Great Park Conservancy / Learning About Other Parks

Learning from Other Parks

We are fortunate to have many great metropolitan parks around the world, across the country, and right here in California to use as models for the Orange County Great Park. The Great Park Conservancy and the Great Park Corporation are researching a variety of different parks as part of the planning process for the Orange County Great Park. We will add information to this page as it becomes available. These are some of the parks we have researched to date.

Quail Botanical Gardens, Encinitas, CA
Located 20 minutes north of San Diego in Encinitas, California, Quail Botanical Gardens features over 35 acres of exhibits, including rare bamboo groves, desert gardens, a tropical rainforest, California native plants, Mediterranean climate landscapes, the Undersea Succulent Garden, Landscaping for Fire Safety and a subtropical fruit garden. In April of 2003, Quail introduced the West Coast's first interactive children's garden, the Seeds of Wonder.

Quail Botanical Gardens was originally a farm. It later became the private residence of Ruth Baird Larabee, an avid plant collector and naturalist. In 1957, she donated the land to the County of San Diego as a park and wildlife sanctuary.

Quail Gardens opened to the public in 1971. Over the next twenty years new plantings, gardens, and improvements were added. In 1984, the name was changed to Quail Botanical Gardens. In 1993 San Diego County's support of the Gardens ceased and the non-profit Quail Botanical Gardens Foundation, Inc., began to operate the Gardens. Since that time, a wide variety of new gardens, facilities, and improvements have been added.

Currently, the Gardens are planning a major expansion, including a kid's tree house and a new visitor center.

The Conservancy's Botanical Garden research team recently toured Quail Botanical Gardens as part of our continuing efforts to learn from existing gardens so that we can create the best possible world-class Botanical Garden at the Orange County Great Park.

For more information, visit the Quail Botanical Gardens website

Alnwick Garden, Northumberland, UK
The Alnwick Garden in Northumberland is one of the most exciting contemporary gardens to be developed in the last century, a magical landscape created from a unique idea.

The Duchess of Northumberland's vision was to create a beautiful public space accessible to everyone: a garden for contemplation, fun, inspiration and education. Belgian designer Jacques Wirtz and his son Peter have transformed a 12-acre forgotten and derelict plot of land into an exciting scene, dancing with water and ringing with the sounds of life. The Garden is a sequence of busy and quiet spaces, with the gentle and introspective Rose Garden feeling far remote from the children playing in spectacular water displays. The garden also features The Poison Garden, The Woodlawn Walk, The Ornamental Garden, The Serpent Garden, The Bamboo Labyrinth, and one of the largest tree houses in the world.

In a relatively short space of time, the Alnwick Garden has been recognized not only for gardening excellence but also as a transformational project using its resources to provide real, measurable benefit for people. The Garden contributes to the regeneration of a rural community as tourism takes on a new level of importance, and it provides an opportunity for people of all ages and abilities to experience the arts, enjoy learning new skills, and get outdoors for activity or relaxation.

For more information visit the Alnwick Garden website.

Cornerstone Gardens, Sonoma, CA
Cornerstone Gardens, located in Sonoma, California, have been called the most innovative gardens in America. The first such gallery-style gardens in the United States, the nine-acre Cornerstone Festival of Gardens—with 20 different gardens, each designed by a world famous landscape architect--has been envisioned as an inspiration and resource for people interested in gardens, garden design and art.

The gardens contribute to the art, philosophy and future of garden design; they focus on themes and ideas, establishing or uncovering new directions in garden design and art. Continually in a state of evolution, some garden installations are in place for a season, while others remain for several seasons. In addition to individual gardens by select landscape architects and designers, a gallery provides information on the designers and the process of creating each of their installations. Cornerstone also hosts educational seminars on landscape architecture and garden design.

For art and garden enthusiasts who rarely get to see the work of leading landscape architects and garden designers, the nine-acre property is a place which allows visitors to see and experience the work of the world's most acclaimed landscape designers. At Cornerstone, these artists have the freedom to create everything from traditional gardens to modern, conceptual installations.
Each designer is given a garden of approximately 1,800 square feet, a budget, boundless opportunity and one simple directive: “to invent, inform, and create beautiful and compelling gardens that engage and inspire the viewer intellectually, emotionally and aesthetically.”

For more information, visit the Cornerstone Gardens web site.

Descanso Gardens, La Canada Flintridge, CA
Located on 160 acres, Descanso Gardens features forests, streams, a lake, and bird sanctuary all highlighted by 80 acres of colorful flowers, including camellias, lilacs and roses.

Before the area was opened to the public as Descanso Gardens the land was an oak forest. In the late 1930s when newspaper publisher E. Manchester Boddy was building his estate called Rancho del Descanso, he planted thousands of camellias in the shade of the oaks to provide blossoms for the cut-flower industry. Those camellias, and others added in later years, continue to thrive.

Today Descanso Gardens is home to North America's largest camellia collection growing on 20 acres. Many of these camellias are more than 20 feet in height. The Camellia Forest boasts rare and familiar camellias and has been designated an International Camellia Garden of Excellence by the International Camellia Society.

Native plants are showcased in the California Garden. The original eight-acre garden, designed in 1959 by famed horticulturist Theodore Payne, has been expanded in recent years. One can follow meandering paths through sage scrub and riparian habitats set amidst the sun-bathed chaparral hillsides or relax at Redwood Rest and catch the springtime color of California poppies, other wildflowers and native flowering shrubs.

The five-acre International Rosarium is home to more than 3,000 roses representing centuries of horticultural history and dozens of regions around the world. Significant collections of species, old garden and modern roses are arranged in theme gardens.

Descanso's roses share their space with companion plants that thrive in the Southern California climate.
Just beyond the International Rosarium, the Bird Observation Station and Lake provide permanent and temporary shelter and nesting area for a wide variety of birds. The Bird Observation Station, built in conjunction with the Audubon Society, gives visitors an opportunity to view hundreds of varieties of birds, waterfowl and other animals in their natural habitat, the beautiful sanctuary of Descanso Gardens.

For more information visit their website.

Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanical Garden
The Arboretum is a 127- acre botanical garden and historical site jointly operated by the Los Angeles Arboretum Foundation and the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation. The mission of the Arboretum is to cultivate natural, horticultural and historic resources for learning, enjoyment and inspiration.

