UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley

My husband and I were married in the redwood grove across the street from the gardens’ main entrance. It was absolutely magical – this place was probably the single best find in our wedding planning. We wanted to be married in a place that felt sacred, and the little amphitheater in the redwoods was more than perfect. It’s a perfect location that enabled us to have the wedding outdoors, but in a shaded, cool area so that guests wouldn’t be sunburned or windblown. There was plenty of room for all of the guests and helpers, the gardens’ staff was helpful. We also saved a lot of money by not doing much decoration for the event: the site didn’t need it. Two caveats: first, because this location is so beautiful, wedding slots tend to fill up fast. We had to have the wedding on a Sunday because the Saturdays we wanted were all booked up. Second, the parking at the gardens is limited, so we had to arrange for a valet to shuttle cars between the gardens lot and a lot about half a mile up the road. If you need a knockout beautiful/​magical/​sacred place for a wedding, you will not do better than this.

Such a gem! Admission is free for UC Berkeley students and it’s only a short ride from campus on the H line. The grounds are quite large so you could easily spend a whole afternoon exploring. The gardens are tucked in the Berkeley hills so do be prepared for some inclines and declines.
Overall, the gardens were lovely in May and the view of the hills is great, especially from some of the higher points of the garden. Look for newts in the pond in the Asia garden! Just don’t bother them (as per the sign).

Probably one of the most beautiful garden spaces in the Bay Area. It is located in the high hills between the Berkeley and Oakland boarder near Tilden park. I will say that it is hard to find if you first visit here but not impossible. They have all sorts of wildlife here and it is very well taken care of. There are trails that you can walk here which are very peaceful and quiet up in the hills. Remember to bring a jacket or sweater as it can get pretty cold and foggy in the early mornings and sometimes even drizzle. Also if you plan on being there for awhile bring some water and a small snack. Parking here can get kind of tricky is there is no private parking lot and only street parking near the park. Definitely worth the drive up to this garden to see the beauty for yourself!

It was gorgeous up here. I mean straight up beautiful. It was freezing and on and off drizzling, but the greenery was just breathtaking.
I loved taking pictures of the flowers (almost all marked with where they were from and what they were) and the stone work was absolutely eye catching. It was so relaxing to walk through the gardens and just take in the peaceful landscape.
I wish the weather had been a bit better, but opposed to the pouring foggy Sunday the next day we felt fortunate to have gotten some clear skies though it actually seemed to work out because the waterfalls would work with all the rain!
A big thanks to the person who found the honey’s room key and put it on a branch for us to find on our way back! You were a lifesaver! :D

This place is always a real treat to visit, whether rain or shine, hot or cold. The variety of plants from around the world is astoundingly complete. It’s a great place to study other plant species, have a picnic, read a book, sketch a scene or simple «be.» I recommend everyone visit at least once.

This is a pleasant small botanical garden. At 38 acres, it is actually smaller than the San Francisco botanical garden is Golden Gate park. Parking on a busy weekend, like a warm President’s Day weekend can be a challenge. There is just one parking lot across the street. And while it’s usually not busy, it can fill up quickly.
This last time I took a tour around the garden. A lot was is in bloom so this is a decent time of year to come. I suspect you’d see even more in a month (March). The docent was very enthusiastic. The plants were fascinating, especially those in the arid greenhouse. And the tropical greenhouse contains a corpse plant! No word yet on whether it will bloom and give off its distinctive and potent odor this year.
I’ve gotten presents here for my friends who love gardening. I’ve also bought on plants for my home here and been pleased with how they’ve grown.
Overall, this is a, pleasant place to spend an afternoon. Only a half day is necessary to go around the garden. And definitely take a tour to learn more. Or perhaps avoid tour hours and come early to get the place to yourself.

Wow, what a beautiful, serene botanical garden located on the UC Berkeley campus! My mother, toddler son, and I came here on a breezy winter day in January. Although we basically came at the worst time to see flowers, we still enjoyed the scenic views and landscape. Although we didn’t make it around the entire garden (due to a toddler meltdown) — we still enjoyed everything we did see, particularly the cacti and succulent exhibits.
From experience, I admit that this is NOT the place to take a one year old in a stroller. It’s nothing but hills, and off-​the-​beaten path trails. Relaxing, majestic, inspiring… if you are childless. Or at least baby-​less. Otherwise, stick to a flatter, more commercialized garden.

A great place to spend a Sunday afternoon. Beautiful wildlife and great views.

We have an Unforgettable moment during the Summer of 2015. Our wedding was held at Redwood Grove. We chose to have a #Peacock #ThemedWedding and it came out very nice and dramaticly paired with the redwood trees. We love the place and how it turned out to be a different ambiance to the wedding. Parking was very easy if you set and arrange them in time. I booked the area for 1yr.. very nice! This is a #FilAmWedding as well, we made sure that even it’s a #Gardenwedding we still highlighted our traditional #filipinowedding ethics in behalf of our respect to our parents.

