I have a confession to make. If I didn’t have to visit Northern California’s botanical gardens and preserves to review them for my travel guides, I probably never would have learned how amazing the places are. Until I actually visited the spectacular Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park and the mind-blowing Cornerstone Festival of Gardens in Sonoma Valley, I never realized how… entertaining the world of botany can be.

If you’re already a fan of gardens, you won’t need encouraging, but for all you too-cool-for-tulips types, trust me: A getaway to any of these five botanical gardens will turn your thumbs green in no time.

Cornerstone Festival of Gardens, Sonoma Valley
If you love gardens, landscape art, and wine, I’m about to make your day. Situated along Highway 121 in Sonoma Valley is the Cornerstone Festival of Gardens, the first gallery-style garden exhibit in the United States. I call it the MOMA of Sonoma—a series of 20 walk-through gardens showcasing new and innovative designs from some of the world’s finest landscape architects and designers.

It’s a 9-acre gallery of inspirational creativity, where landscape artists are given a blank garden parcel of approximately 1,800 square feet and almost no design limitations. The results are spectacular. And if you get inspired to create your own garden art (and you will), you can purchase items ranging from artistic outdoor furniture and gifts to plants, garden art, and books. The gardens are open daily 10am to 5pm; for more information call 707/933-3010 or log onto www.cornerstonegardens.com.

Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
I’ve lived in San Francisco for nearly two decades and I still haven’t explored all the gardens in Golden Gate Park. Within this 1,017-acre natural sanctuary are dozens of exceptional gardens connected by wooded paths and paved roads. The springtime array of thousands of tulips and daffodils around the Dutch Windmills is a photographer’s dream, and soon all the cherry trees will be in bloom at the Japanese Tea Garden.

And if you’ve never been inside the Conservatory of Flowers you’re in for a wonderful surprise: This glorious Victorian glass structure—the oldest existing public conservatory in the Western Hemisphere—houses over 1,700 species of plants in five galleries, including the largest Dracula orchid collection in the world (it’s also quite romantic). Thenthere’s the 55-acre San Francisco Botanical Garden, where more than 7,000 plant species grow, as well as the Rose Garden, Garden of Shakespeare’s Flowers, and dozens of other infinite hidden treasures for green-thumbed gurus. For more information about many of the park’s gardens log onto www.golden-gate-park.com and scroll to the bottom of the homepage.

Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens, Fort Bragg
About 7 miles north of Mendocino is the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens, one of the best botanical gardens on the West Coast and a fantastic excuse to hop in your car and take a weekend getaway to Mendocino. This cliff-top public garden, set among the pines along the coast, consists of a series of manicured formal gardens that offer a colorful display of rhododendrons, fuchsias, magnolias, azaleas, camellias, and a multitude of flowering shrubs that thrive in the mild maritime climate.

It’s also horribly romantic, with numerous trails that pass over bridges and streams and through fern-covered canyons, dense coastal pine forest, verdant dells, and flower-filled coastal bluffs overlooking the ocean. They also have picnic areas, so pack a basket before you arrive and enjoy an alfresco lunch among the daffodils. Even well-mannered pets are welcome. The gardens are open daily from 9am to 5pm; for more information log onto www.gardenbythesea.org or call 707/964-4352.

di Rosa Preserve: Art & Nature, Napa Valley
Anyone with an appreciation for art and gardens must visit the di Rosa Preserve to explore the collection and stunning 217-acre grounds of Rene and Veronica di Rosa, who have built up a world-renowned collection of 2,200-plus works of art by more than 800 Greater Bay Area artists, as well as a beautiful natural habitats replete with native grasses, ferns, herbs, and wildflowers.

Located in the Carneros region of the Napa Valley, it truly is a beautiful blend of art and nature, with intriguing sculptures on display throughout the gardens and along the shores of their 30-acre lake (as well as enclosed galleries within the di Rosa’s 130-year-old winery-turned-residence). To get the full di Rosa Preserve experience, make a reservation for a guided tour, which is offered Tuesday through Saturday. For more information log onto www.dirosapreserve.org or call 707/226-5991.

Muir Woods National Monument, Marin
I’m going to end this week’s botanical theme with my favorite garden getaway of all: Muir Woods National Monument. The coastal redwood forest is unlike any other forest in the world and an experience you won’t soon forget. It’s difficult to explain the feeling you get walking through this misty old-growth forest just north of San Francisco. Like a verdant jungle, a coastal redwood forest is a multistoried affair, and its trees—the tallest living things in the world—are just the top layer.

Everything here seems immense and mysterious, as if from a prehistoric age: giant mushrooms and colorful mosses saturate the ground, the ground is soft and eerily springy, and the smells are rich and earthy. My only complaint about Muir Woods are the weekend crowds, but all you need to do to escape the throng of tourists is walk UP any trail and you’ll have these majestic woods mostly to yourself. The park is open daily from 8am to sunset; for more information call 415/388-2596.

And if you have your own tips and recommendations on your favorite botanical gardens and nature preserves in Northern California that you’d like to share, feel free to add your own comments to our blog below. We’d love to hear from you.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 7th, 2010 at 6:06 am by Getaway Guru and is filed under Mind, Body & Spirit, Parks & Wildlife. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.