Nor Cal gardens?

Any noteworthy northern california gardens open to the public?

My favorite so far is the Filoli. I lived in the bay area 10 years before I found that garden - I even hiked by it once without realizing it was a public garden (the sign does not give much info). I highly recommend it even if you are visiting or passing by San Francisco. I went during bulb bloom and was blown away.

The SF botanical is interesting but it's more a collection of exotic plants.

Someone here was nice enough to tell me about the daffodil society - http://www.daffodil.org/ncds/shows.htm

Are there any other must see gardens or bulb displays?

I'm not a wine connoisseur but I'd like to visit a winery with impressive grounds/structures also. It's hard to tell from the websites how nice the garden is since that's not really what they are selling.

If you like succulents and other drought tolerant stuff, you should check out the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek. Sierra Azul Nursery in Watsonville also has gorgeous display gardens next to the nursery that you can walk through. I'm sure there are others to but they're slipping my mind for the moment (I love the UC Berkeley Botanical garden too, but if you didn't like Strybing you probably won't like it either)

In March 2006 Sunset magazine did a bonus section in the subscriber magazines on "Gardens and Grapes" throughout the West. I don't know if it's on their website or not.

The NorCal wineries whose gardens they highlight are:
Ladera in Angwin
Chateau Julian in Carmel Valley
Kendall Jackson in Fulton
Ferrari-Carano in Healdsburg
Fetzer in Hopland
Hess in Napa

Thanks all.

Jkom,

I have that issue (I'm a suscriber). I went through every page and did not see the article. Is the bonus section an insert? Doesn't really matter since you graciously provided the names of the wineries but it would be nice to see the article. Are you sure on the issue?

I don't know if this was the same thing or not, but they have two different types of special inserts, one on gardening and one on travel, so if you happen to get the other type then you might have missed it. I'm also not sure if all subscribers get the inserts or not--I have the gardening one because the first time my subscription came up for renewal I took advantage of a special offer to renew now and get a bonus insert for free and chose gardening rather than travel, but if you renewed your subscription using a different offer then you might not have it at all. I don't have this issue anymore so I don't know if it was in one of these type of inserts or if it was something else.

I disagree about Berkeley Botanical Garden - there's a LOT to see there. Here's a list of gardens, including websites for those gardens named above.

Arizona Garden - http://grounds.stanford.edu/points/gardens/arizonagarden.html
Bonfante Gardens - http://www.bonfantegardens.com/
Gamble Garden - http://gamblegarden.org/
Guadalupe River Park & Gardens - http://gamblegarden.org/
Luther Burbank Home & Gardens - http://ci.santa-rosa.ca.us/default.aspx?PageId=708
Markham Nature Park & Arboretum - http://home.earthlink.net/~markhamarboretum/
Mendocino Coast Botanical Garden - http://www.gardenbythesea.org/
Quarryhill Botanical Garden - http://www.quarryhillbg.org/
Ruth Bancroft Garden - http://www.ruthbancroftgarden.org/
Sierra Azul Nursery & Gardens - http://www.sierraazul.com/
UC Berkeley Botanical Garden - http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu/
UC Davis Arboretum - http://www.arboretum.ucdavis.edu/
UC Santa Cruz Arboretum - http://www2.ucsc.edu/arboretum/
California Carnivores - http://californiacarnivores.com/

I think these should keep you busy for a while! LOL

Marilyn

you may come look at my small but mighty garden-mini orchard-heaven!

http://mrschristiecolla.spaces.live.com