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Santa Barbara Botanic Garden
Rating Details »
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
20 reviews for Santa Barbara Botanic Garden
This is a must-see if you're visiting Santa Barbara, and I think it is one of the less-visited-by-tourist places. I've lived here for 4 years, and I neglected going until this year. Luckily, I made it up there before the Jesusita fire, and it is devastating to know that a lot of it burned.
I am definitely not a plant-person, but I do love nature and this place is exquisite. If you need a place to just relax and breathe, this is definitely the place to go. Great hiking, but still great even if you're less-mobile. I definitely want to go back. It is right by Mission Creek, so that is a plus because you can go check out the Creek, which you actually see running into the ocean if you go down to Cabrillo and State.
I love their little nursery... feels like you can take a piece of the garden back home with you for a very reasonable price. Unfortunately, I am apparently not very good at taking care of plants so I opted out of this until I am a better plant-mommy.
Anyway, this place is totally open and laid back, they even have a sample garden for all of you avid-gardeners out there. Pretty cool. You can also check out plants that are endemic to the Channel Islands (though I think this is one of the sections that burned :( )
So go check it out for a good time, especially if you're up by the Mission anyway!
This is an outstanding California native garden. It is huge, so great for hiking. They have very large native oak trees that are gorgeous. They sell local native plants. If you aren't used to looking at native plants, they will be at their most colorful in May and June, with the fuchsias blooming August through October. Nov-Feb can be a bit austere, but lovely in a wabi-sabi kind of way.
All I can say is g-o-r-g-e-o-u-s! If you like hiking around for about 1-2 hours and like any plant that's green and water and wildlife, this place is for you! I'm a fan of all of them, so I was in heaven. There's also a lot of cool places to take pictures too.
This place is absolutely gorgeous. With the hiking trails that branch off you could spend all day. If I lived in the area I would go up quite often with a book and just hide out in an out of the way area and enjoy the beauty and peace.
We went just a couple of days before the fires broke out. I know part of the garden was damaged, I hope not too much damage was done.
The gardens would have been even more fantastic (four or five stars) but unfortunately half of the gardens are closed due to the fire damage. The parts that are still open are absolutely lovely, but it was sad to see the destruction of the fires. I loved that they had a nursery and picked out a little Aloe plant to come home with me.
Good for: Inspiration before landscaping your place, relaxing, uncomfortable conversations with ex-boyfriends, and plant enthusiasts.
Not Recommended for: Unassisted Blind People, Tourists with no cameras, birthday parties, luaus, and bonfires.
Before I truly begin this review, allow me to rant for one second:
Seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeriously? You're seriously giving this place one star because of the lack of flowers?
If you want to see flowers blooming, please go when FLOWERS ARE ACTUALLY BLOOMING. There just might be an entire season dedicated to it...Do you go into a Mexican restaurant and get annoyed because they don't have sushi? NO! So, check out a place before you go. When it says, repeatedly, that it is dedicated to the research, education and display of California native plants, than they probably won't be bringing in winter blooming flowers from the tropics to plant in Disneyland-esque animal shapes for you, now are they???
Anyways, ignore what the tour guide at the beginning tells you if they tell you to start to your right. You'll want to actually start at the left with the childish "educational" displays (I kept hoping that the "Flower Reproductive System" diagram was going to be followed by an alternate "Female Reproductive System" diagram...mais, non) and just take a cursory look at the dilapidated tea house, and then get started on the rest of the tour. Save the beautiful meadow and redwood path for the end of the trip and then skip on over to the ceanothus path and the natural section.
My advice would be to definitely skip this place during the high traffic times of summer, and spring, and weekends. It's likely to be filled with idiotic tourists complaining about the lack of flowers, old people, and large groups of school children. Blech. But, because everything has a different growing pattern, heading up there during the winter (ceanothus will be at their peak), or mid-day during the week will allow yourself a little time to relax and enjoy yourself without the tourist hordes blocking everything and trampling through the poison oak.
This season over the next couple weeks and up through March is my favorite time to visit. And the nursery is always a great way to top off the day.
It's funny how this place gets either 1 or 5 stars. 1 is way too harsh. 5 is a bit much.
I've been to pretty much every botanical garden in the Southern Half of California. This one is nice; they've put some work into it, but it's really not in the top 5. But it IS an enjoyable stroll. Relax, enjoy what's there, and take some pictures. Then go to the SB zoo.
If you want the killer botanical gardens, go to the Huntington in San Marino. OMG.
So this place is just one humongous park with trails that go throughout. It will take you a good couple hours to explore so dont get there 45 minutes before closing like I did. However, I have found that the best photos are taken during sunset so you might want to take that into consideration when coming here.
The Redwood section and the Meadow section are gorgeous. Everytime you enter a new "region" it feels like you have entered a completely different part of the country. They do a good job at creating different ecosytems.
