
The 16 most beautiful and inviting public gardens in Southern California
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Southern California is blessed with brilliant weather year-round, so it’s no surprise we have an abundance of curated and mostly public botanical gardens, catering to just about every interest and plant this Golden State can support.
While these are beautiful and inviting spaces, don’t mistake them for parks. Think of them more as living museums. With this in mind, most public gardens don’t permit dogs or other pets (including emotional support animals) in order to protect wildlife in the gardens and minimize damage to the plants. Service animals trained under Americans With Disabilities Act specifications are the exception.
From a lighthouse in Crescent City, to trees changing colors in the Sierra, to funky art installations near the Salton Sea, these are the best things to do in the Golden State in the fall.
And often these gardens don’t permit outside food inside to minimize litter and problems with wildlife. Check before you decide to bring a picnic because you might have to eat it in the parking lot.
If you’re a frequent visitor to a particular garden, consider becoming a member, which usually gives you perks such as free entry and reduced fees for classes and special events. Think of it as a win-win. We urbanites and suburbanites need public gardens to feed our souls, and these not-to-be-missed gardens need our financial support to maintain and build their spaces. If we’ve missed your favorite, email jeanette.marantos@latimes.com, and let us know.

Arlington Garden
This is a garden where you can bring a book or a picnic, let children safely run free or find a sheltered corner for coffee and intense conversation. During a visit late on a fall Friday afternoon, one young woman sat in a corner of the allée with her sketch pad; a slender walker gaped at the white barrel-shaped blooms oozing with bees on a tall San Pedro cactus (Echinopsis pachanoi); and a toddler wheeled and shrieked with excitement at finding a pumpkin in the vegetable patch. Use this garden as you would a pair of comfortable shoes — as often as you can, with gratitude and love.
Admission: Free
Hours: Open daily from sunrise to sunset.
Food: You can’t purchase food at the garden, but there are areas for eating prepared foods; just make sure to clean up afterward. The garden’s famous marmalade, made from oranges picked from its trees, is available for purchase at several locations in Pasadena but not normally in the garden.
Other: There is no publicly accessible restroom, but there is a water bottle refill station in the back of the garden, on the garden shed. Dogs are permitted if leashed.

California Botanic Garden
This is a lovely garden to wander and see how native plants look when they’re mature. The garden’s website lists what’s currently in bloom. You can purchase many of the plants you admire at the garden’s Grow Native Nursery, open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Fridays through Sundays.
The California Botanic Garden is a great place to visit for landscape planning, or just appreciating these plants’ heady range of fragrances. With many, a slight stroke of a branch can fill the air with scent; just be gentle when you walk by.
Admission: $15 ($11 seniors 65+ and students with ID, $5 ages 3-12, and free entry for members and children under 3.)
Hours: The garden opens at 8 a.m. Tuesdays through Sundays, but closing hours change seasonally to 5 p.m. November through February, 6 p.m. in March and October, 7 p.m. in April, May and September and 8 p.m. June through August. Last entry is 30 minutes before closing time. The garden is closed on Mondays plus Jan. 1, July 4, Thanksgiving day and Dec. 25.
Food: Food is not permitted in the gardens.
Other: Parking is free. No pets permitted except trained service dogs.
Conejo Valley Botanic Garden
This is a good place to bring children, with a stream running through, bridges here and there, and plenty of plant diversity, from a rare-fruit orchard and oak grove to gardens dedicated to butterflies, a bird habitat, desert cactuses and succulents, herbs, Australian plants, colorful native salvia and a “Trail of Trees” (more than 50 varieties of trees planted in 2005 to restore a slope covered with invasive mustard weed). The Rare Fruit Orchard at the top of the hill includes 99 trees planted by the California Rare Fruit Growers, featuring 34 varieties from 19 countries as a demonstration of Southern California’s versatile growing environment.
There’s also a special garden for children open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sundays only. Another impressive fact: This nonprofit botanic garden was started by three local volunteers in 1973 — Ray Garcia, Fred Wilson and Jackson Granholm — after a housing developer donated the hilly, unbuildable 33 acres to the Conejo Recreation and Park District, according to botanic garden president Beverly Brune. Today, the gardens comprise 41 acres and are completely managed by volunteers and funded by money raised by grants and fundraisers such as the garden nursery, which sells plants propagated from the garden from 9 to 11 a.m. Wednesdays and from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays in the Kids’ Adventure Garden.
