Botanically Speaking : A Tour of the New and Rare Collections of Southern California’s Lesser-Known Botanic Gardens
ALONG THE Southern California coast from Santa Barbara to San Diego is a string of small botanic gardens. Less well known than such botanic gardens as the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Descanso, most of them cover several acres (although one in particular is not much larger than a backyard). Their collections may be smaller than the more famous gardens, but they are no less interesting; most are frost-free, able to grow plants that exist only in greenhouses farther inland or in other parts of the country. All have outstanding collections of succulents. And each one is a short hop from Southern California’s favorite summer destination--the beach--so they are on the way there, so to speak.
Farthest north is the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden. Filled with native plants, it’s the wildest in appearance, but most of what you see has been planted. Even all the succulents are natives. In the spring, it’s a blaze of color, as poppies, ceanothus and other natives come into full flower. In the summer, it’s warm, dry and peaceful, and you can see the other half of a native plant’s existence--when it is semi-dormant and enduring drought. The garden is located at 1212 Mission Canyon Road. Hours are from 8 a.m. to sunset daily.
A well-kept Westside secret, the UCLA Botanic Garden is only a few blocks from busy Westwood. Its fine collection of cactus and succulents, right off Hilgard Avenue, was recently reorganized taxonomically. Over the rise and down the other side, a natural canyon--which, on the rest of the campus, has been filled in--harbors exotic subtropical plants, many new to California, having been collected from South America during the past few years. A murky stream meanders through lush plantings of bananas, bamboo, ferns and palms as though it were a tributary of the silty Amazon. Also new is a group of Malaysian rhododendrons. A bed of lava rock is being built for a collection of endangered Hawaiian plants. The garden is in the southeast corner of the campus; the easiest entrance to find is at Hilgard and Le Conte avenues. Hours are from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekends (closed on university holidays).
South Coast Botanic Garden may not be frost-free like the rest (the hills on the Peninsula block the ocean breezes that temper a coastal climate), and it is not small (a tram shuttles people around), but it manages to project a small, personal feeling, thanks to the volunteers who maintain it. There are some spectacular flowering trees and impressive collections of many plants. The occasional dead plant you see has probably died because its roots hit the methane gas deep within the soil; the area was once a county dump. The South Coast Botanic Garden is located at 26300 Crenshaw Blvd. on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Hours are from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily.
UC Irvine’s new botanic garden specializes in the flora of southern Africa--something its frost-free location allows--and so contains some of the rarest plants in the Americas. It, too, is best in spring, when the bulbs from the Cape of South Africa flower. Throughout the summer, plants that grow in the parts of Africa that have summer rainfall bloom (the Cape is like California--it rains in winter and is dry all summer). The collection of succulents is superb. The entrance to the the UC Irvine Arboretum is about 300 feet past the intersection of Jamboree Road and Campus Drive, on Campus heading toward the university; look for a small sign on the right. Hours are from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. weekdays only.
The smallest botanic garden is Sherman Library and Gardens, only a few blocks from the beach. Everything there is impeccably maintained. Collections of plants are housed in patio-size areas: cactus and succulents, shade plants in an elegant lath structure, a formal rose garden, a greenhouse with a koi pond inside, herbs in containers, and many container-grown fuchsias and begonias. In the heart of Corona del Mar’s business district, the garden is at 2647 E. Coast Highway. Hours are from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily.
Quite a bit farther down the coast, but well before the city of San Diego, is Quail Botanical Gardens, probably the least-known botanic garden (this is its first summer of operation). It is worth the drive, however, because it’s quite different from the others. The succulent collection is a fine one, although it is the subtropical plants, such as hibiscus, palms and big-leaved elephant ears, that steal the show. Quail Gardens is also home to the best collection of bamboos in the country, having been adopted by the American Bamboo Society. It’s located 230 Quail Gardens Drive in Encinitas. Hours are from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.