We stopped here after visiting Napa Valley the night before. The parking lot is across the garden which is pay by the hour. However, the sign says you only get 2 hours probably it is a prime location. Anyways, at the gate, we presented our Como Zoo and Conservatory membership card to get free admission. We got a map and started to make our way to bathroom which was locked. The front desk person opened up both unisex bathrooms for us. Well, we walked around and granted it was after Thanksgiving so not much blooming. The grounds were not well kept and looked a bit wild. The herb garden was the only highlight for us since we could identify several vegetables. Also, we took a look at the arid greenhouse which had a lot of cactus plants. Overall, you can finish this place in 2 hours or less so not exactly as awe-​inspiring compared to the UC Davis arboretum. So, if you have time to kill like we did, then it’s not bad at all. Just don’t expect it to compare against the Golden Gate Park gardens.

Not much of delight here. The glass house at the entrance was good other than that it a pretty boring garden with California drought not helping the plant life. I hear Santa Cruz has a much better garden.

Fantastic getaway! So many different plants in special settings. It’s a photographer’s dream.
I’m betting they have maps at the front gate. Get one. It can be difficult to keep track of where one has been and where they are heading.
The Gardens are on a hillside, so there is a bit of climbing. Rest assured there are benches throughout that not only provide an opportunity to rest, but they are usually located in places that lend themselves to a quiet, peaceful escape.
You could easily spend two hours here. More if one is interested in seeing every nook and cranny.
We’ve been twice and will definitely return.

I got married in the Redwood Grove at the UC Berkeley Botanical Gardens this year, and it was the most magical day ever. The moment I walked into the grove surrounded by the huge redwood trees, I knew it was where I wanted to get married. Highly recommend checking out this spot!
Tip: Send someone to do a sweep for banana slugs before you walk down the path to make sure don’t harm them! They are easy to move to the side with leaves. :)

UGHH THIS IS QUITE LITERALLY THE MOST MAGICAL PLACE OUT THERE. Straight up whimsy. I have zero idea why this was my first time here because this would’ve been a great place for my parents to take me as a kid (followed by some Yogurt Park).
Seriously though this is a place for all ages. It’s an oasis that makes you forget about The Drought.
The admission prices are unfortunate though if you aren’t affiliated with Cal. Adults are $ 10, seniors and students $ 8, and I think kids might be $ 5? Parking is $ 1 an hour. Cal students and faculty get in free with ID, ah another reason for my mom to be pissed I didn’t go there…

Visited the UC Botanical Garden at UC Berkeley on Sunday because my mom wanted to see «TRUDY» the Corpse Flower.
We were lucky enough to find a parking space right by the garden center. Someone was pulling out and even gave us her parking ticket as it was still valid. That was nice of her. we still had to buy a another ticket though, parking is only $ 1 here which is surprisingly cheap.
There was a huge line just to pay for admission just to be able to get into the garden. Everyone was waiting just to pay to get in, it was $ 10 for adults and $ 8 for students.
Once you finally got in, there was a huge line just to see «TRUDY» the Corpse Flower. Man was the line long, everyone rushed here because TRUDY won’t be lasting long. Honestly, we only really came to see TRUDY, we didn’t really get to see much else of the garden because we had to stand in line to see TRUDY.
Overall, I’m not sure I would pay what we did $ 18 for 2 people to see TRUDY or perhaps even the rest of the garden. It’s just not appealing. But TRUDY was great to see…

Pretty although not many roses in bloom currently. Nice winding path with lots of benches to rest on. Could be tough to get parking. Every person I saw was a couple… that’s what you expect at a rose garden, right?

This is the best botanical garden I have been to! There are so many walk paths that my sister and I were able to easily spend 2 ½ hours wandering through the grounds. By the end of that time period, we started skipping a few things, and we didn’t end up walking through everything (but we hit most of it). Parking was reasonable at $ 1 an hour, but the lot is small, so on a crowded day, it might be a little bit hard to find a space.
We were here in the spring, and there were a ton of gorgeous blooms.
They have a gift shop and a couple of different restrooms. I’d wear your hiking boots — there are some easier grade trails, but most of them involve steps /​rocky paths.

The UC Botanical Garden is one of the East Bay’s hidden gems! This is an amazing venue for a wedding. I don’t have the words to express how much we loved being under a canopy of redwood trees, surrounded by family and friends, sharing a deeply personal moment together. Mather Redwood Grove and the Old Rose Garden are both beautiful choices for such an event.
I recommend booking early if you want your dates of choice. There were only two unbooked dates available to us. Margi the Garden’s event coordinator is a great resource for logistical planning.
If you are a member of another museum, you may have reciprocal rights to visit at no charge. Check your card to see if it has a NARM sticker.

These gardens are beautiful. They have a redwood grove, greenhouses, and many different areas dedicated to plants around the world. For example they have a Australasia section, a Mediterranean section, desert plants, carnivorous plants, and many more. Their rose garden is also quite nice especially since you have a view of the Golden Gate Bridge.
My favorite places are the redwood grove, the cactuses, and the area with the pond (it’s fun looking for newts in the pond)
If you are a UC Berkeley student or employee it is free. Definitely worth checking out!

