Sonoma Botanical Garden (formerly Quarryhill Botanical Garden) is a 501(c)3 private nonprofit education and research

botanical garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is ...

, home to one of the largest collections of scientifically documented, wild-source Asian plants in North America and Europe.

History

The Sonoma Botanical Garden property was originally a sandstone quarry that previously produced road foundation stone. In 1964, the Nuns Canyon Fire burned more than 10,000 acres in the

Mayacamas Mountains The Mayacamas Mountains are located in northwestern California in the United States. The mountain range is part of the Northern Inner Coast Ranges, of the California Coast Ranges System. Geography The Mayacamas Mountains are located south of th ...

above Glen Ellen, CA. In 1968, San Francisco resident Jane Davenport Jansen purchased forty-plus acres northeast of Glen Ellen, CA for a summer home. In 1970 she planted cabernet vineyards on the valley floor of the property. In 1982, Jane began to consider the uncultivated parts of the property inspired by a partnership with Roger Warner. After a flood around Jane's house in 1982, Jane was introduced to Roger who redesigned the landscape reminiscent of an English garden with a selection of California native plants and rarities from China. In 1985, a landscape partnership between Jane and Roger was formed and plans for a 25-acre hillside botanical garden began. In 1987, Jane sponsored the first collecting expedition to Asia. In that year, the relationship between her and Roger Warner suddenly dissolved and Lord Howick of the Howick Arboretum helped Jane refocus her vision for the garden. They planned for a conservation of rare and endangered Asian species. In 1988, cooperative expeditions with the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew Gardens, and the Howick Arboretum began. The property was named Quarryhill Botanical Garden and a small nursery was established to cultivate the wild-collected seeds. Planting began in 1990. Preserving these threatened species and celebrating biodiversity was the foundation for the garden's mission. Jansen appointed William A. McNamara Director in 1994 and he became executive director in 2007. In 1998, an additional 22-acres, Three Springs Ranch, was purchased.

Seed-collecting expeditions

From its founding in 1987 through 2017, staff of the garden went on annual expeditions to collect seeds and herbarium specimens from the following Asian regions:

Hubei Hubei is a province of China, province in Central China. It has the List of Chinese provincial-level divisions by GDP, seventh-largest economy among Chinese provinces, the second-largest within Central China, and the third-largest among inland ...

Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

Yunnan Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...

;

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; Sanskrit: ''himācāl prādes;'' "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a States and union territories of India, state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen Indian Himalayan ...

;

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

Hokkaidō is the second-largest island of Japan and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by railway via the Seikan Tunnel. The ...

Honshū , historically known as , is the largest of the four main islands of Japan. It lies between the Pacific Ocean (east) and the Sea of Japan (west). It is the seventh-largest island in the world, and the second-most populous after the Indonesian ...

Kyūshū is the third-largest island of Japan's four main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands (i.e. excluding Okinawa and the other Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Islands). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regio ...

Shikoku is the smallest of the List of islands of Japan#Main islands, four main islands of Japan. It is long and between at its widest. It has a population of 3.8 million, the least populated of Japan's four main islands. It is south of Honshu ...

Yakushima is one of the Ōsumi Islands in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. The island, in area, has a population of 13,178. It is accessible by hydrofoil ferry, car ferry, or by air to Yakushima Airport. Administratively, the island consists of the town ...

; and

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

. A few other expeditions collected in North America. The garden has also received wild-collected seed courtesy of ''Index Seminum'' publications from Japan, Taiwan and South Korea, as well as Asian seed and plants from North American gardens. The garden's collection of includes approximately 25,000 wild origin plants, representing over 2,000 individual species. Most of these planting took place annually beginning in 1990. Some of the garden's plants are available for sale in the garden's Gift Shop.

History

Seed-collecting expeditions

See also