Quarryhill: A World-Class Botanical Treasure

is a world-class botanical treasure that too few residents know about, and even fewer have visited.

So on Earth Day this year, I decided to visit Quarryhill for the first time.

Traveling towards Glen Ellen on Highway 12, I saw the Quarryhill sign. Turning down a one-lane road, an attendant guided me to a parking spot by a vineyard fence. Once parked, I headed to the check-in booth with its information on the self-guided tour and up-coming events. Then to my surprise, a cart appeared to take visitors up the hill to the large arbor where we could start the tour.

Visitors see the 22-acre Asian garden via gravel paths that wind among the densely planted foliage. In addition to maps, which show the paths and identify special trees and shrubs, docents sit in several areas to guide the lost, answer questions and point out specific information about unique specimens.

With one particular specimen, the Empress Tree, a tall tree currently in bloom (See photo) came this bit of history. When a girl is born to Chinese parents, they plant the fast-growing Empress Tree. Then at the time of their daughter’s marriage, the tree is cut down and wooden items are made for her dowry.

More than 10,000 Asian plants grow in abandonment in Quarryhill, recreating as far as possible, a natural Asian woodland. Its paths wind through rolling hills to an arched footbridge over a lotus pond; they lead to special shrubs and trees; and they climb all the way to the top to the Tibetan flags and a breath-taking vista.

It’s a tranquil and relaxing setting, a good place to hear your own thoughts. It’s also a great place to take visitors.

The garden started in 1987, the brainchild of restaurant heiress, Jane Davenport Jansan. Jansan hired Roger Warner, a well-known Napa landscape architect to design the garden, and William McNamara to install it. That same year, in collaboration with the Royal Botanical Garden in England, Jansan funded a seed-collecting expedition to China.  Today’s 65 foot trees and dense plantings started from those original seeds.

Quarryhill has attained international recognition and William McNamara, now Executive Director, has also been recognized. He received the prestigious Scott Arboretum award in 2010, and the Garden Club of America award in 2009 for “special achievement in the field of botany.”

As important as saving rare species is, and as impressive as its become, Quarryhill is not about to rest on its laurels. These words in the Visitors Center explain: “To cultivate our garden is nothing if we cannot cultivate awareness and community.”

So the garden plays host to major botanical events and also functions as a living classroom for gardeners, scholars and even school children. Each Spring and Fall it conducts its popular two-hour tours for 4th and 5 graders.  

Plans are also underway to create an “interpretive” rose garden that will show the cultural development of the hybrid teas and 200 species of wild roses. It promises to be a spectacular attraction. 

Though Jansan’s death in 2000 provided an endowment for Quarryhill, docents and other volunteers are always needed for special events and guided tours. 

To find out more about Quarryhill or how you can be a part of it, call 996-3166.

Quarryhill Botananical Garden is a world-class botanical treasure that too few residents know about, and even fewer have visited. So on Earth Day this year, I decided to visit Quarryhill for the first time.

Traveling towards Glen Ellen on Highway 12, I saw the Quarryhill sign. Turning down a one-lane road, an attendant guided me to a parking spot by a vineyard fence. Once parked, I headed to the check-in booth with its information on the self-guided tour and up-coming events. Then to my surprise, a cart appeared to take visitors up the hill to the large arbor where we could start the tour.

Visitors see the 22-acre Asian garden via gravel paths that wind among the densely planted foliage. In addition to maps, which show the paths and identify special trees and shrubs, docents sit in several areas to guide the lost, answer questions and point out specific information about unique specimens.

With one particular specimen, the Empress Tree, a tall tree currently in bloom (See photo) came this bit of history. When a girl is born to Chinese parents, they plant the fast-growing Empress Tree. Then at the time of their daughter’s marriage, the tree is cut down and wooden items are made for her dowry.

More than 10,00 Asian plants grow in abandonment in Quarryhill, recreating as far as possible, a natural Asian woodland. Its paths wind through rolling hills to an arched footbridge over a lotus pond; they lead to special shrubs and trees; and they climb all the way to the top to the Tibetian flags and a breath-taking vista.

It’s a tranquil and relaxing setting, a good place to hear your own thoughts. It’s also a great place to take visitors.

The garden started in 1987, the brainchild of restaurant heiress, Jane Davenport Jansan. Jansan hired Roger Warner, a well-known Napa landscape architect to design the garden, and William McNamara to install it. That same year, in collaboration with the Royal Botanical Garden in England, Jansan funded a seed-collecting expedition to China.  Today’s 65 foot trees and dense plantings started from those original seeds.

Quarryhill has attained international recognition and William McNamara, now Executive Director, has also been recognized. He received the prestigious Scott Arboretum award in 2010, and the Garden Club of America award in 2009 for “special achievement in the field of botany.”

As important as saving rare species is, and as impressive as its become, Quarryhill is not about to rest on its laurels. These words in the Visitors Center explain: “To cultivate our garden is nothing if we cannot cultivate awareness and community.”

So the garden plays host to major botanical events and also functions as a living classroom for gardeners, scholars and even school children. Each Spring and Fall it conducts its popular two-hour tours for 4th and 5 graders.  

Plans are also underway to create an “interpretive” rose garden that will show the cultural development of the hybrid teas and 200 species of wild roses. It promises to be a spectacular attraction.

Though Jansan’s death in 2000 provided an endowment for Quarryhill, docents and other volunteers are always needed for special events and guided tours.

To find out more about Quarryhill or how you can be a part of it, call 996-3166.