Admission: Free
Hours: Open daily, sunrise to sunset, except July 4 and when trail conditions are wet. The Kids’ Adventure Garden is open only on Sundays, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The garden nursery sells plants on Wednesdays from 9:30 a.m. to noon.
Food: Food is not permitted in the gardens.
Other: Dogs are permitted if leashed. Restrooms are located in the parking lot, next to Conejo Community Park.
Descanso Gardens
Descanso’s Sturt Haaga Gallery has rotating exhibits throughout the year, and the gardens often host original compositions and performances, sometimes with music piped through the trees. The garden, which is owned by L.A. County, also hosts popular seasonal events such as the Halloween-season Carved, featuring hundreds of pumpkins intricately carved by artists, and the annual holiday light show Enchanted. Visit often to check out the changing gardens because there’s always something blooming at Descanso. This is a garden you can visit according to your mood. Whether you’re feeling reflective or joyous, it will always be uplifting.
Admission: $15, $11 for seniors 65+ and students with ID, $5 for children ages 5-12, members and children under 5 enter free. Nonmembers must purchase their tickets in advance. Descanso’s ride-on train runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends. Tickets are $5. Riders must be at least 30 inches tall and able to sit on their own.
Hours: 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily except Dec. 25. Members can enter at 8 a.m.
Food: The Farmhouse at Descanso offers sit-down meals; Jones Coffee Roasters serves coffee and pastries and the Market offers grab-and-go food and drink.
Other: No pets permitted except trained service dogs. The garden grounds are accessible by paved pathways, but “certain paths may be narrow, rough, uneven or steep,” according to the website. A few wheelchairs are available for loan on a first-come, first-served basis, and a cart shuttle is available on request at the guest services office for transport to the hilltop gardens, Boddy House and Sturt Haaga Gallery.
Arboretum and Botanical Garden at Cal State Fullerton
Wide lawns near the entrance lead to two ponds full of sunning turtles, connected by a shallow, fast-moving stream that burbles through the west side of the gardens. It might be hot outside, but the temperature drops significantly inside the bamboo forest, redwood grove and a collection of huge and wonderfully twisted fig trees.
Don’t miss the spectacular rock fig with its pale green trunks rising ghost-like from the heavily leaf-littered ground. At the east side of the garden is the Thorn Forest, with truly bizarre plants such as the silk floss tree, with its spike-studded branches and trunk and delicate lily-like blooms. Then suddenly, after all the forests, you are smack in the desert, studded with barrel cactuses, towering agave blooms and a bit of shade from massive Chilean mesquite trees. The rare-fruit orchard and citrus groves remind us we live in Southern California, and if you’re lucky, you can purchase some of the bounty at the gate, such as bags of fresh fuyu persimmons, sapotes, star fruit and pomegranates.
Admission: $5 suggested donation. Members enter free.
Hours: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily; closed on most university-recognized holidays.
Food: No food is available for purchase at the arboretum, except for fruit that’s sometimes sold at the gate. Food and picnics are not permitted inside the garden, but there are benches and tables outside the front entrance where people can eat.
Other: Restrooms are located near the entrance. No pets are permitted except trained service dogs.

The Getty Center Gardens
Brilliant bougainvillea cascade out of tall iron trellises like colorful giant umbrellas, and the foliage and plantings change with the seasons to live up to Irwin’s statement about the garden: “Always changing, never twice the same,” carved into one of the stepping stones.
The gardens also include a variety of cactuses, succulents and sculptures, all framed by the Getty’s austere, otherworldly architecture.
Admission: Free, but parking is $25 per vehicle or $15 after 3 p.m. and $10 after 6 p.m. (Starting June 2, parking will be free after 6 p.m. on Saturdays.) Free garden tours are conducted a few times a day, based on docent availability. Check at the information desk at the main entry hall for times that day.
Hours: 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Sundays-Fridays, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturdays. Closed Mondays and Jan. 1, July 4, Thanksgiving day and Dec. 25.
Food: Available for purchase at a cafe, restaurant and two coffee carts.
Other: No pets permitted except trained service dogs. The garden paths are all wheelchair-accessible.