Since its establishment in 1948, the Arboretum has helped introduce and popularize many different plant varieties, providing a thriving habitat for over 232 species of birds. Exploring the grounds you will find thousands of plants from regions around the world. Or, travel back in time and learn about early California and the Arboretum's long history of settlement, including Native Americans, Spanish land grant recipients, and 19th century tycoons. Visit the four-acre natural body of water known as Baldwin Lake where numerous film and TV shows have been shot. The Arboretum is host to many horticulture shows & expositions including the California Philharmonic Concerts on the Green every summer.

The Conservancy's Botanical Garden research team recently toured The Arboretum as part of our continuing efforts to learn from existing gardens so that we can create the best possible world-class Botanical Garden at the Orange County Great Park.

For more information, visit their website.

Springs Preserve, Las Vegas, Nevada
The Springs Preserve is a 180-acre cultural and historical attraction designed to commemorate Las Vegas' dynamic history and to provide a vision for a sustainable future.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1978, the Preserve is located approximately three miles west of downtown Las Vegas. The site represents one of the richest and most unique cultural and biological resources in Southern Nevada.

Known as the birthplace of Las Vegas, the site of the Preserve was once home to bubbling springs that were a source of water for Native Americans living there thousands of years ago. It also sustained travelers of the Old Spanish Trail and Mormons who came to settle the West.

The Springs Preserve includes colorful desert botanical gardens, museum galleries, outdoor concerts and events, an indoor theater, a historic photo gallery and a series of walking trails that meander through a scenic wetland habitat.

The eight-acre Botanical Gardens at the Springs Preserve features a wide range of desert landscapes and demonstrate native and non-native desert plant life with interpretive stations and hands-on activities. Unique features of the gardens include the Watering Can Theater for irrigation instruction, the Tool Shed Theater, a children’s theater featuring molded mushroom-shaped chairs, a weather station with real-time weather data, the Enabling Garden, which demonstrates options for people who have physical challenges, and the Frame House, a 70-seat kitchen area for outdoor cooking demonstrations.

The Conservancy’s Botanical Garden research team recently toured Springs Preserve as part of our continuing efforts to learn from existing gardens so that we can create the best possible world-class Botanical Garden at the Orange County Great Park.

For more information, visit the Springs Preserve web site.

San Francisco Botanical Garden
Ten minutes or a life- time… the San Francisco Botanical Garden is the place for you.

San Francisco's unique botanical garden inspires visitors with the extraordinary diversity of rare and unusual plants that can be grown in coastal California. Through its programs and displays, the Garden celebrates the bond between people and plants, and instills a deeper understanding of the necessity to conserve Earth's biological diversity.

A mild Mediterranean climate provides the San Francisco Botanical Garden the right conditions to grow and conserve plants from all over the world, including plants that are no longer found in their native habitats. There are 55 acres of sanctuary - landscaped gardens and open spaces — and over 7500 varieties of plants from around the world!

As quoted in the April 2007 issue of Via Magazine: “Even people who can’t tell a rose from a rhododendron can appreciate the serenity of this Golden Gate Park oasis. Plant aficionados will marvel at the vast numbers of rare species from all over the world.”

The Conservancy’s Botanical Garden research team is planning a tour of the San Francisco Botanical Garden later this year as part of our continuing efforts to learn from existing gardens so that we can create the best possible world-class Botanical Garden at the Orange County Great Park.

Eden Project, Cornwall, England
Eden Project in Cornwall, England embodies many of the traits of a modern, 21st century botanical garden. More than just a “green theme park,” the Eden Project links plants, people, and places. It is a living demonstration of regeneration and the staff is committed to reconnecting people with their environments on both local and global levels.

Eden is all about man's relationship with and dependence upon plants. Much of our food, our clothes, our shelter and our medicines come from the plant world. Eden Project houses more than 1,000,000 plants representing 5,000 species from many of the climatic zones of the world. Many of these can grow in the mild conditions of Cornwall, while others require the greenhouse environment of Eden's two gigantic Biomes. In addition to the plants, art is central to Eden's messaging, and the site includes thought-provoking works and installations.

This Autumn, the Great Park Conservancy will host members of the Eden Project to consult with us about how to build a successful 21st century Botanical Garden at the Orange County Great Park.

To learn more about the Eden Project, please visit their website.

Helen and Peter Bing Children’s Garden at The Huntington
San Marino, California
The Helen and Peter Bing Children’s Garden centers on the four ancient elements — Fire, Water, Earth and Air. These are the raw elements that fuel the plant world and, through plant growth, give rise to the oxygen, food, resources, and habitats that sustain human life. Inviting youngsters to enter and explore, the Children’s Garden opens up endless pathways to discovery.

Designed specifically with youngsters in mind, the Children’s Garden taps into children’s innate curiosity about the world around them. The Garden encourages intellectual and physical engagement in magical, thought-provoking surroundings. It is the perfect place for hands-on exploration, at a scale and level just right for little ones.

Fire
Fire yields light and heat, demonstrated through the power of sunlight whose energy plants use to create their food. Children can crawl through the Prism Tunnel where prisms break sunlight into colored arcs and soft halos; visit the Topiary Volcano where sunlight fuels the flame-colored leaves of New Zealand flax growing atop the volcano and rampant vines form a shady refuge; or play in the Rainbow Room where pulses of mist break sunlight into a circular rainbow that shimmers against the background of miniature Bull Bay magnolias.

Water
Water gives movement to our lives and the world around us. Plants take water in through their roots and lose it through their leaves. Children can explore the Sonic Pool where vibrations at the rim of the basin create waves that interfere with each other and produce dynamic effects–causing water to ripple, and even dance around the edge; experience the Vortex and Water Bells and watch the effects of the water as it swirls through the funnel; and play with the Marble Jets that propel grape-sized spurts of water in to the air.

Earth
Earth is soil, rock, pebbles, stone and metal. The earth is where plants root and where they get their nutrients. Children can observe magnetic sand that comes from ocean sediments and learn a lesson in the interaction of force fields; watch the Self-Centered Globe that shows how the sun is striking the Earth at this very moment; and hear the Pebble Chimes that ring out while bouncing through a maze of metal posts.

