Rick Lopez Landscapes Inc.

The San Francisco Bay Area’s rich horticultural tradition is best expressed in many of its public gardens. Here are several to visit and enjoy, you can also purchase plants at many of these gardens.

East Bay Regional Parks Botanical Garden
Filoli
Gamble Gardens
Hakone Gardens
Heather Farms Gardens
Quarryhill Botanical Garden
Ruth Bancroft Garden
San Francisco Botanical Garden & Strybing Arboretum
University of California Botanical Garden
University of California Santa Cruz Arboretum

For more information about other gardens worldwide, visit the American Public Gardens Association. www.publicgardens.org/

East Bay Regional Parks Botanical Garden
Tilden Regional Park, Berkeley, CA

The Regional Parks Botanic Garden was founded on January 1, 1940. Situated in Tilden Regional Park’s beautiful Wildcat Canyon in the heart of the north Berkeley Hills, the garden is devoted to the collection, growth, display, and preservation of the native plants of California. California embraces nearly 160,000 square miles— imagine 160,000 square miles of California set in a garden that can be walked in a day. Notable among the many specimens that have been brought in from all corners of the state are representatives of nearly all the state’s conifers and oaks, and probably the most complete collections of California manzanitas to be found anywhere. There are also extensive collections of California native bunchgrasses, bulbs, aquatic plants, and representatives of about 300 taxa that are classified in the California Native Plant Society’s landmark study, “Inventory of Rare and Endangered Vascular Plants of California.”
http://www.ebparks.org/parks/tilden/botanic_garden

Filoli
Woodside, CA

Located 30 miles south of San Francisco, Filoli is an historic site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and one of the finest remaining country estates of the early 20th century. Whether enjoying its beauty or pursuing its educational opportunities, you will enjoy exploring this cherished community resource. http://www.filoli.org/

Gamble Garden
Palo Alto, CA

A non-profit horticultural foundation in Palo Alto, south of San Francisco, Gamble Garden’s two and a half acre property includes formal and demonstration gardens, as well as an historic house, carriage house, and teahouse. The garden is free and open to the public every day or 5h3 year. http://www.gamblegarden.org/

Hakone Gardens
Saratoga, CA

This is the oldest Japanese and Asian estate garden in the Western Hemisphere, established in 1915. It is a prime landmark designated by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Hakone is an authentic replica of a Japanese Samurai or Shogun’s estate garden, and it was designed by a descendent of the Imperial gardening family. Located in the Saratoga hills, Hakone occupies more than 18 acres of chaparral, woodland and manicured Japanese gardens. http://www.hakone.com/main.html

Heather Farms Garden
Walnut Creek, CA

The Gardens at Heather Farm, in Walnut Creek, is dedicated to inspiring and educating the community about gardening and stewardship practices that preserve and protect the environment. Six acres of gardens are used for education programs for people of all ages, but it is also a serene environment for just strolling, resting or picnicking with family and friends. http://gardenshf.org/

Quarryhill Botanical Garden
Glen Ellen, CA

Founded in 1987, Quarryhill was created on twenty acres of the rocky, steep hillsides above vineyards. Planting new seedlings has continued every spring and fall, thanks to seeds gathered on more than twenty autumn expeditions to East Asia. Oaks, maples, magnolias, dogwoods, lilies and roses are particularly well represented in the garden, and increased efforts have been made to focus on rare and endangered species from China and Japan. Today, Quarryhill is home to one of the largest collections of scientifically documented, wild-source Asian plants in North America and Europe, many of which represent ancestors of horticultural favorites found throughout the western world. This garden is centrally located for Sonoma, Marin and Napa counties as well as greater Northern California. http://www.quarryhillbg.org/Quarryhill/

Ruth Bancroft Garden
Walnut Creek, CA

Built on land that was one a Mt. Diablo Fruit Farm, the Ruth Bancroft Garden is a nonprofit public dry garden that was planted by Mrs. Ruth Bancroft in 1972. The Garden was opened to the public in the early ’90s. Today it is an outstanding example of a water-conserving garden, appropriate for our Mediterranean climate. The garden houses important collections of aloes, agaves, yuccas, and echeverias. Aeonium ‘Glenn Davidson’, the first succulent in Ruth’s collection, is still growing in The Garden—which is located in Walnut Creek. http://www.ruthbancroftgarden.org/

San Francisco Botanical Garden (formerly Strybing Arboretum)
San Francisco, CA

San Francisco Botanical Garden is one of the most diverse gardens in the world. It is a living museum within Golden Gate Park, offering 55 acres of both landscaped gardens and open spaces, showcasing over 8,000 different kinds of plants from around the world. With its unique microclimate, San Francisco Botanical Garden is able to recreate conditions of the high elevation tropical cloud forests of Central and South America and Southeast Asia. Rare high elevation palms as well as plants from New Zealand and temperate Asia also thrive here. Largely due to these natural advantages, it is known for its unique, diverse and significant botanical collections. The extensive Magnolia collection, for example, attracting visitors with its dazzling display of winter flowers, is recognized as the world’s fourth most significant collection of Magnolia for conservation purposes, and the most important outside China, where a majority of Magnolia species are found. http://www.sfbotanicalgarden.org/about/index.html

University of California Botanical Garden
Berkeley, CA

The UC Botanical Garden is a non-profit research garden and museum for the University of California at Berkeley, having a notably diverse plant collection including many rare and endangered plants. Established in 1890 to form a living collection of the native trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants of the State of California, it also sought to gather in as rapidly as possible those of the neighboring states of the Pacific Coast. Within two years the collection numbered 600 species. In the following decade it grew to 1500, but then began to expand both its scope and collection to encompass plants from all continents and about 10,000 species. Today, the Garden, which is open to the public year round, has over 13,000 different kinds of plants from around the world, cultivated by region in naturalistic landscapes over its 34 acres. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu/

University of California Santa Cruz Arboretum
Santa Cruz, CA

The UCSC Arboretum is a research and teaching facility committed to plant conservation and serves both the campus and the public. Its rich and diverse collection, containing representatives of more than 300 plant families. The Arboretum maintains collections of rare and threatened plants of unusual scientific interest. Particular specialties are world conifers, primitive angiosperms, and bulb-forming plant families. Large assemblages of plants from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and California natives are displayed on the grounds. Many of the species in these collections are not otherwise available for study in American botanical gardens and arboreta. http://arboretum.ucsc.edu/