Via California - January/February 2020 - 30

Treasures of Golden Gate Park
Your ultimate guide to San Francisco's big backyard

T H I G H WAY
GREA

N

Bison Paddock

NNE
F. K E
JOHN

R.
DY D

Spreckels Lake

de Young Museum
Conservatory
of Flowers

G O L D E N G AT E PA R K

Stow
Lake

Japanese Tea
Garden

ST.
STA N YA N

FULTON ST.

Dutch Windmill

California Academy
of Sciences

San Francisco
Botanical Garden

1/4 mile
19TH AVE.

LINCOLN WAY

conservatory of flowers

san francisco
botanical garden
No part of the park proclaims its trans-
formation from sandy wildland to Northern
California Eden more eloquently than
this enclave, which shelters 9,000 differ-
ent plants from six continents. The park
creators entertained the idea of a botanical
garden in the 1870s, but that vision wasn't
realized until 1940. Today, you could
easily spend your whole visit here. Start at
the California Native Plant Garden, sweet
with sage, then stroll into the grove of coast
redwoods nearby. From there, head to the
Mesoamerican Cloud Forest, where tree
daisies grow 20 to 40 feet high. Continue
on to areas devoted to the plants of South
Af rica, Australia, and New Zealand.
Looking for a choice picnic spot? The
sweeping Great Meadow can't be beat.

30

V I A | J A N UA RY+ FE B R UA RY 2 0 2 0

BOTTOM: ROBERTHARDING / ALAMY; MAP: JOYCE PENDOLA

A stately, ornate tribute to the Victorian passion for growing tropi-
cal plants in nontropical climes, this palatial white greenhouse is the
oldest surviving building in Golden Gate Park, and perhaps the most
beautiful. Opened in 1879, the Conservatory of Flowers is one of
the last all-wood conservatories left in the United States; its 16,800
panes of glass let sunshine stream in to nurture some 2,000 species
of plants, ranging from giant water lilies to delicate polka-dotted
orchids, from the cascading tassel ferns to the bright coral, extrava-
gantly named Flame Thrower lipstick plant. Step outside and you'll
see flower beds planted in rigorously regimented 19th-century fashion
but glittering with one bit of 21st-century bling-French artist Jean-
Michel Othoniel's La Rose des Vents, a golden sculpture that gleams as
it swivels in the wind.



Via California - January/February 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Via California - January/February 2020

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