Commercially, the name Lotusland (15 ha / 37 acres), also known as the Ganna Walska Lotusland Estate, is used for a non-profit botanical garden located in Montecito, California, USA. Walking tours are 1½ to 2 hours long. The gardens were created by Madame Ganna Walska (1887?-1984), an opera singer, who owned the property as a private residence from 1941 until her death. It contains a number of excellent gardens, and is well regarded for its cycad collection.

Blue garden

Featuring plants with silvery to blue-gray foliage, including Blue Atlas Cedar (Cedrus libani var. atlantica ‘Glauca’), Chilean wine palms (Jubaea chilensis), blue fescue (Festuca ovina var. glauca), Senecio mandraliscae, Mexican blue palm (Brahea armata), Queensland kauri (Agathis robusta), bunya-bunya (Araucaria bidwillii), hoop pine (Araucaria cunninghamii) and two camphor trees (Cinnamomum camphora).

Bromeliads

Here bromeliads cover the ground between large coast live oaks (Quercus agrifolia). Other notable plants include a branched pygmy date palm (Phoenix roebelinii), Trithrinax brasiliensis palms and giant ponytail palms (Beaucarnea recurvata).

Butterfly garden

Featuring varieties of flowering plants that support butterflies and other insects.

Cactus garden

Featuring a collection of columnar cacti begun in 1929 by Merritt Dunlap. Over 500 plants, representing about 300 different species of cacti in geographically-organized groups. Notable specimens include species of Opuntia from the Galapagos Islands, Armatocereus from Peru and a complete collection of the genus Weberbauerocereus. Accent plants include Fouquieria columnaris (boojum tree), dry-growing bromeliads and several Agave species.

Cacti and euphorbias

A collection of cacti and euphorbias, including a mass of golden barrel cacti (Echinocactus grusonii) and large, weeping Euphorbia ingens.

Cycad garden

Thought to be the most complete collection of cycads in any public garden in the United States, Lotusland has over 400 mature specimens of cycads, with ten of the eleven living genera and more than half of the known species represented.

Fern garden

Featuring many types of ferns, such as Australian Tree Ferns (Sphaeropteris cooperi) and giant staghorn ferns (Platycerium). Other shade-loving plants such as angel trumpet tree (Brugmansia), calla lily (Zantedeschia), clivia hybrids and a collection of Hawaiian Pritchardia palms are present.

Japanese garden

A small Shinto shrine surrounded by Sugi (Cryptomeria japonica), Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens cv. ‘Santa Cruz’), a wisteria arbor, Japanese Maples (Acer palmatum), camellias, azaleas and several species of pine pruned in the Niwaki style.

Orchards

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Citrus orchard (oranges, lemons, limes, kumquat, grapefruit, and guava)

Deciduous orchard, with 100 fruit trees (including peach, plum, apple, pear, persimmon and fig) and olive trees from the 1880s.

Parterre

Formal planting beds and brick walkways with two central water features. Plantings include hedges, floribunda roses, and day lilies.

Succulent garden

A variety of succulents including Madagascar Palm (Pachypodium lamerei), Aeonium, Fouquieria, Kalanchoe, Echeveria, Haworthia, Yucca and Sansevieria.

Topiary

Featuring a topiary clock 25 feet (8 m) in diameter, bordered by Senecio mandraliscae; a boxwood maze; and a “zoo” of 26 topiary animals, including a camel, gorilla, giraffe and seal. Other frames are shaped as chess pieces and geometric shapes.

Tropical garden

Featuring orchid cacti (Epiphyllum), gingers (both Alpinia and Hedychium) and bananas both ornamental (Ensete) and edible (Musa).