Spring Break 2015 in CA… Beautiful botanical gardens operated by the University of California-​Berkeley up in the hills. These botanical gardens are easy to get to… simply take a left turn once you are on the backside of the football stadium and ride up the hillside. Once up here parking is very easy with a lot just across the street. And being on a hillside, the gardens range up and down all through the area… this is a good walking trip. We went up on a day that the weather co-​operated and the visit was wonderful.
We especially liked the walk down through the flora and fauna of California (amazing how many types are indigenous to California), the walk back up to the Old Roses Garden (not much going on at this time of year, but beautiful views of the San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance), and then the views over at the Japanese Gardens (typical precise arrangements and water).
The Garden Shop on the way out was neat also. Besides the usual garden stuff, here you could buy small plants and rooted cuttings of many of the plants you viewed in the botanical gardens. This botanical garden is a little treasure up in the Berkeley Hills… a place you should visit.

Such a beautiful place to spend your afternoon. $ 10/​adult
The place is divided into different regions making it easier to divide it up into different trips. Like any garden, you need to visit at different times of the year to really appreciate how expansive this collection is.
The drive up Tilden is enjoyable itself!

What a fun place to spend a day in the sun! This garden feels a little more like a park, but with all of the plants labeled. Don’t forget to read the plaque.

Tucked away in the hillside, high above the city and it’s highest skyscrapers — the UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley is one of the Bay Area’s best kept secrets. Boasting over 12,000 rare and unusual plants selectively segmented across 34 acres and multiple greenhouses, these botanical gardens are among the most populated and diverse in the entire United States.
For you number nerds like me — according to their site, this is the breakdown in numbers:
300+ families
2,710 genera
9,670 species
12,800 taxa
19,300 accessions (each accession represents one or more plants in the Garden).
The five best-​represented families are:
Cactus family (2,029 accessions; 1,198 taxa)
Sunflower family (1,002 accessions; 771 taxa)
Orchid family (1,030 accessions; 711 taxa)
Lily family (1,097 accessions; 675 taxa)
Heath family (979 accessions; 614 taxa).
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If you’re in the Berkeley area you must make a visit to the UC Botanical Garden! This is such a lovely oasis and filled with flora and fauna from all over the world. I came here during Cal’s Family Weekend. They had a tour open to the public. I believe you have to be a member or a student to tour this normally.
The tour guide was very knowledgable of all that was in the garden! I learned so much about the different plants, trees, and flowers. They even have greenhouses were the carnivorous plants live!
There’s a gift shop if you want to buy certain plants or flowers (my brother bought 4 carnivorous plants lol). They also have toys, lotions, eco-​friendly bags, etc.
This is a bit of a walk! It’s located past Berkeley’s Coliseum. A lot of people drove to it since it’s on top of the hill but we decided to walk. It took at least 45 minutes of uphill walking. Heads up!

I just got married at the Mather Redwood Grove about 10 days ago, so I’m still a bit high from that. But, nonetheless, I can’t describe how beautiful this place is. It’s literally magical. All 90 of our guests literally came up to me afterward and mentioned how they had never been to a wedding like ours, how mythical the grove seemed, how unreal it was to be inside there.
The built in amphitheater is great seating, terrific for acoustics and the great redwoods keep it cool. The backdrop is unique and priceless.
It’s definitely a hidden treasure among the hustle and bustle of the Bay Area.
I didn’t get to meet the coordinator, Margie, but she’s a hoot and made booking our wedding ceremony very easy.

Came here on a date and although it got off to a shaky start, the gardens worked out perfectly. We were aiming for one of the free, 1pm docent led garden tours and even though parking was fairly hard (it’s a small, $ 1 an hour parking lot) we made it on time. Unfortunately, our docent didn’t — in fact, he never showed. We waited for a half hour or so while the ticketing office tried to contact him or an alternative, but eventually both we and the office gave up.
An older woman just inside the gate gave us a self-​guided tour brochure and a wonderful run down of where to go and what to look for, like mating salamanders at the pond and the rose garden at the top of the hill. I don’t remember her name, but if she’s there when you are bring a pen and take notes while she talks!
The self-​guided tour was perfect. While I think the docent would have been educational, I think he actually would have taken away from our experience. We had a blast trying to find the right paths to take (we perplexingly kept missing California, one of the largest parts of the garden), reading the brochure out loud, taking pictures of each other and talking and laughing about the garden and random stories. We passed lots of other people but the gardens were large enough that we were mostly alone.
I highly recommend hiking through the Asian gardens and up to the amazing-​smelling rose garden. Sit down on one of the benches there to take in one of the most amazing views of the Bay that I’ve ever seen. All in all, great place to go for a date, family outing, or photoshoot setting if you’re looking to spend a day in the East Bay. Free if you’re a UCB affiliate.