Air
Air is a forgotten substance, until it is made visible—by fog or smoke. But the atmosphere is the greatest nutrition source on Earth, providing all of the carbon dioxide plants require to make the food they use to grow. Children can sniff through the Fragrance Garden where gentle aromas waft through this formal passageway planted with citrus, rosemary, lavender, and other fragrance-rich plants; or find their path into the Fog Grotto to experience the swirl of clouds and the constant currents that move around us.

To learn more about the Helen and Peter Bing Children’s Garden at The Huntington, visit their website.

Ithaca Children’s Garden at Cornell University
Ithaca, New York
The mission of the Ithaca Children's Garden is to create a unique and joyful garden environment designed to inspire, empower, and connect children and youth with the importance of plants and the natural world in their lives.

The Ithaca Children's Garden:
Promotes an understanding of plants and the role they play in our daily lives;

Nurtures the wonder of a child's imagination;

Creates a community attraction that enriches the lives of residents with intergenerational programs and activities;

Provides a place of enrichment and delight for children of all ages; and

Teaches horticulture skills and encourages artistic expression.

The Ithaca Children's Garden is an innovative grassroots effort to create exciting, interactive garden-based experiences with children of all ages. Garden programs are intergenerational and open to all. The Garden itself will be a beautiful place where local residents and visitors will explore the many ways in which plants enhance our lives. This unique garden will create a living venue for experiential learning, blending disciplines such as horticulture, art, literature, music, life skills, and science. Its diverse uses will include tours, workshops and special events, and it will foster an appreciation of the natural world, relaxation, reflection, and the wonder of discovery. Children, volunteers, mentors and youth apprentices will participate in garden development, maintenance, and ongoing educational programs.

To learn more about the Ithaca Children’s Garden, visit their website.

The New York Botanical Garden
Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden
Plants and imaginations grow at the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden, where you're allowed—no, encouraged—to play in the dirt. Dig for worms, plant seeds, and learn about foods grown on the other side of the world. Kids enjoy hands-on activities every day and come for special events like Scarecrow and Harvest Weekend. Or join the Children's Gardening Program, which gives you and a partner your very own garden plot to take care of. You'll find that gardening opens the door to a world of discovery and fun, and that the best flowers and vegetables are the ones you grow yourself!

Everett Children's Adventure Garden
Calling all young explorers! Come enter an amazing world of mazes, larger-than-life flowers, and hands-on activities, a place made just for you to explore the wonders of science and nature. Here, your eyes, ears, fingers, and nose are the keys to unlocking the mysteries of the plant world. Each season brings new events and exciting discoveries to be made. There's a Boulder Maze for climbing, a Touch Tank for getting up close with water-loving plants, an indoor laboratory for doing experiments and looking through microscopes, and so much more!

To learn more, visit the New York Botanical Garden’s website.

The Children’s Garden at The Morton Arboretum Lisle, Illinois
Get ready to splash through a secret stream, climb colossal acorns, and slide down giant tree roots. Curiosity will sprout and imagination will bloom at the Children's Garden at The Morton Arboretum. Kids can splash, slide, climb and jump their way through ten exciting garden areas. These areas include the Kids’ Tree Walk and Tree Finder Grove, the Curiosity Garden, Bloom, Zoom and Sprout, Every Which Way, the Windmill Garden, the Wonder Pond, Under the Trees, the Grotto & Secret Stream, the Grassy Meadow, and the Evergreen Walk and Lookout

Kids’ Tree Walk and Tree Finder Grove
Enter the Garden along a tree-lined walkway that presents the rich beauty and diversity of trees. The main path is embellished with smaller sidewalks, each named for a tree genus and labeled with leaves of that tree pressed into the concrete.

Curiosity Garden
Alice in Wonderland would have loved this garden, where children are directed to look at common things in new ways and to use their senses to explore. Touching, smelling and taking a closer look are strongly encouraged!

Bloom, Zoom and Sprout
Explore the life cycle of plants in exciting and hands-on ways. Be like a bee and pollinate! Large, colorful flowers, fruits and seeds beckon kids to play and giant acorns beg to be climbed.

Every Which Way
Discover how plants grow. What are the names of plant parts that you see… and don't see? This garden includes a giant tree root model, a tree house, a water garden, and a sand and water play area where children can get their hands into the basic elements that all plants need.

Windmill Garden
A small cornfield illustrates what many Illinois children see in their own backyards. Every year, the field behind the windmill will be planted with a crop that grows in Illinois.

Wonder Pond
The pond was created by a beaver damming a stream. Stepping stones, a faux beaver dam, and colorful water plants make this every kid’s favorite spot.

Under the Trees
Children get "up close and personal" with trees and other plants by accessing pathways and adventurous playground equipment. The opportunity to play in this naturalistic area will promote the appreciation and understanding of trees and will lay the foundation for understanding more complex concepts of diversity, adaptation, and interrelationships.

Grotto and Secret Stream
Children can play in this stream, exploring the properties of moving water and learning that streams carry water into lakes, ponds and rivers.

Grassy Meadow
Children explore tall grasses on pathways and a net crawl that helps them maneuver over the plants and immerse themselves in the area. Children can communicate with other children through Talk Tubes.

Evergreen Walk and Lookout
How high can you go? How about climbing 14 feet to get a better view of the tree branches and look down on the entire Garden! Can you believe it? You are now 3 stories higher than when you came through the Garden entrance! A challenging suspension bridge brings you closer to the tree canopy.

To learn more, visit the Morton Arboretum’s website.

Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden Cape Town, South Africa
Founded in 1913, Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden is world-renowned for the beauty and diversity of the Cape flora it displays and for the magnificence of its setting against the eastern slopes of Table Mountain. Kirstenbosch grows only indigenous South African plants and the estate supports a diverse flora. The cultivated garden displays collections of South African plants, particularly those from the winter rainfall region of the country.

The Botanical Society Conservatory enables Kirstenbosch to display South African plants which cannot be grown in the outdoor gardens. Here, under one roof, visitors find plants from high mountain peaks, shady forests and hot, dry deserts. The main house, dominated by a large baobab tree, features succulents from the arid regions of southern Africa. Special collections of bulbs, ferns and alpines are displayed in smaller corner houses.Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden’s mission is to use the gardens and the resources of the NBI to inspire and enable people to take responsibility for the environment.

To learn more about Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, please visit their website.