The Huntington
But the main event here is the Huntington’s 130-acre gardens, a sprawling collection of extraordinary roses, exquisite Chinese and Japanese gardens, and areas dedicated to Australian plants, Shakespearean plants, herbs, desert plants, jungle and subtropical plants (you can almost hear Tarzan bellowing somewhere in those towering, vine-dripping trees) and, of course, a whimsical garden to enchant children.
If you want a free-day ticket (the first Thursday of every month), you’ll need to be strategic, ready to jump on a reservation at 9 a.m. the Thursday before. Due to the huge demand, people are assigned a random number after they enter the online waiting room for free tickets. If your number is selected, you can receive up to five tickets per household (babies also need tickets on free days).
Admission: Tickets are $29 ($24 for seniors 65+, military with ID and students 12-18 or full-time with ID; $13 for ages 4-11 and free for children under 4 and members). People with SNAP EBT cards can enter for $3 under the Museums for All program. Note that members are not permitted on free days. Free garden tours are available (except on free days) at 10:30, 11 and 11:30 a.m. subject to docent availability.
Hours: Open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily except Tuesdays, reservations are required Friday-Sunday and during “peak season” times. Bottom line: It’s safest to make reservations no matter what day you plan to visit. Note the new Japanese Heritage Shōya House is only open from noon to 4 p.m. Closed July 4, Thanksgiving and Dec. 24-25.
Food: The food options are varied and very good. The Jade Court Cafe in the Chinese Garden offers a range of yummy cuisine, plus beer and wine. There’s also the renovated and popular Rose Garden Tea Room as well as the 1919 Cafe near the entrance and the Red Car coffee shop for grab-and-go coffees, ice cream cones and sandwiches — along with indoor and outdoor seating.
Other: No pets permitted except trained service dogs. Most gardens are wheelchair-accessible, and wheelchairs are available for loan on a first-come, first-served basis. A visitor shuttle travels in a counterclockwise loop through the gardens between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., making eight stops around the grounds at locations listed on the visitor map.

Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden
Regardless, there’s nothing stuffy about the arboretum, and plenty of beautiful places to wander, such as the aquatic gardens that include the Meyberg Waterfall, the Meadowbrook Garden (filled with deciduous trees whose colorful blooms and leaves change every season against a tapestry of evergreens) and the tropical greenhouse with thousands of orchids.
Of course, there are the standard botanic garden plantings grouped by geography — South American, Mediterranean, South African, Australian and Asiatic-North American. But the arboretum also has extraordinary demonstration gardens such as the Crescent Farm, a onetime compacted lawn transformed into a lush, drought-resistant garden of California native plants and low-water fruits, vegetables, ground covers and shrubs by using lasagna mulching and hugelkultur beds to rebuild the soil.
Peacocks nonchalantly roam throughout — they’re descendants of the three birds imported by Rancho Santa Anita’s last owner, Elias Jackson “Lucky” Baldwin. There are historic buildings as well, such as the relocated Santa Anita Depot and the Queen Anne Cottage built by Baldwin. Little-known fact: This garden is also a great place for botanic research, thanks to its extensive library that you can search online and staff like Frank McDonough, a full-time botanical information consultant whose job is to answer the public’s questions about plants. (Call McDonough at [626] 821-3236.)
The garden offers a range of regular classes such as forest bathing, guided bird walks and goat yoga and provides space for many plant-related conventions and clubs. It also offers $8 tram tours Wednesdays through Sundays and a charming, well-stocked gift shop. It’s truly a garden for the masses, especially if they have a taste for wonder.
Admission: $15, $11 seniors 62+ and students with ID, $5 ages 5-12, members and children 4 and younger enter free. Free days are the third Tuesday of the month for people who are able to reserve a ticket on the first of each month.
Hours: Open 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. Members can enter as early as 7:30 a.m.
Food: The Peacock Café is open daily from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays, and 4:30 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.
Other: No pets permitted except trained service dogs. Most of the arboretum’s wide paths are wheelchair-accessible.
