the plant collection and record-keeping, while also making significant contributions to the Garden’s educational mission through webinars, talks, and numerous publications. His deep understanding of the collection and Ruth’s original vision, coupled with his commitment to education, became central to the Garden’s ongoing development.

As Brian’s involvement grew, so did his impact. He continued to introduce new species, spearhead hybridization projects—especially with aloes, agaves and gasterias—and meticulously document plant phenology, native habitats, and taxonomy.

Brian Kemble has dedicated a significant portion of his work to hybridizing various plant groups, most notably aloes, agaves, and gasterias. His early work with aloes often focused on flower characteristics, but he later shifted his attention to leaf traits, seeking to create hybrids with stripes, spots, and colorful teeth. He also aimed to combine traits like the compact size of some aloes with the larger rosettes and more abundant flowers of others, exemplified by his work crossing Aloe humilis with larger species like Aloe ferox. His aloe hybrid ‘Hellskoof Bells’ gained commercial success through the Huntington.

Looking ahead, Brian is committed to ensuring the preservation of Ruth’s vision while embracing the Garden’s expanding educational role. To safeguard the Garden’s legacy, Brian has also worked to mentor his successor, Assistant Curator/Garden Manager Walker Young, and to codify Ruth’s design philosophy. Brian hopes his legacy will be defined by his contributions to plant knowledge and the continued flourishing of the Ruth Bancroft Garden.

Cheers to Brian Kemble!