Botanical Garden of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
The Botanical Garden of Barcelona conserves collections of Mediterranean plants from all over the world. The mission entrusted to this institution includes particularly that of conserving and documenting Catalonia’s natural heritage.

The Garden also works to promote a botanical and naturalist culture, and to foster knowledge through its activities, which are adapted to groups of all kinds, from amateurs to experts, as well as for schools. This promotional work helps to increase the public’s knowledge of nature and its awareness of the need to conserve it.
On the scientific side, the Garden is supported by the Botanical Institute of Barcelona. This prestigious institute has an important library and one of the largest herbariums in Catalonia.

The fact that the Botanical Garden of Barcelona is a Mediterranean garden makes it a unique facility for experimenting with plants new to the Mediterranean climate with a view to their later introduction into gardening. The results of these experiments take the form of new ideas that are passed on to the other parks in Barcelona’s Metropolitan Area.

To learn more about the Botanical Garden of Barcelona, visit their website.

Koishikawa Botanical Garden
Koishikawa Botanical Garden is one of the finest botanical gardens in Japan. Owned and operated by Japan’s most prestigious university, Tokyo University, the gardens exhibit several thousand species of trees and plants. It is one of the oldest botanical gardens in Japan, and began as a medicinal herb garden.

Koishikawa is famous for its landscape gardens as well as cherry blossom viewing. Landscape gardens are an important part of traditional Japanese gardens, and fall into three categories: Tsukiyama, which are composed of graceful water features, bridges, hills, stones, and foliage; Karesansui, the components of which represent a natural landscape through the abstract use of stone, gravel, and sand; and Chaniwa, which are built for the Japanese tea ceremony. Cherry blossom viewing, or hanami, is a part of Japanese culture that has been celebrated for many centuries, as the cherry blossom is the unofficial flower of Japan. It often only lasts for several days in the spring when the blossoms are at their most beautiful.

Fullerton Arboretum / Cal State University Fullerton
The Fullerton Arboretum, located on the California State University Fullerton Campus, is a 26-acre botanical garden with an ecologically arranged collection of plants from around the world. Created in 1976 when the Trustees of the California State Universities and the Redevelopment Agency of the City of Fullerton signed a joint powers agreement, the Arboretum opened to the public in 1979.

The Garden paths wander through four major collections: Cultivated, Woodlands, Mediterranean and Desert Collections. Highlights include Southern California native vegetation, Rare Fruit Grove, historic citrus and avocados, Channel Islands Garden, an extensive Cycad Collection, Palm Grove, Community Gardens, Children's Garden and many more.

The Arboretum is also a place where education is valued. They offer a variety of classes available to different age groups, including the “Saturday Gardening Program” for adults and the “Rainbow Garden Program” for children. On a larger level, a “Landscape Planning & Management” program is available through the University’s Extended Education department.

To learn more about the Fullerton Arboretum, visit their website.

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, Austin, Texas
“ The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center is much more than a botanical garden - it is a place that bridges the gap between people and the natural world, a place that fosters understanding and appreciation of our ecological heritage, promotes good ecological citizenship and works to secure a sustainable ecological future.”

The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center has a mission to preserve and restore the natural beauty and biological richness of North America by inspiring people to love the land and to think differently about the plants that grow around them. Founded on December 22, 1982 (Lady Bird Johnson’s 70th Birthday), the center was housed on a small plot of undeveloped land. Over the past twenty-five years, the center has grown into an internationally-known sanctuary for North American wildflowers and other plants.

The Wildflower Center encourages the use of native flora in urban, suburban, residential, business, and commercial planting landscapes. They recognize the interconnectedness of human communities with their surrounding ecosystems.

To learn more about the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas, visit their website. (www.wildflower.org)

Eden Project, England
The Eden Project is about connecting plants and people. It is a living demonstration of regeneration that aims to reconnect people with their environments locally and globally. Located in Cornwall, England, the Eden Project is dedicated to education, research, the arts, and creating a sanctuary for everyone who visits their facility.

The landmark features of the Eden Project are the Biomes (pictured above), in which a variety of plant life exists in a recreated natural habitat—from the humid tropics to a warm temperate environment.

Like the Great Park will be, Eden is a living laboratory. Education and communication are central to the Eden Project. The on-site exhibits and programs are being designed for all ages and abilities. In fact, one of the Eden Project’s primary goals is to create interest in and involve people of all ages in the Eden Project and in the environment as a whole.

To learn more, visit the Eden Project’s website.

Brooklyn Botanical Garden
Brooklyn Botanical Garden in New York City is a 52-acre living museum where beauty, romance, and fun blossom among world-class plant collections and specialty gardens. Admired as an urban horticultural and botanical resource, Brooklyn Botanical Garden inspires visitors to discover that plants are essential to life.

Brooklyn Botanical Garden houses an impressive plant collection as well as being home to several plant research and education centers. Their research centers include the Herbarium with about 250,000 specimens of preserved plants from around the world with concentration on plants of the greater New York area and cultivated plants. It also includes the Center for Urban Restoration Ecology (CURE), which is a collaboration between Rutgers University and the Brooklyn Botanical Garden that was established specifically to study and restore human-dominated lands. The Brooklyn Botanical Garden’s educational programs are aimed to serve a wide area of interest from young children to adults, teaching them about gardening, ecology, and native plant species.

The mission of Brooklyn Botanic Garden is to serve all the people in its community and throughout the world by: displaying plants and practicing the high art of horticulture to provide a beautiful and hospitable setting for the delight and inspiration of the public; engaging in research in plant sciences to expand human knowledge of plants, and disseminating the results to science professionals and the general public; teaching children and adults about plants at a popular level, as well as making available instruction in the exacting skills required to grow plants and make beautiful gardens; reaching out to help the people of all our diverse urban neighborhoods to enhance the quality of their surroundings and their daily lives through the cultivation and enjoyment of plants; and seeking actively to arouse public awareness of the fragility of our natural environment, both local and global, and providing information about ways to conserve and protect it.

To learn more about Brooklyn Botanical Garden visit their website.

New York Botanical Garden
“A grand museum of plants. A place to relax, rejuvenate, and experience the wonders of nature. A living ‘tip sheet’ for your home garden. A worldwide leader in studying the Earth’s plant life. The New York Botanical Garden is all of these things and a great deal more.”

