San Francisco Botanical
Garden
San Francisco,
California
This 55-acre garden in Golden
Gate Park opened to the public in 1940, as the Strybing
Arboretum and Botanical Gardens. The name changed in 2004
but I still think of it as the Strybing.
I first visited about 20 years ago, when the Meso-American
Cloud Forest had just been planted. The garden made a
strong impression on me so I've always wanted to revisit.
Most of the garden is very park-like, similar in feel to
the rest of Golden Gate Park.
The garden contains more than 7,500 taxa. The plant
collections are mostly laid out geographically, featuring
areas with plants from Australia, New Zealand, South
America, Southeast and East Asia, South Africa and
Meso-America. The plantings represent areas with
Mediterranean, mild temperate and tropical cloud forest
climatic regions.
The most famous and important of the collections is the
Meso-American Cloud Forest. Very few gardens in the United
States have the conditions to grow these plants so most of
the plants are uncommon to see.
The cloud forest feels overgrown to me but there are
beautiful and unusual plants, like this Cestrum
elegans.
Near the entrance if a small bed of alpine plants.
It's a lovely small display and contains one of my favorite
plants, Raoulia
lutescens, from
New Zealand. It looks so much like a lichen I'm always
surprised by it. It's another plant that very few gardens
have the climate to grow.
A major plant collection is
Rhododendrons. In July there were few blooms, but
there is a new Rhododendron Pavilion which will create
a focal point for the collection.
Another highlight is the Garden of Fragrance. Designed as a
garden for the visually impaired it's sort of an expanded
herb garden. The plants are all relatively common, but the
layout of raised beds with beautiful walls, meandering
trails and water makes for a very interesting and pleasing
garden.
I was a little disappointed by the overall level of care,
and I hate to see graffiti in a garden.
Twenty years ago I thought it was wonderful that the
arboretum was free for everyone. Now I'm not so sure. The
level of care suggests that money is a problem and charging
even a small fee would add to the coffers. I've also come
to believe that people place a greater value on things if
they have to pay for them. I think even a token charge
would raise the level of public appreciation for the
garden.
I was less impressed this visit than I was twenty years
ago. Part of that is I've seen a lot more gardens, but I
think it's also that the gardens have deteriorated a bit.
But don't let that stop you from visiting. It's still a
wonderful place to wander through and you're likely to see
plants you never knew existed.
To see more photos of the garden, click here.
Click here to visit the official website of the
San Francisco Botanical Garden.