Santa Barbara Botanic Garden
Be sure to descend to the floor of the redwood grove, just to be inspired by its quiet grandeur. Then follow Mission Creek south to explore the aqueduct. Check out the maze in the children’s garden, and cross the creek to climb up to the manzanita garden, which features 60 varieties of the red-barked plants, ranging from sculptural ground covers to midsize shrubs and small trees — all of which have delicate bell-shaped blooms in the spring. This garden is a good way to see how California native plants can be incorporated into residential spaces. There’s also a water-wise home garden with useful suggestions about how to landscape using drought-tolerant native plants and a nursery where you can purchase at least some of the plants you admired. For die-hard horticultural researchers, the garden’s Blaksley Library, established in 1927, includes more than 15,000 books, journals and digital media about California’s plants and landscape history, as well as an extensive photo collection.
Admission: $20, $16 seniors 60+ and military, $14 students with ID, $12 children ages 3-12, free entry to members and children under 3. Reservations are required for non-members and strongly recommended for members due to the capacity limits, and include parking for one car.
Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Members can enter at 9 a.m.
Food: There is a gift store but food not available for purchase; carry-in food is permitted.
Other: Only some parts of the garden are wheelchair accessible, mostly in the upper levels. Dogs are permitted if leashed. Restrooms are located near the entrance.
Sherman Library & Gardens
Sherman Gardens often weaves classes and art among its plants, hosting sculpture installations, seasonal light displays and performances by a contemporary dance troupe. The library specializes in the history of the Pacific Southwest, including Southern California, Arizona and northern Mexico, with 15,000 books and a collection of California Impressionist art. It’s easy to spend a few hours in this small garden. Maybe that’s because its intimacy and easy access invite you to linger and savor what you see.
Admission: $5; members and children 3 and younger enter free.
Hours: Open 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily except Jan. 1, July 4, Thanksgiving day and Dec. 25.
Food: The garden’s restaurant, 608 Dahlia, is open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays.
Other: No pets permitted except trained service dogs. The level paths are wheelchair-accessible and the designated entry for wheelchair users is off Pacific Coast Highway next to the gift store.
South Coast Botanic Garden
All in all, the garden has more than 2,500 species of plants and five miles of trails, but if that feels overwhelming, the garden’s website offers a downloadable map for easy planning, along with suggestions for what to see based on how much time you have to visit. The garden also has popular seasonal events that require an additional fee such as Soar, its butterfly pavilion and garden.
If you only have 45 minutes, you can still see a lot at this garden with brisk walking, but if you’ve got the time it’s an easy, fragrant place to while away an entire afternoon. Just remember to bring something to eat and drink on weekdays!
Hours: Open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily except Dec. 25.
Admission: Reserved tickets required for nonmembers; members must reserve tickets on Saturdays and Sundays, free days and holidays. Tickets are $15, $11 seniors 62+ and students, $5 children ages 5-12, free for members and children 4 and younger. Free admission with reservations on the third Tuesday of each month.
Food: Dottie’s at the Koi Pond sells food, beer, wine and specialty cocktails on Saturdays and Sundays only from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Carry-in food is permitted if pre-prepared.
Other: Leashed dogs are permitted only during designated dog walking hours, typically scheduled the last Sunday of every month, otherwise pets are not permitted on site.
Storrier Stearns Japanese Gardens
This privately-owned nonprofit garden has limited hours. But if you’re looking for a special evening out on Friday or Saturday, grab your favorite takeout and even a bottle of wine and watch the day melt into night, with strings of lights reflecting off the pond. The teahouse is lighted but no longer open to visitors except during special events. “People were coming and doing yoga in there,” said site manager Heidi Ferraro, “so now it’s only open for tea ceremonies.”
Admission: Tickets are $15 on Fridays and Saturdays and $12 on Sundays for people 13 and older. People 12 and younger enter free.
Hours: Open 4 to 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, unless the garden is rented for a special event, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays. Note that hours vary based on the season and site rentals, so be sure to check the website before you go. Shorter hours happen in the winter after daylight saving time.
Food: No food is sold at the garden, but you can bring your own food and drink. Be sure to bring your own cups, bottle openers, cutlery and plates and take it all out with you when you leave.
Other: Most of the garden is wheelchair-accessible. Pets are not permitted.
Taft Gardens & Nature Preserve
Wear good walking shoes. The paths can be uneven in spots, but there aren’t any serious climbs here — just a good wander through towering bottle trees and succulents and a riot of colorful blooms, especially in the spring. Water and restrooms are available toward the back of the gardens near the event center, but the managers suggest bringing your own pack-in-and-pack-out picnic along with extra water — especially in the heat. There are several worthy places to buy food in nearby Ojai. Order ahead and pick it up on your way to the gardens. This trip will take some planning, but once you get there you’ll feel like you have the place all to yourself. That kind of intimacy in a beautiful SoCal garden is a rare treat.
