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Moms and flowers: It’s a connection as natural and adored as, well, moms and apple pie.
While no one is likely to treat their mothers to a day touring an apple pie factory, a visit to one of the Bay Area’s many public gardens to stroll among the beautiful, fragrant blooms is the ultimate way to say happy Mother’s Day.
If you’re not sure where to go, here are some of our favorites, along with an idea of what you’ll see there.
Filoli
- Open: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday
- 86 Cañada Road, Woodside
One of the Bay Area’s oldest and most beautiful gardens, the Filoli estate was built by William Bowers Bourn II, a prominent San Franciscan who earned most of his wealth from Grass Valley’s Empire Gold Mine. Architect Willis Polk designed the 1917 house, which is open for tours, and landscape designer Bruce Porter’s extensive formal gardens were completed in 1929.
After Bourn’s death, the estate was purchased by William and Lurline Roth in 1937, and the house and formal garden were donated to the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1975. The remaining land later was given to Filoli Center.
Filoli offers several guided tours, but if you’re visiting in May, don’t miss a stroll through the rose garden and stands of wisteria. Admission is $11-$22 (kids under five are free) and tour tickets are $10. Find more information at https://filoli.org.
Ruth Bancroft Garden
- Open: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday to Thursday, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday to Sunday.
- 1552 Bancroft Road, Walnut Creek
- Special Mother’s Day event: Make a succulent planter using a tea pot; 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. May 10.
The Ruth Bancroft Garden sits on the former Mount Diablo Fruit Farm, where Hubert Howe Bancroft began growing walnuts and Bartlett pears in the 1880s. The farm was passed from father to son to grandson, but in the 1960s, much of the land was sold to the city of Walnut Creek for development.
Ruth Bancroft and her husband, Philip Bancroft Jr., continued to live on a portion of the property and Ruth, a woman with eclectic interests and the discipline of a scientist, took an interest in succulents. She designed her garden, laying it out with the help of a friend, and began what would become one of the most impressive succulent and dry gardens in the world.
May is peak flowering time at the garden with an array of salvias, monkeyflowers (Mimulus), buckwheats (Eriogonum), Matilija Poppy and Wooly Blue Curls (Trichostema) in bloom. Cactus blooms are short lived and unpredictable, but many of them flower in May, including prickly pears, barrel cactus and pincushion cactus.
The always impressive massive agaves, also known as century plants, are just getting started in May, but many will have put up their tall blooming stalks by Mother’s Day. Plants in the Protea family, including pincushions (Leucospermum) and various grevilleas, also will be in bloom, as will the yucca plants with their spires of creamy white flowers.
Admission is $8-$11, kids under 12 are free; www.ruthbancroftgarden.org.
UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley
- Open: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily
- 200 Centennial Drive, Berkeley
The 34-acre Botanical Garden is one of the most diverse landscapes in the world with more than 10,000 types of plants, including many rare and endangered species. It was established in 1890 as a research collection of native plants.
That remains its focus although its collections, which once included only California plants, have expanded to include specimens from all over the world. Its true purpose is evident in the markers that identify each plant, but you don’t have to be a botanist to appreciate the beauty and unique nature of this garden.
The Botanical Garden is nestled in canyons, which provide varied habitats and climates from desert to Asian forests. The Mediterranean section is exploding now with flowering plants, which can give you and your mother ideas for your own yard. The highlight of any visit is the hilltop rose garden, which also will be in full bloom. Take a seat on a bench and enjoy the Golden Gate Bridge views.
Admission is $7 to $12, kids under six are free; https://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu.
Hakone Estate and Gardens
- Open: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekends
- 21000 Big Basin Way, Saratoga
Hakone Estate and Gardens, a 100-year-old, 18-acre garden, is a National Trust for Historic Preservation site and has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 2013.
The gardens were created by Isabel and Oliver Stine, San Francisco philanthropists. Isabel became fascinated with Eastern concepts and Japanese gardens during the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. When the exposition closed, Isabel arranged to have plantings, trees and ornamental fixtures from the Japanese Pavilion brought to her summer home in Saratoga, and she hired Naoharu Aihara, who came from a long line of Japanese imperial gardeners, to design and create a hill and pond-style Japanese garden.
Renowned architect Tsunematsu Shintani designed and constructed the Moon Viewing Upper House, the Lower House and the koi pond, which you can still enjoy today.
Tours are available, but visitors can also stroll the grounds at their leisure. Be sure to see the wisteria and rhodendrons, now starting to fade, and the iris and peonies, which are just starting to bloom. Admission is $8-$10, kids under five are afree; www.hakone.com.
Municipal Rose Garden
- Open: Daylight hours daily
- Naglee Ave and Dana Ave, San Jose
San Jose’s Municipal Rose Garden is awash in blooms of more than 3,500 roses, representing almost 200 varieties. The Santa Clara County Rose Society began working with the city in 1927 to establish the garden. The city provided the land — a former prune orchard — and the Rose Society provided the roses and the care. It opened in 1937.
The garden not only features glorious roses — floribundas, grandifloras, miniature roses, climbers and polyanthas — but it also has a reflecting pool, a two-tiered water fountain, miniature rose beds and an arbor. May is the most popular time at the garden as that’s when most of the showy, fragrant roses are in bloom.
Admission is free; https://bayareane.ws/RoseGarden.