Water garden

Includes several species and cultivars of Indian lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) and water lily (Nymphaea, Euryale, Nuphar, Victoria) and also bog gardens featuring taro (Colocasia esculenta), ornamental sugar cane (Saccharum cv.) and papyrus.

from wikipedia.org
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The Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden 127 acres (51.4 ha) is an arboretum, botanical garden, and historical site nestled into hills near the San Gabriel Mountains, at 301 North Baldwin Avenue, Arcadia, California, USA. It is open daily during business hours, for a fee.

The site’s modern history began in 1875 when Elias Jackson “Lucky” Baldwin purchased Rancho Santa Anita and constructed its buildings and grounds. The arboretum itself began in 1947 with California and Los Angeles jointly purchasing 111 acres (44.9 ha) to create an arboretum around the Baldwin site. By 1949, the first greenhouse had been constructed and the site’s plants inventoried. In 1951, the first 1,000 trees were planted, and in 1956 the arboretum was opened to the public. Ongoing construction of gardens and greenhouses took place during the 1950s and 1960s, and in 1975-1976 the Tropical Greenhouse was opened and the Prehistoric and Jungle Garden completed. Construction and renovation of both greenhouses and gardens has continued to this day.

The arboretum’s plants are grouped by geography with gardens for South American, Mediterranean, South African, Australian and Asiatic-North American plants. Other displays include the Aquatic Garden, Meadowbrook, Demonstration Home Gardens, Garden for All Seasons, Prehistoric and Jungle Garden, Native Oaks, Herb Garden, and the Palm and Bamboo collection. In addition, the arboretum is home to a flock of some 200 peafowl, which are descendants of original birds imported by Baldwin from India in about 1880 (the peafowl is a symbol of the city of Arcadia). Peafowl can also be found throughout neighborhoods surrounding the arboretum.

Numerous movies were filmed at the arboretum including portions of two Jurassic Park movies and Anaconda.

from wikipedia.org
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Living Desert Zoo and Gardens is a desert botanical gardens and a zoo located at 47-900 Portola Avenue, Palm Desert, California. They are open daily with an admission fee of about $12 for adults (2007).

The gardens were established in 1970 as a 360 acre (1.46 km²) wilderness preserve by the Palm Springs Desert Museum. By 1974 the gardens housed a Kit Fox, tortoises, lizards, and two Bighorn Sheep, and in 1974-75 the Mojave Garden was built, a replica of the high California desert. Additional facilities have gradually been constructed, including greenhouses and a number of built landscapes, as well as animals including Rhim Gazelles (1981); mountain lions, bobcats and badgers (1993); cheetahs and warthogs (1995); model trains (1998); giraffes and ostriches (2002). Opened November 10, 2007 the Amphipbians on the Edge exhibit shows a variety of different species of frogs, toads and salamanders.

Today, the gardens claim to be the only American zoo and garden dedicated solely to the deserts of the world, and provide environmental education, native wildlife rehabilitation, plant propagation and captive breeding of both native and African species including the area’s iconic bighorn sheep. Their unique meerkat exhibit served as inspiration to Walt Disney Studios animators in the development of “Timon”, The Lion King’s comic meerkat character.

The holiday season signals the start of the zoo’s “WildLights” celebration in which more than 275,000 miniature lights illuminate animated holiday scenes. It is also the site of one of the world’s largest LGB model railroad layouts; the layout includes the world’s longest model trestle span.

Of particular interest are the re-creations of a variety of desert environments. The North American desert gardens include:

* Mojave Desert–Joshua Tree area and East Mojave (Cima Dome)
* Chihuahuan Desert — south of Big Bend, Texas and into Mexico
* Sonoran Desert — foothills of Sonora (Sonora, Mexico); Yuma Desert (south-central Arizona); Vizcaíno Desert (central Baja)
* Colorado Desert – Upper Colorado (represents 2,000-3,000 ft. elevation); Palm Oasis; Cahuilla Ethnobotanic Garden; Lower Colorado; Sonoran Pond (a desert riparian area)

Specialized gardens include:

* Agave Garden – agaves from throughout the Western Hemisphere
* Aloe Garden – African aloes
* Aviary Oasis – Coachella Valley palm oasis set around walk in aviary
* Barrel Cactus Garden – Ferocactus species
* East African Garden – Large collection of native African plants and trees, one of the best collection of African plant species in North America
* Euphorbia Garden – African euphorbias
* Hummingbird Garden – plants that attract hummingbirds
* Johnston Cactus Garden – various cacti
* Madagascar Garden – native plants found only on Madagascar
* Mallow Garden – small collection of mallows
* McDonald Butterfly and Wildflower Garden – plants that attract migrating butterflies
* Mexican Columnar Cactus Garden – tall column cacti collected from around the desert southwest
* Ocotillo Garden – nine of twelve known ocotillo species
* Opuntia Garden – various chollas and prickly pears
* Palm Garden – over fifty species of palms from around the world, several hundred palm trees in all
* Primitive Garden – plants from the Jurassic period, cycads and ferns
* Sage Garden – Salvia species
* Sheep Food Garden – plants that are food sources for bighorn sheep
* Smoke Tree Garden – smoke trees in natural wash setting
* Sonoran Arboretum – trees from the Sonoran Desert in garden setting
* Wortz Demonstration Garden – Southwest landscape design
* Yucca Garden – yucca species

from wikipedia.org
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The Leaning Pine Arboretum is located on five acres at the north end of the California Polytechnic State University campus in San Luis Obispo, California, USA.

Collections are arranged primarily by nativity and feature a diverse array of trees, shrubs, and other landscape plants appropriate for California’s Central Coast area. The gardens display hundreds of unique and intriguing plants primarily from the world’s five mediterranean climate regions: Australia, California, Chile, the Mediterranean basin, and South Africa. The arboretum also has a New Zealand garden, a Dwarf and Unusual Conifer garden, a Formal garden, and displays of cycads, palms, and numerous succulents.

Visitors are always welcome. The arboretum is open year ’round. Hours are from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, except academic holidays. There is no admission fee. Because plants change with the seasons, you are encouraged to return often to enjoy the many and varied highlights and vistas. The Leaning Pine Arboretum is a living laboratory of plants for all to enjoy.

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The Charles C. Jensen Botanical Gardens are botanical gardens located at 8520 Fair Oaks Boulevard, Carmichael, California. They are open during the daylight hours without charge. The gardens exhibit a variety of flora including camellias, dogwoods, azaleas, and rhododendrons.

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Hakone Gardens is a traditional Japanese garden in Saratoga, California, USA. It claims to be the oldest Japanese-style residential garden in the Western Hemisphere. Notable features include a bamboo garden, a Zen garden, a strolling garden (the Hill and Pond Garden), tea houses, and the Cultural Exchange Center, a replica of a 19th century Japanese home and storefront.
In 1916, two San Francisco arts patrons, Oliver and Isabel Stine, intending to build a summer retreat, purchased the 18 acres (73,000 m2) site on which Hakone now stands. Inspired by her trips to Japan, Isabel Stine modeled the gardens upon (and named them after) Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park. She hired Japanese landscape artists and architects to design the gardens and the Upper “Moon Viewing” House. More buildings were added in later years by Stine and by subsequent owners. In 1966, the City of Saratoga purchased Hakone Gardens, then in disrepair, in order to protect it. The Hakone Foundation, a non-profit organization, was established in 1984 to restore and enhance the gardens independently of public funding. The gardens are open to the public and the various community facilities are often used for cultural events.

