Bucket List: Visit These San Francisco Bay Area Public Gardens

Make a plan to find garden inspiration by visiting some of the Bay Area's public gardens. We put together a handy map of public gardens in San Francisco, the Bay Area, and a bit beyond. All of these lovely gardens offer tranquility, inspiration, and connection with nature, along with truly impressive plant collections.

Here are some of our favorites, in alphabetical order.

• Blake Garden

• Clos Pegase Heritage Garden

• Cornerstone Gardens

• Filoli

• Gamble Garden

• The Gardens at Lake Merritt

• The Gardens of Golden Gate Park:

  • San Francisco Botanical Garden (photo below, by Saxon Holt)

  • Conservatory of Flowers

  • Japanese Tea Garden

• Hakone Gardens

• Luther Burbank Home and Gardens

• Marcia Donohue's Berkeley Garden

• Marin Art and Garden Center

• Project Artaud Garden

• The Ruth Bancroft Garden 

• Salesforce Transit Center Park 

• Shinn Historical Park and Arboretum

• Sonoma Botanical Garden

• Stanford Arizona Garden

• Sunnyside Conservatory

• Tilden Regional Parks Botanic Garden

• The University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley

• The UCSC Arboretum and Botanic Garden

• Western Hills Garden (photo above, by Hadley Dynak)

• Yerba Buena Gardens

Did we miss any of your favorite public gardens on our map? Add your own suggestions in the comments below, and tell us why you love them!

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