Today we head across the San Francisco Bay to visit the East Bay region cities of Berkeley and Oakland

UC Berkeley Botanical Garden, one of the most diverse landscapes in the world, with over 10,000 types of plants including many rare and endangered species.  Organized geographically, the Garden features 9 regions of naturalistic plantings from Australasia to South Africa, along with a major collection of California native plants.  The Garden was established in 1890 and its living collections are invaluable resources for international research and conservation.

Tilden Gardens and Box Lunch, Situated in Tilden Regional Park’s beautiful Wildcat Canyon in the heart of the north Berkeley Hills, the garden is devoted to the collection, growth, display, and preservation of the native plants of California. Our guide is expected to be Bart O’Brien, who was recently awarded the 2022 Liberty Hyde Bailey Award from the American Horticultural Society for his lifetime contributions to horticulture.

David Feix Landscape Design Gardens, we expect to visit two private gardens in the hills around Berkeley

Raul Zumba Garden and dinner, The gently sloping site contains garden rooms filled with rare plants, art, fountains, and ponds that attract birds and other wildlife. We will remain at Raul’s home to enjoy a special chef-made dinner in his garden.

Today, we will explore more of the wonder of the City of San Francisco.

Alcatraz Island and Gardens, for more than a century, gardens were an important part of everyday life for officers, families, and prisoners confined to Alcatraz by sentence or duty.  We will have a private tour of the gardens by a local expert.

Independent Lunch in the Embarcadero area of downtown San Francisco, with many restaurants within walking distance of the Ferry Terminal at Pier 33.

Black Point Gardens at Fort Mason – Located within Fort Mason, the site was developed with gardens and pathways in the 1850s by early San Francisco residents but forgotten until recently. With volunteer support, the beautiful garden pathways have been unearthed, the site brought back to life, and Black Point Gardens is now reborn using native plants.

Geary Street private garden, in the heart of downtown San Francisco, Sean Stout and James Pettigrew of Organic Mechanics have designed a lush habitat garden hidden behind historic buildings.

Today, we continue to explore the vast horticultural and ecological offerings of San Francisco.

Yerba Buena Gardens – These public gardens combine urban design and plantings to reflect the diversity of cultures in San Francisco and the world. The open sky and the backdrop of buildings and bridges create a serene oasis in the middle of the bustling city. We will have a guided tour of the neighborhood and how the gardens have impacted the community.

A day of exploration at the Presidio San Francisco, curated by Michael Boland, Chief Park Officer, and hosted by our friends at the Presidio Trust, with special guests from Pacific Horticulture. The Presidio San Francisco is a 1,500-acre park on a former military post and a major outdoor recreation hub. Home to extensive ecological restoration projects, including scenic Mountain Lake Park, the Presidio Tunnel Tops, connecting the historic center of the Presidio to the park’s Crissy Field, and the site of a monumental discovery made in 2010 during the Doyle Drive reconstruction project which revealed the existence of the last known wild Franciscan manzanita, thought to have been extinct in the wild for more than 70 years.

Tour participants will enjoy a special reception and dinner event with guests from the San Francisco Bay Area region in the Presidio San Francisco

Today, we discover some of the new treasures and timeless sites of San Francisco.

Salesforce Gardens, home to 600 trees and 16,000 plants arranged in 13 different botanical feature areas, our group will be led through one of the newest public parks in the San Francisco Bay Area by an expert guide from the San Francisco Botanic Garden. 

Walking Tour which features a variety of Privately-Owned Public Open Spaces (POPOS) in downtown San Francisco. POPOS is a community effort to create people-friendly spaces in the heart of the urban core.