Film History

Hakone Gardens was a filming location for the movie Memoirs of a Geisha (2005).

from wikipedia.org
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The Conservatory of Flowers is a large botanical greenhouse in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, constructed in 1878. It houses an important collection of exotic plants. It is the oldest building in Golden Gate Park and the oldest municipal wooden conservatory remaining in the United States. It is also one of the first municipal conservatories constructed in the country. For these distinctions and for its associated historical, architectural, and engineering merits, the Conservatory of Flowers is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the California Register of Historic Places, is a San Francisco Landmark, and is a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Architectural Description The Conservatory of Flowers is an elaborate Victorian greenhouse with a central dome rising nearly 60 feet (18 m) high and arch-shaped wings extending from it for an overall length of 240 feet (73 m). It sits atop a gentle slope overlooking Conservatory Valley. The structural members are articulated through one predominant form, a four-centered or Tudor arch. The Conservatory of Flowers consists of a wood structural skeleton with glass walls set on a raised masonry foundation. The entire structure has a shallow E-shaped plan that is oriented along an east-west axis. The central 60-foot (18 m) high pavilion is entered through a one-story, glassed-in vestibule with a gable roof on the south side of the pavilion. Flanking the rotunda to the east and west are one-story, symmetrical wings framed by wood arches. Each wing is L-shaped in plan, with cupolas adorning the intersection of the two segments. The octagonal pavilion supports an arched roof that is, in turn, surmounted by a clerestory and dome. The clerestory is supported by eight, free-standing, wood-clad, cast iron columns located within the rotunda and grouped in pairs.

Projecting from the pavilion roof on the east, west, and south elevations are dormer windows with peak roofs. Between major arched structural framing members are wood muntins that hold the glass lights on their sides. The lights are lapped one over one another like shingles and follow the curve of the arches. The construction of each arch is aesthetically appealing in its simplicity, but also structurally clever in that it takes maximum advantage of wood as a building material while overcoming its inherent structural shortcomings. From a structural perspective, the arch design utilizes the mechanical properties of the material. Wood is strongest along the length of the grain and weakest along the end grain. The use of short arch components with shallow radii minimized the amount of weaker end grain exposed to structural forces. The assembly of the arch with several small pieces of wood, the shapes of which are identical from arch to arch, is efficient. It allowed the fabricator to set the machines with guides and templates so that cutting the multiple-arch components was a simple task. Furthermore, the design required little material since each individual arch component has only a shallow radius. Moreover, by using relatively narrow widths of lumber, the chance of warping was minimized. Finally, there was an efficiency realized in transportation, as the small size of the arch components allowed them to be easily stored and shipped. The structural wood arches and their method of construction, along with the decorative woodwork and unique lapped glazing, define the character of the Conservatory of Flowers. The major character-defining elements associated with the Conservatory of Flowers consist of ornamental and structural woodwork, including the method of fabrication used for the arches, the lapped glazing system, the ventilation system, and the building’s siting and exterior landscaping.

The material for the conservatory was purchased by James Lick prior to his death in 1876. Lick died before constructing the conservatory on his estate, and it was put up for sale by his trustees. The material was then purchased by a group of prominent San Franciscans who offered it to the City of San Francisco for use in Golden Gate Park.

The Parks Commission accepted the gift and hired Lord & Burnham, a greenhouse manufacturing company from New York, to supervise the erection of the structure. Once open, it contained a large variety of rare and tropical plants, including a giant water lily, Victoria Regia, which at the time was the only known specimen in the United States. Historic Context In both Europe and America, the nineteenth century brought increased urbanization and industrialization. In response, city governments began providing city-dwellers with open spaces and natural settings for public use. The profession of Landscape Architecture expanded during the later part of the nineteenth century, and park design became a large part of this new profession’s repertoire. In addition, a significant outgrowth of the need for natural surroundings in urban contexts was an increase in the study of plant sciences during this period, both by professionals and amateurs. A building type called the glasshouse or conservatory took shape in which the city-dweller could view masterpieces of the plant world otherwise unavailable in urban environments. Municipalities and individuals spent a great deal of time and money to construct these building types that became known as “theaters of nature.” Similar conservatories were constructed across Europe, starting in the early 1800s. Perhaps the most well known of these is the Palm Stove House in the Kew Royal Gardens in London. These structures were enjoyed by a broad cross-section of the public. Following European fashions, wealthy Americans began to construct conservatories in the mid-1800s on private estates. James Lick, a wealthy Californian, purchased a conservatory for his Santa Clara Valley estate but died before it could be erected.

