I recently visited Botanical Garden at Berkeley with some friends from the East Coast.
The Botanical Garden is a 34-acre research garden and a living museum. It is famous for its diverse collections of plants and many of them rare and endangered. There are nine major geographic regions with emphasis on plants from Mediterranean climates, such as California. One of the goals is to promote public understanding and appreciation of plants and the natural environment.
There are 1200 species of Californian plants in the garden, about one quarter of all species in the California State. There is a great collection of manzanitas (Arctostaphylos), California Lilacs (Ceanothus), bulbous monocots (Dritillaria, Calachortus, Lilium, and Erythronium), and California poppies (Eschscholzia California).
The Garden showcases many beautiful communities of plants. You can learn how they group the plants together and display them attractively. A good mix of plant choices can also attract different types of butterflies, bees and beneficial insects to keep your garden healthy and thriving.
The Garden is open all year round you can see the plants bloom and change color at different seasons of the year. They also have plant sales at the Garden Shop. Special plant sales at California Natives propagation area is open to the public from 10:30am-1:30pm on Thursdays. The largest sales are the Semi-Annual Spring and Fall Plant Sale. Contact them for more information.
If you missed the Bringing Back the Native Garden Tour and Bay-Friendly Garden Tour in May, visit the University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley, 200 Centennial Drive, Berkeley, California.
Here are some pictures of the plants from the Botanical Garden.