Located at the Fordham River in the Bronx, New York Botanical Garden provides a center for learning, cultivation, and growth. The Botanical Garden was founded in 1891, and is now home to an impressive collection of plants as well as a well-known gardening and horticulture educational center and a facility for plant research.

One of New York Botanical Garden’s current exciting exhibits is the Chihuly glass that is displayed throughout areas of the Garden. Art and nature meet in Dale Chihuly’s glass sculptures, which incorporate vivid colors and organic shapes. This is the first major Chihuly exhibit in the New York area.

Heralded as by The Wall Street Journal as a “garden of earthly delights,” and by The New York Sun as, "a museum of living botanical masterpieces," the New York Botanical Garden is a spectacular and important place to learn about and enjoy nature.

To learn more about New York Botanical Garden and the Chihuly exhibit, which will run through October, visit the Garden’s website.

Atlanta Botanical Garden
In 1973, the citizens of Atlanta, Georgia proposed a plan for a botanical garden. Today, over thirty years later, Atlanta Botanical Garden is a thriving community of plants and people in the heart of one of America’s great cities.

Atlanta Botanical Garden is famous for its gardens and its libraries, the Sheffield Botanical Library and the Orchid Research Library. The Sheffield Botanical Library provides information about botany and horticulture with special emphasis on Southeastern regional works. The Orchid Research Library is a collection of titles specific to orchids and global plant conservation, which serves Atlanta Botanical Garden staff and researchers.

At the Atlanta Botanical Garden, you’ll also find a wide collection of plants, displayed in replications of their natural environments. These environments include the Tropical Rotunda, the Desert House, the Orangerie, the Orchid Hall, and the High Elevation House.

In addition to Atlanta Botanical Garden’s standard exhibits, the garden also hosts a variety of arts and cultural exhibits throughout the year, such as displays of Niki de Saint Phalle, the Asian Cultural Experience, and Sun Trust Concerts in the Garden.

To learn more about Atlanta Botanical Garden, please visit their website.

Royal Botanic Garden, Kew
Kew’s Royal Botanic Garden, located in the United Kingdom, is an internationally known park renowned for its abundant variety of flora. Stretching over 300 acres, the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew is comprised of formal gardens, wildlife areas, and themed plant collections.

Kew is best known for its formal gardens, of which there are more than twenty. They include a rock garden, an aquatic garden, a mediterranian garden, a grass garden, and the Queen’s garden. Each of these unique areas possesses individual charm and beauty. Because the Royal Botanic Garden changes with the seasons, visitors will always find something new. In springtime, blossoming trees, bulb flowers and the bluebell woods are some of the most popular attractions. Through the summer, the glasshouses provide lush sanctuary for garden guests. As the leaves turn in autumn, visitors enjoy the colorful foliage, ornamental grasses, and Europe’s finest collection of mature hollies. There's more to see in winter than many people think, such as Christmas roses, wintersweet, and witch hazels with their heady scents.

Kew’s Royal Botanic Garden also supports educational facilities and opportunities year-round, with programs reaching from full-time botanical horticulture training courses to elementary school programs. Offering something for everyone, the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew is a model facility as well as a place rich in beauty and majesty.

For more information, visit the Kew Royal Botanic Garden website.

Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden
Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, located in Claremont, California, displays only native California plants. While this may seem limiting, California actually has the largest number of native plant species of any state in the continental U.S.

In our rapidly growing world, it is important to preserve unique plant species. Rancho Santa Ana recognizes the role of Botanic Gardens as working within their communities to increase public awareness and to provide tools, information, and inspiration to help resolve local and regional conservation issues. They are committed to biological research, as well as the reintroduction of plants into their native environments and the long-term cultivation of endangered plant species.

In addition to working with growing flora, Rancho Santa Ana also has an extensive program for retrieving and preserving the seeds of California native plants. The seed collection is comprised of over 3,000 accessions representing more than 1,600 California native plant species and cultivars. These collections serve a diverse community in the conservation, botanical, research, education, and horticultural fields.

To learn more about Rancho Santa Ana and for visiting information, please visit their website .

Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens
One of California’s best-known destinations is the Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens in San Marino.

Nestled amidst 150 acres of breathtaking gardens, the Huntington is a research and educational center that incorporates three art galleries and a library, showcasing magnificent collections of paintings, sculptures, rare books, manuscripts, and decorative arts. The botanical collection features over 14,000 different species of plants.

The botanical gardens include a spectacular 12-acre desert garden, the serenely beautiful Japanese garden, the Shakespeare garden, the children’s garden, the jungle garden, the lily ponds, and others. Highlights of the library’s collection include the Ellesmere manuscript of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (c.1410), a Gutenberg Bible (c.1455), and Thomas Gainsborough's masterpiece “The Blue Boy” (c. 1770). One of the facility’s latest additions is the Rose Hills Foundation Conservatory for Botanical Sciences, which houses a tropical forest environment with some wildly exotic plants, including the pitcher plant, which catches water in its vase-like shoots to drown unsuspecting insects.

Current and upcoming exhibits include: “The Art of Virtue: Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography,” “Sensation and Sensibility: Viewing Gainsborough’s Cottage Door,” and “Dreams Fulfilled: African-American Culture.”

Click here to visit the Huntington’s website.

Amsterdam Bos & Vondel Park
In the Summer of 2004, Great Park Conservancy Director John Sullivan visited Europe to learn about great parks across the Atlantic Ocean. While in Europe, he toured Holland and found some of the world's most exquisite and unique park settings. Last month, we explored De Hoge Veluwe, one of Holland's National Parks. Two other Dutch parks Director Sullivan visited were Amsterdam Bos and Vondel Park.

Constructed on a polder, Amsterdam Bos was built on land reclaimed from a body of water by dykes. To transform Amsterdam Bos into the breathtaking park that it is today, park architects planted a vast forest. Although the forest is basically man-made, it appears to be a perfectly natural setting. Beside the forest, one of the fantastic draws to Amsterdam Bos is its sports park, which is constantly in use.

Over 140 years ago, Vondel was built in a very similar fashion to the Orange County Great Park. Real estate developers wanted to build homes on the outskirts of Amsterdam, but city officials put a condition on their development. The real estate developers would also be required to provide the city with an impressive park; Vondel is the result of this endeavor. The park and the surrounding neighborhoods were built together as cohesive pieces of a greater puzzle.

