At long last, we finally visited the San Francisco Botanical Gardens. I've always wanted to visit, and even after having been to the Golden Gate Park so many times, and visiting so many other gardens, we kept missing out on this. So we finally went last weekend,on the first day of spring and had a beautiful day out. Parking is free and entry is also free for SF residents and a family pass for 2 adults and 2 children is $21.
The San Francisco Botanical Garden is a living museum with 55 acres of both landscaped gardens and open spaces, showcasing over 8,500 different kinds of plants from around the world - making it one of the most diverse gardens in the world.The gardens are organized into several specialized collections:
- Mediterranean- California Native, John Muir Nature Trail, Redwood Grove, Chile, South Africa,Australia and the Mediterranean Basin Region
- Mild-temperate climate-New Zealand, Moon-viewing Garden - a Japanese design, Temperate Asia Garden
- Montane (high altitude) tropic- Mesoamerican Cloud Forest,Southeast Asian Cloud Forest (in development), Andean Cloud Forest (in development)
- Specialty collections-Ancient Plant Garden, Succulent garden, Dwarf Conifer garden, Garden of Fragrance, Zellerbach Garden of Perennials, Dry Mexico and Rhododendron Garden.
If the sheer variety of the plants overwhelms you, do not worry - just enjoy the walk through some of the gardens, turtle watch by the pond and enjoy a picnic in the center meadow by the fountain.