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The Fullerton Arboretum is a 10 ha (26 acre) botanical garden with a collection of plants from around the world, located on the northeast corner of the California State University, Fullerton campus in Fullerton, California, USA.

The Arboretum officially was created in 1976, and officially opened in 1979. A centerpiece of the Arboretum is the Heritage House, which was built in 1894 as the home and office of Fullerton’s pioneer physician, Dr. George C. Clark. In 1972 the house was moved to what is now the middle of the Arboretum. The restored house now serves as a museum of family life and medical practice of the 1890s.

The Arboretum’s garden paths wander through four major collections: Cultivated, Woodlands, Mediterranean and Desert Collections. Highlights include Southern California native vegetation, Rare Fruit Grove, historic Citrus and Avocados, Channel Islands Garden, an extensive Cycad Collection, Conifer Collection, Palm Grove, Community Gardens, and a Children’s Garden.

Museums

The Orange County Agricultural and Nikkei Heritage Museum is located on the grounds of the Fullerton Arboretum, and highlights the region’s agricultural history, as well as the contributions of the local Japanese American community and other pioneering farmers. The museum is a collaboration between Fullerton Arboretum and California State University Fullerton.

Heritage House is a historic house museum decorated as a doctor’s home and office of the 1890s. The Eastlake-style cottage was built by one of Fullerton’s pioneer doctors, Dr. George Crook Clark, in 1894. The home was moved to the arboretum campus in 1972 to save it from demolition. It was originally located at the corner of Amerige and Harvard (Lemon) in the center of Fullerton. Docents lead tours of the house on weekend afternoons.

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The Earl Burns Miller Japanese Garden 1.3 acres (5,000 m²) is a Japanese garden located on the campus of California State University, Long Beach, in Long Beach, California, USA. It was dedicated in 1981. Ed Lovell, landscape master plan architect for the University, traveled to Japan and took inspiration from the Imperial Gardens in Tokyo before designing the garden.
The garden is closed on Saturdays (when it is often rented out for weddings and receptions) and Mondays.

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Descanso Gardens located in La Cañada Flintridge, California is a 25 acre (101,000 m²) camellia forest.

At one time the property of the newspaper magnate E. Manchester Boddy (who owned the Los Angeles Daily News), he ran a commercial Camellia garden at this location (supplying prom boutonnières, for example) until he ceded the site to Los Angeles County in 1953.

The County has further developed the property to include a world-class rosarium, as well as a Japanese tea house, lilac garden, bird sanctuary, xeriscape, and of course a gift shop. They also regularly host professional Camellia shows, chamber music, and weddings. They are busiest however on the Easter weekend, when the tulips are in bloom and eggs are hidden on the central lawn of one acre (4,000 m²).

Boddy House is the original 22-room house built by E. Manchester Boddy, which was sold along with the estate to Los Angeles County in 1953. The house was designed by James E. Dolena in the Hollywood Regency style in 1937.

In 2007, Boddy House was rehabilitated for the 43rd annual Pasadena Showcase House of Design, and decorated in a contemporary re-interpretation of its original Hollywood Regency style. Subsequently, a major grant from the Ahmanson Foundation enabled the addition of a museum-quality Heritage Exhibit, with exhibits about the gardens, Manchester Boddy’s life and times, and important donors and volunteers for the Descanso Gardens.

The house is open for docent-led tours on Saturdays and Sundays at noon. The house is also available for rental.

The Carriage House Art Gallery hosts changing exhibits by local artists.

In 2005, David R. Brown, former president of the nearby Art Center College of Design, was appointed executive director of Descanso Gardens.