There’s one place in San Francisco where you can travel the world within 55 acres: the San Francisco Botanical Garden.
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The
garden in Golden Gate Park is home to more than 8,000 different types
of plants from around the globe. Because of San Francisco’s fog and
temperate climate, the garden is one of a select group in the world
where a wide range of botanical collections
can thrive, such as Mesoamerican and Southeast Asian cloud forests. It
has many plants that are among the last specimens of their species. “It
is the city's own global garden where the incredible biodiversity of our
planet is accessible to all," says Phil Ginsburg, general manager of
the San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department.
In 2015, the botanical garden celebrates its 75th anniversary with a fundraiser on May 28 and a community day on May 31.
The fundraising lunch features California Lt. Governor and former San
Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom as the keynote speaker. Newsom’s
grandfather was Arthur L.
Menzies, a botanical garden assistant director,
after whom its collection of California native plants is named. The free
community day offers morning yoga, docent-led walking tours, world
music and dance performances, a photo booth, a sing-along, crafts, giant
puppets and nature-themed readings.
When Golden Gate Park was
created atop an expanse of sand dunes in the 1870s, it included a small
site for an arboretum. Park superintendent John McLaren and the Works
Progress Administration began developing the arboretum during the Great
Depression, with financial contributions from Helen Strybing. The San
Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum opened in 1940,
showcasing everything from native species and medicinal plants to New
Zealand flora. That year, crowds lined up to see the garden’s pink “cup and saucer” magnolia (so named because its innermost petals stand upright and outer petals lie horizontally), the first Magnolia campbellii to ever bloom in the U.S. You can find the tree today in the camellia garden.
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Today
the garden is operated by the city Recreation and Parks Department and
the nonprofit San Francisco Botanical Garden Society and gets more than
300,000 visitors a year. Besides the California native plants, cloud
forests and magnolias, among its popular attractions are a redwood grove
(with towering trees planted as far back as the late 1800s) and the
moon-viewing garden, whose stream, rocks and landscaping create an oasis
for reflection and relaxation. There are also collections of
perennials, ancient plants, Chilean and Australian species, and a garden
of fragrance that emphasizes smell and touch and provides whiffs of
garlic, lavender, lemon verbena and more. In the works is a new nursery
and center for sustainable gardening, which will be devoted to plant
propagation and conservation, displays and classes.
For more information about the garden’s history and plants, see its 75th anniversary online photo exhibit.
San Francisco Botanical Garden
Ninth Ave. at Lincoln Way, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco 94122
Admission: free with proof of San Francisco residency; free-$7 for non-San-Francisco-residents.
Ninth Ave. at Lincoln Way, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco 94122
Admission: free with proof of San Francisco residency; free-$7 for non-San-Francisco-residents.
