University of
California Botanical Garden
Berkeley,
California
June 2008
This botanic garden was established
on its current 34 acre site in the 1920’s. Its
collections are largely laid out to reflect geographic
origins, so there is an Asian area, a Southern Africa
area, a Mediterranean area and more.
The garden is set in Strawberry Canyon, an absolutely
beautiful setting that gives the garden lots of topography
to deal with. They've done a great job of incorporating the
hills and valleys into the garden's design.
The entry courtyard is a
wonderful introduction to the garden. I like the clean,
open design of it. It also features an interesting
representation of the garden's collections.
The first display you come to
is the Arid House. It is full of amazing plants from arid
area around the world. It's disappointing that more than
half of the plants are in a giant cage so you can't get a
close look at them. The security is probably necessary to
prevent damage and theft, but there should be a better way
of securing the collection. Also, the plants are just laid
out, almost haphazardly, on the benches with little
attention to aesthetics or interpretation. It is my least
favorite part of the garden, especially since arid-region
plants are so well represented in the outside collections.
Right behind the Arid House
is the South African garden. Here's a collection of arid
plants that is well-interpreted and laid out in a
beautifully aesthetic display. The garden takes great
advantage of the topography, with winding trails that get
you within a few feet of every plant. The collection of
plants is very diverse with bulbs, succulents and woody
plants mixed in a naturalistic way. All of the plants seem
to be thriving.
Across from South Africa is
the New World Desert garden, featuring plants from the
deserts of the Americas. Here again they have done a great
job of melding the topography with the garden. Most of the
plants are thriving, but some of the cacti from the hottest
and driest areas of Mexico and the United States seem to
have trouble in this climate.
Continuing uphill past the
South African Garden, there's a lovely small pond in the
Asia Garden. It's home to endangered
newts.
It seems that most every
garden has a rose garden but Berkeley has created an
especially interesting one. The Garden of Old Roses
features rose cultivars from the 1800's and early 1900's,
rather than concentrating on modern cultivars. There are
shrub roses, rambling roses and climbing roses together
creating a rather unruly but throughly interesting rose
garden.
They've also taken an
interesting approach to the herb garden, combining a
traditional Euro-style Herb Garden with a Chinese Medicinal
Herb Garden. Having the two next to each other provides an
interesting contrast in style and plants, and a beautiful
bridge connects the two.
This is probably my favorite
public garden. They have an amazing collection of plants
with enough diversity that a visit at any time of year is
rewarding. The signage is excellent, the setting is
spectacular and the garden is beautifully maintained. A
place not to be missed by any garden lover.
Click here
to see more photos of the
garden.
Click here to visit the Berkeley Botanical Garden
website.