Great Escape: UC Botanical Garden

This week's Great Escape was a tip from Patch copy editor Dixie Jordan. Outside of keeping all of us spell-checked and grammatically correct, she is a plant enthusiast and recommended that with spring well underway, I (along with all of you) pay a visit to the UC Botanical Garden.

“UC's Botanical Garden is absolutely gorgeous at rhododendron season.” she wrote in an email. “Good with or without kids."

Though rhododendron season is still a month or two away, you'll soon be able to find it along with magnolias, camellia and peonies in the The Asian Collection blooming among maples and bamboos.

The rhododendron shrub also grows in the Eastern North American Collection, washing the forest floor with its pink and purple hues along with a myriad of other flowers that catch the early spring sunlight, before the branches of the trees above shade them with brand new leaves in the summer.

Areas of the garden include a native Californian collection, as well as plants from every corner of the world. UC's collection is one of the most comprehensive in the United States, holding over 13,000 different kinds of plants.

There is an herb garden, which explains the many human uses of plants, an English-style rose garden, and even a carnivorous collection, where you can watch these unique plants capture and consume flies and other small animals.

The flowers may not bloom year-long, but there is always an abundance of events and exhibitions happening at the Botanical Garden. Check out the calendar and you'll certainly find an event, talk or special presentation you'll want to check out – from  that welcome both you and your baby, to botanical art classes.

The UC Botanical Garden is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and closed every first Tuesday of the month. Admission is free every first Thursday of the month.