Quarryhill Botanical Garden facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Quarryhill Botanical Garden |
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Quarryhill Botanical Garden
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| Type | Botanical garden |
| Location | Glen Ellen, [California]], United States |
| Area | 61 acres (25 ha) |
| Website | http://www.quarryhillbg.org/ |
The Quarryhill Botanical Garden is a special place for learning and research. It's home to one of the biggest collections of Asian plants in North America and Europe. These plants are super important because they come directly from the wild. Many are ancestors of popular garden plants we see everywhere today!
You can find Quarryhill Botanical Garden near Glen Ellen in the beautiful Sonoma Valley of California, United States. It's open for everyone to visit and explore.
Contents
Discover Quarryhill Botanical Garden
This isn't like most botanical gardens you might have seen. You won't find huge lawns or perfectly trimmed hedges here. Quarryhill is designed to feel like a wild Asian forest.
The garden is kept very natural. Plants are only pruned a little bit to keep the paths clear. They don't use fertilizer, and there's not much shaping done. It's truly the closest you can get to visiting the wild forests of Asia without leaving California!
A Living Museum of Asian Plants
Quarryhill is famous around the world for its amazing collection of Asian plants. These plants are special because they were collected from the wild and have scientific records. It's like a living museum of plants from temperate (mild climate) parts of Asia.
You can see the ancestors of many garden favorites here, like:
- Roses
- Camellias
- Rhododendrons
- Magnolias
- Lilies
What's even more amazing is that most of these plants grew from seeds collected in the wild. None of them were planted in the ground before 1990!
Rare Plants from Asia
The garden focuses on plants from temperate China, Japan, and the Himalayas. More than 90% of the plants grew from wild-collected seeds that have scientific records.
The collection includes some very rare types, such as:
- Acer pentaphyllum
- Cornus capitata
- Holboellia coriacea
- Illicium simonsii
- Rosa chinensis var. spontanea
These rare plants are all native to the Sichuan region of China. The garden also has large collections of wild Asian dogwoods, lilies, magnolias, maples, oaks, roses, and rhododendrons.
The History of Quarryhill
The story of Quarryhill began in 1968. A woman named Jane Davenport Jansen from San Francisco bought 61 acres (about 247,000 square meters) of land. She planned to use it for a summer home and vineyards.
In 1987, she started creating a garden on 25 acres of this land. This area had old rock quarries, which gave the garden its name. That same year, people from Quarryhill went on their first trip to Asia to collect seeds. A nursery was set up in 1988, and planting started in 1990. The garden was a special place for Jane, bringing her great joy.
Protecting Rare Species
The garden's team and volunteers work hard to grow and care for the plants. They have created a stunning Asian forest. Many of the plants here are almost extinct in their natural homes.
Quarryhill's main goal is to protect these threatened species. It's a core part of their mission to save plants that might otherwise disappear forever.
Research and Conservation Efforts
Quarryhill sends teams on expeditions to collect seeds and plant samples from different parts of Asia. So far, they have visited regions in:
- China (Hubei, Sichuan, Taiwan, Tibet, Yunnan)
- India (Himachal Pradesh)
- Japan (Hokkaidō, Honshū, Kyūshū, Shikoku, Yakushima)
- Nepal
They also collect from North America. The garden also gets wild-collected seeds and plants from other gardens in Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and North America.
Sharing Knowledge and Plants
Quarryhill chooses plants based on how rare they are and how important they are for conservation. They have a searchable scientific database. This allows them to share their research with other important institutions around the world.
The garden has about 25,000 wild-origin plants, representing over 2,000 different species. This makes it a safe place for plant preservation. One director described it as "a Noah’s ark of rare and endangered species."
Quarryhill shares plants, seeds, and information with:
- Botanical gardens
- Arboretums (tree gardens)
- Researchers
- Conservationists
- Students
- The public
They share this valuable information across Europe, North America, and Japan.
A World-Renowned Garden
Quarryhill Botanical Garden grew from an old, unused quarry. This 25-acre wild woodland garden has become a world-famous botanical institution. It provides living examples of the beautiful and threatened plants from East Asia.
Quarryhill is more than just a place to see rare plants. Education and conservation are at the heart of what they do. These goals are as deep as the peaceful ponds and seasonal waterfalls in the garden. Now in its 31st year, Quarryhill Botanical Garden is one of the most unique and diverse places in the Sonoma Valley.
See also
In Spanish: Jardín botánico de Quarryhill para niños