Like so many of the parks in Holland, Amsterdam Bos and Vondel Park are always full of people enjoying precious public amenities.

De Hoge Veluwe Park, Holland
In the Summer of 2004, Great Park Conservancy Director John Sullivan visited Europe to learn about great parks across the Atlantic Ocean. While in Europe, he toured Holland and found some of the world’s most exquisite and unique park settings. One of the parks he visited was De Hoge Veluwe.

De Hoge Veluwe National Park is a huge public space formerly owned by the influential Kroller-Muller family. Park goers traverse the park on white bicycles, which are owned by the park’s management and “rented” to the patrons at no charge. At points throughout De Hoge Veluwe, there are stations where people can drop off and pick up bicycles to ride around the park. One of De Hoge Veluwe’s greatest assets is its art collection, housed in the Kroller-Muller Museum. The museum, and the adjoining sculpture garden, comprises a stunning compilation of great works of art, including an expansive collection of impressionist paintings.

Two of the other Dutch Parks Director Sullivan visited, Amsterdam Bos and Vondel, will be featured as the Park of the Month in March and April. Please check back with us to learn more about these exciting public spaces.

Director Sullivan will be presenting a slide show featuring all three of these Dutch parks in the near future. More information will be posted about this presentation as soon as it is available.

Missouri Botanical Garden
Founded in 1859, the 79-acre Missouri Botanical Garden is one of the oldest botanical institutions in the country. Besides being a much-needed green space in the middle of St. Louis, the Garden is also a center for botanical research and science education.

Missouri Botanical Garden encompasses a variety of landscapes, including a Victorian garden, an English woodland garden, a Japanese garden, a boxwood garden, a home demonstration garden, a greenhouse, a Chinese garden, and a geodesic dome, the Climatron. Throughout this botanical masterpiece are numerous water features, including a four-acre lake in the Japanese garden, and a great deal of beautiful statuary. Missouri Botanical Garden is also home to the Monsanto Center, one of the nation’s leading botanical research facilities.

One of the most impressive aspects of the Missouri Botanical Garden is the diversity of the plants. The Garden houses plants from many countries around the world, giving guests the opportunity to explore and learn about the magnificent natural world of plants.

For more information, visit the Missouri Botanical Garden website.

Cantigny Park, Wheaton, Illinois
Cantigny Park in Wheaton, Illinois is home to many exciting and beautiful amenities. One of the most spectacular of these is the Formal Gardens, designed in 1967 by landscape architect Franz Lipp.

Over the past few decades, the trees and foliage in the Formal Gardens have matured, growing into one of the finest gardens in America.
Cantigny’s Formal Gardens include the North Scalloped Garden, the Fountain Garden, the Rock Garden, the Green Garden, Bur Oak Garden, Golden and Silver Ponds, the Rose Garden, and the Douglas Fir Garden. Each location within the Gardens radiates its own personality and character, some places full of vibrant color, others relaxing and soothing in nature. The Formal Gardens also change with the seasons, the greenery and scenery varying as the year passes.

Amongst the numerous plants that grow in the Gardens are magnolia, yew, boxwood, linden, euonymus, birch, larch, redbud, smoke tree, low creeping juniper, trailing cotoneaster, ginko, dogwood, maple, and a variety of roses. The Formal Gardens at Cantigny Park provide residents and tourists with an enchanting landmark, which is enjoyed by thousands of guests each year.

To learn more about Cantigny Park and the Formal Gardens, visit their website.

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Chapultepec Park, Mexico City
Open space is hard to find in Mexico’s capital, which is home to about 20 million residents. Chapultepec Park, located in El Distrito Federal, or Mexico City, constitutes one of the largest open spaces in this densely urban area. In the Aztec language, “Chapultepec” literally means “grasshopper hill.” This park is the largest in Mexico City, stretching three times as long as New York’s Central Park. Because of Chapultepec Park’s central location, it serves as an excellent “jumping-off” point for many of Mexico City’s other attractions. Chapultepec Park is a popular spot for both the residents of Mexico City, as well as tourists.

Surrounding Chapultepec Park, which is east of the city center, are a centuries-old forest and beautiful, historical neighborhoods. Inside the park, there are a wide variety of amenities and venues including: an amusement park, the only genuine castle in North America, Mexico's largest zoo, a lake, a water park, and Los Pinos, the residence of the President of Mexico. The park is also home to numerous museums, such as the Anthropology Museum (Museo Nacional de Antropologia), the Modern Art Museum (Museo de Arte Moderno), and the Contemporary Art Museum (Museo de Arte Contemporaneo Internacional Rufino Tamayo).

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Butchart Gardens Victoria Island, Canada
Butchart Gardens on Victoria Island is an accidental paradise. Beginning as a gardening experiment on the grounds of a former limestone quarry, the gardens have transformed into a world-class park over the past century.

In 1888, Robert Pim Butchart started manufacturing cement, drawing much of the necessary limestone from the land around his factory on Vancouver Island. When the limestone quarry was mined out, Robert Pim Butchart’s wife, Jennie, had an idea to transform the empty pit into something more aesthetically pleasing. She had rich topsoil brought in from the neighboring farmland and planted what has become known as the Sunken Garden. Over the coming decades, the Butcharts added a Japanese Garden, an Italian Garden, a Rose Garden, and even a large vegetable patch. By 1920, over fifty thousand people came every year to see the remarkable landscapes that the Butcharts had created.

Today, Butchart Gardens is considered a world-class attraction. In the next year, they anticipate the welcome of their fifty millionth visitor. In addition to the many gardens, there are seasonal attractions including fireworks, concerts, strolling Christmas carolers, and the summertime “Night Illuminations.”

To learn more visit the Butchart Gardens website.

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London’s Royal Parks
Every year, London’s eight Royal Parks host millions of Londoners and tourists. The parks, which cover a total of five thousand acres, are: Bushy Park, The Green Park, Greenwich Park, Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, The Regent’s Park, Richmond Park, and St. James Park.

The Royal Parks are home to a menagerie of historical locales, architecture, statues and memorials, as well as extensive gardens, parkland, sports areas and entertainment venues. Diversity of uses within the parks encourages patronage by a wide variety of park-goers, from picnickers and walkers to scholars and travelers. And because there is an active effort to preserve the parks and their amenities, future generations will have the opportunity to enjoy them, as well.

