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Two-Day Tour
Saturday and Sunday, June 21-22
"Sideways" Santa Barbara and Environs
7:30 am June 21 through 10 pm June 22
Cost: $390
Includes transportation, all meals, wine tasting & one night lodging
The "Sideways" tour will give APGA conferees a taste of mid-coast California - beautiful Santa Barbara and environs where we will stop first at member institutions Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, the historic Casa del Herrero Estate, and Ganna Walska Lotusland, where we will end day one with dinner overlooking the majestic Lotusland Estate. Traveling further up the coast to the valley of Lompoc, we will visit renowned commercial flower production fields. Seeds harvested in the Lompoc Valley are sold all over the world. Still in Lompoc but a world away from commercial flower fields is the Burton Mesa Chaparral Reserve, home to some of California's rarest plants. Then we will participate in a quintessential part of California - reliving history at the La Purisima Mission and historic gardens. Lastly, we conclude with a leisurely tour of the Sanford Winery, one of the 70 world-class wineries in the region made famous by the movie "Sideways." We will finish the day in true wine-country style, watching the sun set and sampling pinot noirs and other regional wines while enjoying a special catered dinner at the winery.
Full-Day Tours
Sunday, June 22
"Blue Pacific"
Catalina Island
7:00 am - 9:30 pm
Cost: $185
Includes: bus transportation, ferries, lunch, water, snacks and all entry fees.
Dinner in Avalon on your own
Twenty-six miles west of Los Angeles across the blue Pacific lies Catalina Island and our destination for an exciting day-trip. Guided by the Catalina Island Conservancy staff, we will get the behind-the-scenes tour to the island's interior region to learn of the Conservancy's work to protect and restore the island's spectacular landscapes and unique plant and animal wildlife. We will also visit the Wrigley Memorial and Botanical Garden overlooking Avalon Bay. The island's temperate marine climate makes it possible to showcase plants from every corner of the world, but the Garden places special interest on California island endemic plants. Many of these plants are extremely rare. You'll be free to choose one of the island's famous restaurants for dinner on your own before returning to the mainland.
"Horse With No Name"
Desert Trip
7:00 am - 9:00 pm
Cost: $95
Includes: bus transportation, box lunch, water, snacks, dinner and all entry fees
APGA member garden, The Living Desert, is our first stop on this day-long visit to Southern California's desert region. We'll tour the remarkable displays of plants, animals, and natural phenomena associated with the world's great deserts. Later in the morning we venture to a desert oasis to tour and have lunch at the Coachella Valley Preserve. The midday sun is tempered by trails that take us along springs sheltered by lush groves of fan palms (Washingtonia filifera), willow, and mesquite. Along the way we will see dozens of sensitive plant species and endless sand dunes that fall away from ochre-colored bluffs surrounding the oasis. The latter part of the day will be spent touring the immense and infinitely variable Joshua Tree National Park. We will see a fascinating variety of plants and geologic features in this landscape shaped by climatic extremes. The 2007-08 winter rainfall has been good so far, and we expect bountiful displays of wildflowers and blooming cacti. The park is home (and named for) the evocative Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia), extensive stands of which occur throughout the western half of the Park. We will end the day with dinner at the historic Twenty Nine Palms Inn before the two-hour return trip to Pasadena.
"Xanadu"
The J. Paul Getty Museum and Villa
8:30 am - 5:30 pm
Cost: $90
Includes: bus transportation and box lunch
Oil baron J. Paul Getty left Los Angeles a splendid legacy in the Getty Villa and Getty Center museums. The Villa, built in the 1970s, was modeled after the Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneum, Italy, destroyed in the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in A.D. 79. Extensively renovated and reopened in 2006, the Villa features the Getty's collection of Greek, Roman, and Etruscan antiquities in a stunning setting overlooking Santa Monica Bay, recalling the original's view over the Bay of Naples. A tour of the four main garden spaces (the Inner Peristyle, the Outer Peristyle, the Herb Garden, and the East Garden) will be followed by free time to view the museum collections. Then we will motor to the Getty Center for lunch. The Getty Center, designed by Richard Meier, opened in 1997 and houses the Getty's collection of Western art from the Middle Ages to the present. Recalling the Acropolis, the Getty Center is sited in the Santa Monica Mountains with a sweeping view of Los Angeles. The extensive landscape was designed by the Olin Partnership and features a rooftop cactus garden. The Central Garden was created by artist Robert Irwin and includes over 500 kinds of plants. A tour of the gardens will be followed by free time to see the museum collections before returning to Pasadena.
