Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden
Claremont,
California
March 2008
This is a garden that escaped my
attention for years. The 86 acre garden was founded in 1927 and
moved to its current location in 1951 so it has been around for a
long time. Even though I’ve known staff there, somehow I never made
the effort to visit. Now I’m sorry I waited so long. Not because
the garden has deteriorated but because I missed an opportunity.
It’s another of the numerous great Southern California gardens, but
with a much different ambience and approach. The Southern
California climate allows gardens to grow almost everything, and
the other gardens do. Rancho Santa Ana has decided to concentrate
only on the flora of California, which it turns out is enough to
make a great botanic garden.
Even though it was
only March when we visited, there was a lot in bloom. March is peak
blooming season for Ceanothus,
the California lilacs, and these blue flowering shrubs were
everywhere.
Rancho Santa Ana not
only grows native California plants but works actively to find and
develop new forms of them to be used as garden plants. They've
developed and selected a number of new cultivars of California
lilac.
We entered through 'Fay's Wildflower Meadow'. This early
in the year it didn't look like much, a mostly bare patch filled
with chicken wire to protect the seeds and seedlings. There were a
few large beautiful lupins.
Next is the Desert
Garden, a nice display of large cacti, agaves and other desert
plants.
We then
climbed up to the Visitors Center where we saw this beautiful
Burroughsia fastigiata, a tree I'd never seen before.
From here we
made our way past the 'California Natives Container Garden' and the
'California Cultivar Garden', to the 55-acre 'California Plant
Communities'. This area really gives one a feel for the variety of
plant life found in California. I was especially fascinated by the
Joshua Trees which were just coming into bloom.
This garden is an amazing tribute
to the flora of California. They do a very good job of labeling
individual plants but I would have liked more interpretive signs,
or brochure, telling the big picture. Each of the plant communities
is named on a sign (though not always easy to find), but nothing
tells what is special about each. But that's a small gripe. We
spent a very enjoyable 2 hours and would have stayed longer if it
hadn't been raining.
To see more pictures from Rancho Santa Ana, click
here.
To visit the official website of Rancho Santa Ana
Botanic Garden, click here.