Each of London’s eight Royal Parks boasts a rich heritage, but one thing they all have in common with the Orange County Great Park is that they are re-use projects. For hundred of years before they were open to the public, the Royal Parks were the property of the crown and were only available to be used by the monarchs and their courts.

Today, the Royal Parks are open to anyone and everyone at no cost. Known as “London’s Personal Space,” the Royal Parks offer respite and relaxation in the heart of one of the Western world’s oldest cities.
To learn more about the Royal Parks, please visit the official Royal Parks website.

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Duisburg Nord, Germany
Duisburg Nord is a study of what can be accomplished in the field of reuse with a little imagination and a great deal of trust in nature. The German park, which was built between 1991 and 2000, is constructed on grounds that were once highly industrialized. What makes this park different from so many other exercises in reuse, however, is that the skeletons of industry are the main attraction at the park.

Newly fitted for safety and public exploration, the former industrial mountains, machines and structures have become a permanent exhibit of German history. But they are only half of the spectacle. Duisburg’s lush landscaping has been melded into the heavily industrialized backdrop and is comprised of what may be called experimental vegetation. Because of the nature of the site, the park’s designers were unsure what plants would flourish. They planted a large variety of flora species and let nature decide how the final landscape would look. The result is a menagerie of unexpected greenery growing in very unexpected places: trails of vines climbing water towers, groundcover wading into rain-filled pools and trees sprouting up between vast metal towers.

Park-goers are constantly surprised and enchanted with their surroundings at Duisburg Nord, one of Europe’s more intriguing feats in park reuse.

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Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
Golden Gate Park in San Francisco was first envisioned in the 1860s by Mayor Frank McCoffin, who wanted San Francisco to have a grand open space. Unlike the lush beauty we see when visiting Golden Gate Park today, the land was originally a patch of barren, shifting sand dunes. Now the park is home to nine lakes and ponds, colorful flower gardens, beautiful landscaping, a Japanese tea garden, two replicas of Dutch windmills, and a total of 1017 acres of land devoted to a variety of recreation including bicycling, soccer, and boating. San Francisco's Golden Gate Park provides residents a retreat from hectic urban life while also serving as one of the city's major tourist destinations.

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Balboa Park, San Diego
San Diego's Balboa Park came about through the efforts of wealthy land-developer Alonzo Horton, who persuaded city leaders to set aside 1400 acres that could be developed in a variety of ways for public use. Today the park includes nine public gardens, an arboretum, the Old Globe Theater, the Starlight Amphitheater, a children's theater, 15 museums and art galleries, and the world-renowned San Diego Zoo.

Nearly a century ago, the Panama-California Exposition took place at San Diego's Balboa Park. To mark the opening of the exposition, sugar magnate John D. Spreckels financed the construction of a huge outdoor organ to be housed at the Spreckels Pavilion in the park. Ever since this 1915 exposition, the Spreckels Pavilion has been a community gathering place for residents from all over San Diego. To this date, they have a tradition of regular organ recitals, which are free to the public. Anyone who has ever attended a concert at the pavilion can tell you just how special it is. With its 4,518 pipes this organ can mimic many orchestral sounds, including brass, strings and percussion. On a clear night, the organ's music can be heard far beyond the park's boundaries.

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Griffith Park, Los Angeles
In 1896, self-made millionaire Colonel Griffith J. Griffith donated his 3500-acre ranch to the City of Los Angeles. Originally, an isolated mountainous property several miles outside the city limits, the land seemed to offer little to the people of Los Angeles. But the land was transformed. Today, Griffith Park is visited annually by 12 million people. The park attractions include a host of recreational facilities - bridle trails, golf courses and two nature camps. Griffith Park also is home to a zoo, museums, a bird sanctuary and the world-famous Griffith Observatory.

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The Presidio, San Francisco
San Francisco's Presidio was established over two hundred years ago as a Spanish military post. In 1848, it was taken over by the U.S. Army. Then, in 1972, the federal government created the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and transferred the 1480-acre base from the military to the National Park Service. For the next 22 years, the base was gradually retired from military service and converted to park use. When the base was decommissioned in 1984, the Presidio became a national park. Unlike other national parks, The Presidio is being developed to include residences, shops and businesses. These are mixed with a variety of other uses including recreational facilities, the Palace of Fine Arts and the Exploratorium Science Museum.

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Central Park, New York City
All of the nation's great parks include areas of open space while at the same time providing a variety of cultural and recreational venues for local residents to enjoy. Take for example Central Park in New York City. In addition to acres of walking paths and green fields throughout Central Park, you will also find the sea lion pool at the Central Park Wildlife Center, the hot dog and popcorn vendors next to the carousel ride, the Tavern on the Green restaurant with its six dining rooms and an outside garden patio, numerous statues, and the remarkable Metropolitan Museum of Art.

New York's Central Park was envisioned by nineteenth century landscape architect, Fredrick Law Olmstead. Olmstead's plan, known as the Greensward Plan, was submitted to the Central Park design competition in 1857. The Greensward Plan created a green haven in the center of what was becoming a noisy and hectic city. The park's design was built around areas of tufted trees, rolling lawns, meandering pathways and placid lakes. Fredrick Law Olmstead's plan for New York's Central Park still serves as a model for park planners today. His vision set the standard for the pastoral urban park.
Today, with the aid of the Central Park Conservancy, New York's Central Park has been restored to much of its original grandeur. Every day, thousands of residents and tourists traverse the park, enjoying an expanse of green in the middle of one of America's largest cities.

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Tokyo, Japan
Tokyo, Japan, an urban center known for its tightly packed buildings and technologically advanced industry, contains many beautiful city parks, cultural facilities and botanical gardens. Koishikawa Botanical Gardens, maintained by the University of Tokyo, features a wide variety of plant species, as well as a small Japanese landscape garden. Koishikawa Korakuen mimics famous Chinese and Japanese landscapes in miniature. Hama Rikyu Park, located beside Tokyo Bay, is a green haven with the backdrop of some of the city’s most imposing skyscrapers.

