{"id":11596,"date":"2019-05-08T13:30:33","date_gmt":"2019-05-08T20:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/travelingboy.com\/travel\/?p=11596"},"modified":"2019-07-02T20:01:40","modified_gmt":"2019-07-03T03:01:40","slug":"west-coast-garden-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/travelingboy.com\/travel\/west-coast-garden-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"A West Coast Garden Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n\r\n\r\n

If you\u2019re heading out on a West Coast road trip this summer, here\u2019s some essential equipment to bring along for the ride. No, it\u2019s not a dash cam or a multi-prong charger, but the two-volume Pacific Northwest Garden Tour<\/em> and California Garden Tour<\/em> by travel expert and garden enthusiast Donald Olson, published by Timber Press. As you peruse the author\u2019s knowledgeable and often juicy and witty insights and enjoy some garden tourism, you\u2019ll feel like you have a friend in the backseat delivering fascinating tidbits into your ear. Olson will have you pulling into enchanting places like Lotusland in Santa Barbara<\/a>, where he says the 3,500 different plants amount to \u201csheer botanical splendor,\u201d and Abkhazi, a small charmer outside Victoria, British Columbia, where a Russian prince and displaced Englishwoman planted rhododendrons, woodland perennials, and ferns amid rocky slopes.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The two volumes (sold separately for $24.95 each) introduce you to the 110 best public gardens on the West Coast, from Vancouver<\/a>, British Columbia, to San Diego. These landscapes are not only rich in marvelous plants and ornamental detail but they also say a lot about the people who created them. Lotusland near Santa Barbara is the legacy of Ganna Walska, a many times married Polish opera singer (and not a very good one, confides Olson) who described herself as \u201cthe enemy of the average\u201d and sold off her jewels to pay for magnificent cycads that continue to flourish. The gardens at the Huntington Library, outside Los Angeles in San Marino, were among the passions of Henry E. Huntington, a railroad heir who became even wealthier when he married his aunt (yes, quite a scandal) and collected art, rare manuscripts, and the world\u2019s largest collection of cacti and succulents. Portland\u2019s Japanese Garden is the most authentic Japanese garden outside of Japan, and planted in the 1960s, is a testimony to the restoration of goodwill between World War II adversaries.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

If one garden captures the spirit of the men and women who fashioned these magical landscapes and worked the soil to bring a little more beauty into the world, it\u2019s probably Alcatraz. The famous prison in San Francisco<\/a> Bay, erstwhile home of Al Capone and Bugsy Malone, is reminiscent of a Mediterranean isle. That\u2019s because the warden\u2019s secretary Fred Reichel and inmate Elliott Michener (a convicted counterfeiter) transformed the Rock into rose gardens and succulent plots \u2014 a testimony, says Olson, to the \u201chuman need to connect with nature and create beauty under even the harshest conditions.\u201d You\u2019ll feel this magic every time you follow any one of his excellent recommendations.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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\"garden
Photo by Donald Olson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Filoli, Woodside, California<\/span><\/strong>
The name reflects the credo of founder William Bowers Bourn, \u201cTo fight for a just cause; to love your fellow man; to live a good life\u201d (take the first two letters of \u201cfight,\u201d \u201clove,\u201d and \u201clive\u201d). Among these 16 acres of formal gardens south of San Francisco, surrounded by mountain and valley views, are lawns, outdoor rooms framed by brick walls and hedges, a sunken garden with a reflecting pool, and a Golden Age mansion.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The name reflects the credo of founder William Bowers Bourn, \u201cTo fight for a just cause; to love your fellow man; to live a good life\u201d (take the first two letters of \u201cfight,\u201d \u201clove,\u201d and \u201clive\u201d). Among these 16 acres of formal gardens south of San Francisco, surrounded by mountain and valley views, are lawns, outdoor rooms framed by brick walls and hedges, a sunken garden with a reflecting pool, and a Golden Age mansion.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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\r\n
\"Virginia
Photo by Donald Olson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Virginia Robinson Gardens, Beverly Hills<\/span><\/strong>
The wife of a department store heir created the first estate in the now-famously posh enclave, planting lush gardens on what were once lima bean fields.\u00a0 The dining room of her Italianate mansion overlooks a palm forest, inspired, like most of the plantings, by a honeymoon voyage through Europe, India, and Kashmir.<\/p>\r\n

\"the
Photo by Donald Olson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Lotusland, Santa Barbara<\/span><\/strong>
As Olson writes, \u201cwhen it comes to garden as theater, garden as glamor, and garden as diva\u201d this world-class garden stands alone. Among the highlights are giant aloes and cacti and one of the greatest cycad collections in the world.<\/p>\r\n

\"desert-oasis
Photo by Donald Olson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Sunnylands, Palm Springs<\/span><\/strong>
With the bright yellow flowers of palo verde trees, green lawns, and a blue reflecting pool, these desert-oasis gardens are said to be an homage to Vincent Van Gogh\u2019s \u201cOlive Trees.\u201d That\u2019s no coincidence, because the painting once hung in the mid-century modern home at the center of this estate, the winter retreat of publishing mogul and diplomat Walter Annenberg.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\r\n
\r\n
\"Bloedel
Photo by Donald Olson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Bloedel Reserve, Bainbridge Island, Washington State<\/span><\/strong>
What seems like a grand English estate is the Pacific Northwest home of a mid-20th<\/sup> century timber baron, a ferry-ride across Puget Sound from Seattle<\/a>. Native mosses and other plantings are woven into a forested maritime landscape.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\r\n
\r\n
\"Lan
Photo by Donald Olson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Lan Su Chinese Garden, Portland, Oregon<\/span><\/strong>
The best and most authentic Chinese garden outside China replicates an urban style that flourished around 500 years ago during the Ming dynasty. Serpentine walkways surround a lake and lead to pavilions and halls.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re heading out on a West Coast road trip this summer, here\u2019s some essential equipment to bring along for the ride. No, it\u2019s not a dash cam or a multi-prong charger, but the two-volume Pacific Northwest Garden Tour and California Garden Tour by travel expert and garden enthusiast Donald Olson, published by Timber Press. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":11593,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[2414,301,1726,2049,2413],"class_list":["post-11596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel-usa","tag-garden-tour","tag-gardens","tag-oregon","tag-washington-state","tag-west-coast"],"yoast_head":"\nA West Coast Garden Tour - Traveling Archive<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Take a West Coast garden tour by taking along the "Pacific Northwest Garden Tour and California Garden Tour" by Donald Olson.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/travelingboy.com\/travel\/west-coast-garden-tour\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A West Coast Garden Tour - 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