The park is kinda out in the middle of nowhere but it's worth the two mile drive into the mountains. Really beautiful, you should check it out. Bring your student ID for a nice little discount.
if you wanna see dead grass, weeds, chill with old folks, and get really tired on a mile long hike (i did it in flip flops), the santa barbara botanic garden is the right place for you. SERIOUSLY? where are all the flowers?! i do not get it..
now that im reading all these reviews on better things to do in SB, i really wish we went to the rocky nook park instead. 8 dollars was SO NOT WORTH IT walking a lot IN THE SUN, bored out of our minds.
ugghhh the worst part for me was me anxiously wanting to go to the japanese tea house, you have to walk through a stream and cross with rocks in the path.. im not much of an outdoorsy kinda person much any more so it was pretty terrifying for me and i got so nervous i was gonna eat it, that i froze on the middle rock and the BF had to come back and grab my hand. YA SURE it was only about 6 or 7 feet of rocks, it was still pretty scary to ME.
o ya and the tea house ended up being closed for refurbishment. SON OF A &^%$#!!!!!
i never intend on going back to the garden ever. on second thought, TO SANTA BARBARA EVER because it was REALLY BORING!
I have many memories that include the Botanic Gardens, from childhood to present!
This local is a photographers dream...especially using macro!!
This is true Santa Barbara!
When I hear people complain about the SBBG, it's usually based on reasons like "there are no flowers" or "I can't let my dog run loose."
These are not valid reasons because the SBBG doesn't exist as show gardens of petunias in flower year round, and it's not there as your dog's personal shitting grounds. Look at their splash page.
"Dedicated to research, education and conservation, and display of California native plants."
The SBBG is involved in many conservation efforts, both local and around the California coast helping record, conserve and re-establish endangered native or endemic flora.
I was lucky enough to assist in some of those research projects, growing rare plants that had been reduced down to one small locality on Santa Cruz Island and replanted them myself on the islands. Those 8.00 worthless dollars helps fund those restoration projects and bring students out to the islands to learn about them, or participate in the projects. When you think about the contribution it makes to maintaining genetic diversity and educating people, grousing about the lack of flowers is a little....misinformed?
Here's the simple math on plants native to this Mediterranean climate region:
Wet season = growth.
Dry season = dormant.
I love seeing the Garden's collections throughout the seasons and the dry periods are integral to the flora's seasonal cycles. Go there during the dry season and there will be interpretation about how plants - our plants, hello local pride - adapt to survive. Go there during the wet season and see the diversity of plants that can be quite beautiful. But you have to leave your preconceived notion behind that garishly colored freak pompom flowers are some kind of botanical standard. Horticultural, maybe, but not botanical.
Visit the demostration to see how native flora can be integrated into horticultural landscaping that's not only pretty, but waterwise.
Check out the Porter Trail for collections of ceanothus and penstemmons.
Or walk the Pritchet Trail for a little more serenity. I've taken a book up there many a time for a quiet sit and read.
The giant sandstone boulders near the creeks were a fun scramble when I was a kid.
Fantastic photo ops everywhere of patterns, textures, colors. Like another reviewer said: a macro lens will be put to great use here.
Within a relatively small space, 78 acres, you can walk amongst floral displays representing California meadows, Channel Islands, oak woodland, creek microclimates, even a majestic coast redwood (Sequoia) forest area. It's amazing how big those trees can get in 80 years.
The SBBG is just one of a couple dozen botanic gardens in the country actively contributing to the national Center of Plant Conservation. That's pretty lofty work for a little garden in a small fry town.
But watch out for Geege, he can talk your ear off. In the nicest of ways, of course.
$8.00 to walk in a garden? Never heard of that before. Maybe if it were the size of the Huntington Library and Gardens I would reconsider how I feel about this place, but my boyfriend and I were pretty bummed out to arrive at the pearly (wooden) gates, only to turn back because of an $8.00 admission to see some plants. No thanks! Right down the street is an even cooler park, and for free! (See Rocky Nook Park instead!)
Very cool hikes, trees, flowers. And dog friendly which is always a plus. If you have family visiting it's a nice afternoon stroll. And the drive up there through the canyon is beautiful. Zen out and then head back to grab a glass of wine downtown. Enjoyable, just don't go on a hot day. Not a whole lot of shade...
If you want to see how beautiful California native plants are and want to get ideas for transforming your yard into a native habitat or show stopper to make your neighbors green with envy, go here. Plus, it's a great place to walk and hike and see the beauty of the real California.
The only way this place could get better is if they mandated a meditative (read: non-verbal) walk through the gardens every now and then. The air is so fresh, the greens are well taken care of, and the time spent there is peaceful.
I feel so lucky to live in a city that celebrates the beauty of the natural environment. The gardens are varied and are gorgeous year-round. Some points of interest are the dam on Mission Creek, the Redwood Forest, Toad Hall (which was recently damaged during a wind storm - hopefully it will be reconstructed) and the Canyon Natural Area.
The Botanic Garden is the ideal place to spend an afternoon getting grounded, wandering in and out along the paths or sitting on a huge boulder and writing.
These plants smell good and they are pretty.
The trails were just like any other trail that you'd see except it was a lot smaller and fenced up. And, it's full of couples making out holding hands. And, there aren't even any flowers! It was just "native" Califiornian plants (ie: weeds). The japanese tea house is just a fenced up hut that you can't even go in.
