Regional Parks Botanic Garden

The Regional Parks Botanic Garden is a 10-acre (4-hectare) botanical garden located in Tilden Regional Park in the Berkeley Hills, east of Berkeley, California , United States. It displays native California plants and is open to the public every day of the year, except New Year's Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

 

The Botanical Garden Regional Parks was founded on 1 January 1940. Located in the beautiful Wildcat Canyon of Tilden Regional Park, in the heart of the northern Berkeley Hills, the garden is dedicated to the collection, growth, display and conservation of native California plants. The state is a vast region of many floral regions, such as sea-coast bluffs and coastal mountains, inland valleys, arid foothills, alpine zones and two kinds of deserts. California is home to nearly 160,000 square miles — imagine 160,000 square miles of California set in a garden that can be walked in a day.

 

The public is welcomed in this garden, which is open between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. from 1 October to 31 May, and between 8:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. from 1 June to 30 September. The garden is closed for New Year's Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. All the specimens are landscaped in a delightful setting, offering many enjoyable days of exploration, relaxation and contemplation. 

 

For the student, the Botanic Garden offers a prime location in Northern California to study the native plants of the state without wandering far from home or dorm.Indoors, in the Visitor Center, lectures and slide shows are scheduled on most Saturdays from November through February, and an exhibit pertaining to the native flora is usually to be found in the auditorium.

 

Among the many specimens brought in from all corners of the state, there are representatives of almost all the conifers and oaks of the state, and probably the most complete collection of manzanitas of California to be found anywhere. There are also extensive collections of California native bunches, bulbs, aquatic plants, and representatives of about 300 taxa that are classified in the California Native Plant Society 's landmark study, "California's Rare and Endangered Vascular Plant Inventory."

 

For the sake of clarity of display, the majority of the garden is divided into 10 geographically-based sections. The sections are: Southern California (plants labeled with sand-colored labels), Shasta-Klamath (green labels), Valley-Foothill (yellow labels), Santa Lucia (orange labels), Channel Islands (black labels), Sierran (blue labels), Redwood (red labels), Sea Bluff (brown labels), Pacific Rain Forest (green labels), and Franciscan (yellow labels). The section of the canyon (brown labels) in the northernmost part of the garden is not geographically based. The plants are grouped here according to their individual horticultural requirements.

 

The Botanical Garden is partially accessible to persons with disabilities. This includes the bathrooms on the parking lot. The most accessible paths around the garden are to the right and to the left from the main entrance. The Visitor Center is fully accessible for wheelchair users.