Floom’s Favourite Botanical and Secret Gardens in San Francisco

Aside from sending flowers (of course) getting out and about and discovering new green spaces is the perfect way to embrace nature in you life. San Francisco has plenty of green spaces to offer, from Golden Gate Park’s historic Japanese Tea Garden, to the prestigious San Francisco Botanical Garden. We’ve rounded up our favourite green spaces in San Fran for your visiting pleasure.

1. San Francisco Botanical Garden

Botanically speaking, San Francisco is rich in natural beauty – something that’s evident in the San Francisco Botanical Garden. North of Inner Sunset, the unique urban oasis boasts nearly 9,000 different kinds of plants from around the world, along with an immersive Moon Viewing Garden, complete with a Japanese pagoda, and a Succulent Garden brimming with bold shapes and exotic blooms. There’s a library too. With a history tracing back to 1972, the Helen Crocker Russell Library of Horticulture is the largest horticultural library in northern California.

2. Conservatory of Flowers

South of Richmond District, both a greenhouse and a botanical garden, San Francisco’s Conservatory of Flowers houses a collection of rare and exotic plants. Located in Golden Gate Park, the awe-inspiring botanical beacon is famed for its five galleries that challenge the sight, mind and sensations of its onlooker via rare flowering plants, exotic orchids, and giant lilies floating on glistening pools of water.

3. Japanese Tea Garden

Located inside San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, east of Haight-Ashbury, the Japanese Tea Garden is the oldest public Japanese garden in the United States, allowing visitors from far and wide to experience the natural beauty, tranquility and harmony of a Japanese-style garden. It was initially showcased as an exhibit in the 1894 California Midwinter International Exposition, but the “Japanese Village”, before being made a permanent fixture by Japanese landscape architect Makoto Hagiwara who maintained the garden for many yeas. At the header you’ll find an arched drum bridge, pagodas, stone lanterns, stepping stone paths, native Japanese plants, serene koi ponds and a zen garden.

4. Shakespeare Garden

San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park also homes a Shakespeare Garden fenced off and set behind an iron gate. Inside you’ll find over 200 types of flowers and plants that once illustrated the famous lines of the playwright’s historic comedies, tragedies, and sonnets over the years. The floral arrangements are accompanied by bronze plagues engraved with notable quotations and the venue has become a romantic setting for an outdoor wedding.

5. de Young Museum

So it’s not a garden per se, but San Francisco’s de Young Museum is famed for its architecture that compliments its native topography. Journey through de Young's tree-filled grounds and you’ll find a Pool of Enchantment and towering palm trees alongside sandstone, redwood, ferns and other plants and materials relevant to the museum’s natural surroundings.