Admission: $20, children 12 and younger enter free. Tickets must be purchased online at least 24 hours in advance; no same-day tickets are available.
Hours: Vary by season so check the website. Currently timed-entry tickets are available Tuesdays through Saturdays at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.
Food: No food is sold on-site, but water and restrooms are available. Carry-in food is permitted.
Other: Dogs are permitted if leashed. Most garden paths are gravel or mulch, so wheelchair access can be limited in places. Call ahead for more information about accessibility.
UC Riverside Botanic Gardens
The garden also has collections from a variety of geographical areas, including Australia and South Africa, as well as the eastern United States, with its temperate deciduous forests and North American deserts. And, of course, it also covers regions of California, from Baja and the California chaparral to North Coast redwood forests, oak woodlands, coastal sage scrub — native to the hills where the gardens are located — and a lovely shady area known as Alder Canyon full of native California riparian trees.
You could see plenty of wildlife too, including migrating birds, rattlesnakes, coyotes, bobcats and even the occasional mountain lion according to the staff, so walk with care.
Admission: No charge but suggested $5 donation, which can be offered via QR code or with cash at the gate. Parking is $2 an hour at the garden’s small parking lot, maximum of three hours, or $3.50 an hour, maximum two hours, in Lot 10 a bit farther away. And farther on, free parking options are available on weekends in Lot 13.
Hours: 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday-Friday plus the first and third Sundays of every month from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. (last entry half-hour before closing). The garden is closed on major holidays or when the campus is closed for academic and administrative holidays. The campus calendar is here.
Food: Food is not available for purchase in the garden, but it’s permissible to bring prepared foods into the garden.
Other: Pets are not permitted. Water and restrooms are available near the entrance. The garden has a gentle paved switchback trail available from the lower garden up to the rose garden and pond areas for wheelchair users and stroller pushers.

Ventura Botanical Garden
New plantings began in 2018, and today the garden is 107 acres with more than 120,000 plants in place, including a young olive grove on one hill, rare Chilean wine palms that survived the fire despite the charring on their thick trunks and, in the South African Fynbos and Karoo gardens, proteas with blooms like fireworks, Dr. Seuss-like succulents and fragrant mounds of scented geraniums.
The gardens are devoted to the world’s five Mediterranean climate zones — central Chile, the Cape region of South Africa, Southwest Australia, California (including Baja) and, of course, the Mediterranean basin. The walks are uphill (unless you’re returning to the entrance), but the incline is so gradual and the view so inspiring that you hardly notice the climb.
This garden is really filling out as the plants mature and spread, but these lovely terraced gardens are as much about the heart-soaring vistas of Ventura’s curving coastline and ever-changing sky as they are about the plants along the trails.
Admission: $7, free to members and ages 18 and under. Admission is free on Fridays and select holidays. Free, docent-led garden tours are available by advance request.
Hours: Open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday to Sunday. Closed Mondays and on rainy days.
Food: Food is not sold on-site but can be consumed there.
Other: Leashed dogs are permitted on Wednesdays and Fridays. The gardens also have a small gift store and nursery at the entrance, along with bathrooms. Although the parking and main entrance areas are paved, the garden is hilly and the trails are mostly smooth dirt. Check at the entrance for wheelchair-accessible routes.
Wrigley Memorial & Botanic Garden
Wrigley’s remains were later moved to Forest Lawn cemetery in Glendale, but the memorial tower and 38-acre botanic garden are still there, with succulents, desert plants of the Americas and a large swath devoted to native plants endemic to the island — meaning they are only found natively on Catalina — along with plants endemic to the other Channel Islands. The garden is also the primary gateway to one of the Catalina Island Conservancy’s most popular hikes, the Garden to Sky trail.
Admission: $13.56; $11.39 seniors 55+ and students with ID, $8.14 ages 5-12, free to ages 4 and younger, Conservancy members and military members and family and veterans (with ID).
Hours: Open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily except Thanksgiving day and Dec. 25.
Food: Carry-in food permitted on-site; water only available at the entrance.
Other: No pets permitted except trained service dogs.
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