Gardens Galore

Signs of spring are all about, and now is a perfect time to pay a visit to one of the many Bay Area gardens.

High on many people's list is Filoli (www.filoli.org), a Georgian country house with a magnificent 16 acre English Renaissance garden, located in Woodside. The website provides a month by month breakdown of what will bloom when, so you can plan your visit around your favorite flowers. In Palo Alto, Gamble Gardens is open everyday for free self guided tours; Gamble also puts on many special events, including a family Easter event and a spring tour of outstanding gardens within private Palo Alto homes. You can find details at www.gamblegarden.org.

In Menlo Park, Sunset Magazine opens its test gardens to the public for free. The test gardens are zoned into four areas representing four different climate regions of California, and each time the magazine changes its gardening feature, you can go back to tour the new 'sets'. During the June 4-5 2011 weekend, Sunset Magazine's grounds will be alive with special events and demonstrations as part of its Celebration Weekend. www.sunset.com.

In Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, the Conservatory of Flowers offers a peek at rare exotic plants and flowers, and until April 11 the Conservatory's Garden Railway event is on-going; you'll see model trains and trolleys traveling about a miniature display of specialty gardens. Golden Gate is also home to a Rose Garden, Japanese Tea Garden and botanical gardens - and of course much much more! www.golden-gate-park.com.

If you love roses, the Heritage Rose Garden (www.heritagerose.us) in San Jose features almost 4,000 plants of more than 3,000 varieties of heritage, modern and miniature roses. Roses are at their peak through the end of April, and each year the volunteer-led garden hosts a spring festival the last Saturday of April.

Hakone Gardens in Saratoga offers a totally different experience: its an authentic replica of a Japanese Samurai or Shogun’s estate garden, designed by one of the descendants of the imperial gardening family members. It makes a lovely day outing combined with lunch in historic Saratoga Village, or a visit to one of the state parks farther up the highway 9. www.hakone.com

Finally, a California garden tour would not be complete without a cactus or two, and Stanford's Arizona Garden is a little known example. Originally planted in the 1880s, it fell into decades of neglect before restoration began in in 1997. While this volunteer-driven work remains on-going, you can currently view some 500 cacti and succulents.

About that trip to the California Academy of Sciences...

A week or so ago I mentioned the wonderful Smithsonian Museum program that offers free admission to museums throughout the US for one day each year. We decided to visit the California Academy of Sciences, mainly because I had heard nothing but rave reviews. I had also heard how very popular it was, and how crowded it could get. Well, I can vouch for the latter: we arrived as the doors opened and were faced with a 2 hour wait! We decided to skip the line and bought tickets from the kiosk - perhaps the only people at the museum on a 'free' day who had paid, but with two excited boys in tow we figured it was the only way to keep our sanity.

Maybe I had heard just a little too much hype, but the Academy was a bit of a disappointment to all of us. It has a great aquarium, to be sure, but with the spectacular Monterey Bay Aquarium just an hour or two down the road, it is hard to compete. The tropical rain forest is well done, but that a few interactive ecology-related installations don't exactly justify the price of admission (about $100 for a family of four). I can't comment on the planetarium, as we had just been to one in Berkley and so gave it a miss.

The Academy of Sciences does offer an interesting twist for the over 21 crowd: "Nightlife", held every Thursday, offers the chance to enjoy music, science, entertainment and cocktails along with the Academy's exhibits. Each week shines the spotlight on a new theme or event. And, on select Wednesdays throughout the year, residents of San Francisco enjoy free entry. Details of both can be found on the website, www.calacademy.org.

So, our verdict: if you have out of town guests on a tight schedule, it is probably a great place to go - you can check off Golden Gate Park, aquarium and planetarium all in one spot, then walk across the concourse and pop into the DeYoung Museum of Fine Art - a highly productive day! BTW, for non art-lovers, the DeYoung has an observation floor at the top of its tower that affords wonderful views of the city. The tower elevators are free and accessible from the lobby of the DeYoung, so its a great detour anytime you find yourself at the northeast side of the park...and I've never waited in line!