Quarryhill Botanic Garden
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The Quarryhill Botanical Garden 61 acres (247,000 m²) is a research botanical garden housing one of the largest collections of temperate Asian plants in North America. Plantings began in 1990. It is located near Glen Ellen, California, USA in Sonoma Valley, and open to the public by appointment only.
One-third of the garden is devoted to plants from temperate China, Japan and the Himalayas, with more than 90 percent grown from wild-collected, scientifically documented seed. The collection includes rare varieties such as Cornus capitata, Holboellia coriacea, Illicium simonsii, Rosa chinensis var. spontanea, native to Sichuan, as well as extensive collections of various wild Asian dogwoods, lilies, magnolias, maples, oaks, roses, and rhododendrons.
The Arboretum can be traced back to 1968, when Jane Davenport Jansen purchased its land for vineyards. In 1987, she started a garden on 20 acres (81,000 m²) of hillsides among old quarries. In that year, Quarryhill representatives made their first seed collecting expedition to Asia. A nursery was established in 1988, and planting began in 1990.
Annual Quarryhill expeditions have collected seeds and herbarium specimens from the following Asian regions to date: China - Hubei, Sichuan, Taiwan, Tibet, Yunnan; India - Himachal Pradesh; Japan - Hokkaidō, Honshū, Kyūshū, Shikoku, Yakushima; and Nepal. Other expeditions have collected from North America. The garden also receives wild collected seed courtesy of Indices Seminum from Japan, Taiwan and South Korea, as well as Asian seed and plants from North American gardens.