Tokyo is also home to many cultural facilites. Throughout Tokyo, tea houses host traditional Japanese tea ceremonies, which are practiced on a regular basis. And the Imperial Palace East Gardens, where one can see the old castle’s moats and the former location of the castle tower of the Imperial Palace, is just a five minute walk from Tokyo Station.

Our own Orange County Great Park could draw ideas from some of Tokyo’s parks. For example, there is already consideration for a botanical garden and cultural facilities at the Orange County Great Park.
For more information about Tokyo’s parks, click here.

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Hyde Park, London
Hyde Park, one of London’s Royal Parks, has been a green getaway for over five hundred years. For several centuries, the Monks of Westminster Abbey tended to the land that would become Hyde Park. In 1536, King Henry VIII acquired the land, and for nearly one hundred years, the park was closed to the public and accessible only to royalty, who used it mostly for game hunting.

In 1637, the park was opened to the general public. Since then, it has been a place for social meetings and recreation. One area of the park, known as Speaker’s Corner, used to be a gathering place for political and religious orators, who stood on soapboxes and preached their views to a riled audience.

Like the Orange County Great Park plan envisions, London’s Hyde Park is open to many uses. Today, visitors to the park enjoy a variety of activities from boating and swimming to hiking, biking and horseback riding.

Over the last four hundred years, Hyde Park has become home to several famous memorials, including the Wellington Arch, which is topped by a statue of the Duke of Wellington, and the Marble Arch, which is modeled after the Arch of Constantine in Rome. Orange County’s Great Park is also planned to include a memorial area, dedicated to the veterans of the United States Marines who passed through El Toro’s gates in service to our country.

Hyde Park is also the home of the Peter Pan statue, which was placed in1912. To make sure the statue had a sense of magic about it, Peter Pan’s author, J.M. Barry, arranged for it to be installed in the middle of the night. The statue is dedicated to children everywhere, but most especially to the boy who will never grow up.

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Parc de la Villette, Paris, France
Scattered on an 86-acre grid around Parc de la Villiette in Paris, France are twenty-five vibrant red “folies.” These folies, named for the rural get-aways of the French elite in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, are building-sized metal structures. Some have a purpose, such as a restroom facility or an outlook, while others are entirely fanciful.

Bernard Tschumi, Parc de la Villette’s designer, created the folies as a representation of the “disjunctions and dissociations between use, form and social values.” Parc de la Villette was built around three superimposed systems, envisioned by Tschumi: Points, Lines and Surfaces. The Points, defined by the red folies are the most obvious system, but the lines and surfaces serve Parc de la Villette both in function and in theory. Lines are represented by two perpendicular pedestrian galleries that run parallel with two canals. Surfaces are the largely flat, open-air activity areas of the site, surfaced according to the particular activity for which they are programmed and are designed to have multiple uses. Together, these systems create the physical nature and character of Parc de la Villette.

Public parks and gardens are very much a part of French culture. As such, Parc de la Villette has been a source of controversy between designers who believe that parks should glorify and romanticize nature and those, like Tschumi, who take a more realistic view of the urban landscape. More than being a natural paradise, Parc de la Villette is a study of how thought and philosophy trickle into the tangible and everyday world.

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Park Andre Citroen, Paris
Tucked in amongst high-density housing and office spaces, Parc Andre Citroen in Paris provides the surrounding community with a luscious 35-acre front yard. Built on the former site of the Citroen Automotive factory, the park incorporates diverse landscapes into one cohesive natural tapestry.

On the northern end of Andre Citroen, park-goers can enjoy the White Garden, which is landscaped entirely with plants bearing white flowers, and the Black Garden, which houses only black-flowering plants. Between these opposite gardens are two botanical greenhouses, a bubbling fountain, and two magnolia groves, one planted on land and one floating in water.

In the middle of Parc Andre Citroen, there is a great lawn surrounded by a shallow moat. The lawn is a lovely place to play soccer or just rest and take a break from urban life. To the west of the lawn lie a series of small garden “rooms,” each designed by a different landscape architect and displaying a unique theme. Although these “rooms” are actually outside, they provide the illusion of privacy and intimacy.

To the south of Andre Citroen, the gardens are freeform, planted with wildflowers and bamboo. This end of the park edges against a business complex, yet there is little division between the park and the city beyond. The two blend into one another, drawing the urban-dwellers into Andre Citroen and park-goers back into Paris.

Parc Andre Citroen is one of the parks Conservancy Board Member John Sullivan discussed in his Community Forum presentation, “Three French Parks on Reused Land.”

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Parc des Buttes-Chaumont
Built on the grounds of a mined-out gypsum quarry during the mid-nineteenth century, Parc des Buttes-Chaumont was at the pinnacle of park development for its time. One of the best examples of Parc des Buttes Chaumont’s cutting-edge technology is the use of water features woven into the landscape. Buttes-Chaumont boasts water falls and streams that run throughout the park, and empty into one large lake in the center. The hydraulic systems that were created for this endeavor were unmatched at the time of their creation.

Although the water features at Buttes-Chaumont are impressive even to today’s park-goers, much of the “modern” technology that was required to build Buttes-Chaumont is underground. Since the park was built over old mines, large areas of the ground had to be reinforced with steel bars to ensure that the park would not collapse.

Parc des Buttes-Chaumont teaches a valuable lesson about park building. A park that is built to only the status quo of its day may be enjoyed for several year or decades, but a park that pushes the boundaries of landscape architecture and design will be enjoyed by many future generations. Parc des Buttes-Chaumont is a model of how parks can advance technology and create new spaces that we have only ever imagined.

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Millennium Park, Chicago
Millennium Park was first conceived in 1998 as a way of creating new parkland in Chicago's Grant Park. One of the primary objectives for the park’s designers was to transform the railroad tracks and parking lots that blemished prime real estate in downtown Chicago into a desirable and beautiful city amenity.

The 25-acre Millennium Park combines extraordinary architecture, sculpture and landscape design. This includes the work of world-renowned artists, architects, planners, landscape architects and designers such as Frank Gehry, Anish Kapoor, Jaume Plensa and Kathryn Gustafson.

A wide array of events and entertainment at Millennium Park provide interest to children, families and adults. These events encompass both the performing arts like live music, theatre and dance, as well as fine art presentations and exhibits.

Millennium Park has become a jewel in the middle of urban sprawl, offering a place of beauty and peace in the midst of one of America’s largest metropolitan centers.

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