Arcadia
Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden 301 North Baldwin Ave. 626-821-3222 The Arboretum offers a variety of gardens and landscapes that offer beauty and tranquility as well as ideas for your outdoor space at home. Visit each of the 10 gardens, including the Water Conservation Garden that showcases plants from Mediterranean climates around the world.
Claremont
Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden 1500 N. College Ave. 909-624-0838 The Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden is the largest botanic garden dedicated to California’s native plants. You can explore diverse gardens and plant collections, take a tour, or learn from experts at a class.
Covina
Native Plant Demonstration Garden at Covina Public Library 234 N. Second Ave. 626-967-3935 A water-wise garden and mural depicting the history of the library help tell the local story of Southern California’s heritage.
La Cañada Flintridge
Descanso Gardens 1418 Descanso Drive. 818-949-4200 The Center Circle garden presents a new look for Southern California gardens, where the traditional lawn is replaced by vibrant, lower maintenance plants.
La Crescenta
Crescenta Valley Water District Demonstration Garden 2700 Foothill Blvd. 818-248-3925 This garden showcases hardy plants from the local area.
Manhattan Beach
Manhattan Beach Botanical Garden 1236 N. Peck Ave. 310-546-1354 A children’s garden, meditation garden, succulent slope and wildflower meadows offer inspiration to South Bay gardeners interested in using native and California Friendly® plants.
Palos Verdes Peninsula
South Coast Botanic Garden 26300 Crenshaw Boulevard 310-544-1948 The 87-acre South Coast Botanic Garden offers a variety of gardens to delight and inspire visitors. Specialty gardens include the Cactus Garden, Mediterranean Garden, WaterWise Garden, and Garden for the Senses.
Pasadena
Arlington Garden 295 Arlington Drive 626-441-4478 Home to 350 trees and thousands of Mediterranean climate plants that do well with low to moderate watering, the garden features California natives, cactus and succulents, South African and Australian natives, irrigated by low flow devices that use less than half the water demanded by traditional parks.
Rancho Dominguez
Garden at the Dominguez Rancho Adobe Museum 18127 S. Alameda St. 310-603-0088 The Dominguez Rancho Adobe Museum is a registered California State Historic Landmark that depicts early California history. The museum includes a beautiful cactus garden with an extensive collection of cacti.
San Fernando
Rudy Ortega (Heritage) Park 2025 4th St. 818-898-1290 This park features native and California Friendly® plants, walking paths, a Japanese tea house and historic water tower. The park commemorates the Fernandeño Tataviam tribal culture and San Fernando’s heritage.
San Marino
The Huntington Botanical Gardens 1151 Oxford Road 626-405-2100 The Huntington has more than a dozen spectacular gardens spread across 120 acres, including a renowned desert garden with thousands of species of desert cacti and succulents. Drought-tolerant plants for landscaping are used extensively around new installations.
Santa Monica
Airport Avenue Demonstration Gardens 3200 Airport Ave. 310-458-8405 This collection of three distinct sustainable landscapes provides everything you need for your own home landscape. Whether you are looking for an eco-friendly lawn alternative, a vegetable garden, a private sanctuary, or an outdoor room, these gardens feature it all.
Torrance
Madrona Marsh Nature Center 3201 Plaza del Amo 310-782-3989 A California Friendly® landscape offers myriad ideas to gardeners looking to use locally native and California Friendly® plants instead of traditional turf and shrubs. The garden is adjacent to a visitor’s center and the Madrona Marsh preserve.
Woodland Hills
S. Mark Taper Foundation Life Science Botanic Garden Pierce College, 6201 Winnetka Ave. 818-719-6465 The courtyard near the administration building is a 1.9-acre botanical garden including plants from the seven major worldwide Mediterranean climate zones. Unusual looking and hard-to-find plants are featured, and all are suitable for Southern California’s climate.
Calabasas
Sustainability Garden 4232 Las Virgenes Rd. 818-251-2100 The Las Virgenes Municipal Water District’s Sustainability Garden shows how selecting climate-appropriate landscaping can significantly reduce water consumption.