"South Pacific"
South Bay Gardens - Rancho Los Alamitos, Rancho Los Cerritos, White Point Nature Reserve, Scharffenberger Garden (private), South Coast Botanic Garden
8:00 am - 6:30 pm
Cost: $90
Includes: bus transportation and lunch
Traveling to the southern reaches of the Los Angeles Basin, our morning will feature visits and tours of two former Spanish land grant properties, Rancho Los Alamitos and Rancho Los Cerritos. The historic ranch house and barns of Rancho Los Alamitos are set among a 4-acre traditional California late 19th century/early 20th century garden. Rancho Los Cerritos features a garden designed by noted landscape architect Ralph Cornell in the early 1930s. Following lunch at Rancho Los Cerritos, we'll travel to the Palos Verde Peninsula, first visiting White Point Nature Reserve overlooking the Pacific Ocean, a 102-acre landscape currently undergoing restoration of the native coastal chaparral. We will then visit a noteworthy private garden before the final stop at South Coast Botanic Garden. Owned and operated by the County of Los Angeles, this unique garden is sited on a former land- fill, which itself was sited on a former diatomaceous earth mine. Though the garden flourishes with unusual trees and features a variety of botanic exhibits, the site is not without its challenges and a compelling case study-in-progress of the uses and re-uses of land in a sprawling metropolitan environment.
Half-Day Tours
Monday, June 23
"A Mansion in Beverly Hills"
Virginia Robinson's Estate and Gardens
7:30 am - 12:00 noon
Cost: $50
Includes: bus transportation and snack
The first estate garden in Beverly Hills, the Virginia Robinson Gardens was built in 1911. Virginia Robinson was the daughter-in-law of the founder of Robinson's department store, and her father designed the residence, one of the first homes in the nascent city. Entering the 6.5-acre hillside estate, one passes the palm garden, tennis court, and rose garden before arriving at the garden pavilion overlooking the swimming pool, lily pond and the home below. Mrs. Robinson collected the new and the rare; the nearly frost-free site favored the planting of subtropical plants in terraced gardens connected by pathways. The grove of King palms (Archontophoenix cunninghamiana) planted in the 1930s is said to be the largest outside Australia and provides an overstory to Chamaedorea and other palms and tropicals beneath.
"A River Runs Through It"
Los Angeles River Restoration: Breaking Concrete,
Connecting Communities
7:30 am - 12:00 noon
Cost: $50
Includes: transportation and snack
Walking along the concrete banks of the Los Angeles River, it's hard to imagine what the river once might have been. Long before it was confined in concrete by flood control projects, the river flowed when and where it wanted, joining with springs flowing from surrounding mountains to form vast marshes, shallow lakes and small ponds. Willow, cottonwood and great oaks lined the stream courses. This diverse environment provided a rich habitat for wildlife and helped support one of the largest concentrations of Native American peoples in North America. Join us in a half-day excursion following the river from its source in the San Fernando Valley to downtown LA. Tour guide Ellen Mackey will tell us about the river's verdant past, its shabby present and the current efforts to reclaim parts of the river for trails, pocket parks and wildlife habitat while connecting both the biological and human communities along its course.
"Crown City Confidential"
Pasadena Area Gardens, Vista del Arroyo Gardens, La
Casita del Arroyo, Tournament of Roses, Arlington Gardens, Lacy Park
8:00 am - 11:45 am
Cost: $50
Includes: transportation and snack
The Pasadena area features an interesting mix of architecture and gardens old and new. You will begin at the garden of the Richard H. Chambers U.S. Court of Appeals overlooking the Arroyo Seco. Originally the Vista del Arroyo Hotel, it was one of Pasadena's grand early-20th-century resort hotels. Nearby on the edge of the Arroyo is the historic La Casita del Arroyo, surrounded by a garden of California native plants under a natural Coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia) grove. A drive past Tournament House, home of the Tournament of Roses, takes you to the Arlington Garden, a recently opened 3-acre demonstration garden of Mediterranean climate plants. The last stop will be Lacy Park in San Marino, a 30-acre park with many unusual, mature trees.
"The Treasure of the Sierra San Gabriel"
A Hike in the San Gabriel Mountains: Urban LA's Backyard
7:30 am - 11:45 am
Cost: $50
Includes: transportation, snack and water
The San Gabriel Mountains, part of Southern California's Transverse Ranges, separate the Los Angeles Basin from the high desert regions. Narrow, tortuous canyons and rugged peaks characterize this seismically active mountain range. A wide range of elevations, precipitation, and microclimates results in a fascinating diversity of habitat types. Coastal slopes support sage scrub, riparian woodland, southern oak woodland and chaparral. Desert slopes support coniferous forest, woodlands and desert transitional chaparral. Over twenty rare plants are known from the San Gabriel Mountains, including a rare paintbrush (Castilleja gleasonii) found blooming in May and June, the rare lemon lily (Lilium parryi) of seeps and creeks and the urn-flowered Alumroot (Heuchera elegans) found on the north slopes along rocky canyon draws. Get away from it all in the mountains - just a 30-minute ride from downtown Pasadena.
