San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden
The first seeds for the Garden were planted in 1989, with the support of San Luis Obispo County Parks Department. Incorporated in 1991, a grassroots group, the Friends of San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden, began searching for an ideal site.
El Chorro Regional Park was chosen because it offered a convenient location between San Luis Obispo and Morro Bay, good soils, no horticultural limitations, and already was zoned as a public space. A 40-year renewable lease agreement was signed with San Luis Obispo County in 1993 for 150 acres. Later the lease was revised as a 90-year lease. With grants of financial assistance from the Stanley Smith Horticultural Trust and the County of San Luis Obispo, a nationally-known landscape design studio was hired to create a master plan for the 150 acres. This plan, completed in 1998, later won the prestigious Analysis and Planning Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects.
Meanwhile, a one-acre Preview Garden, constructed with work by Cal Poly students, opened in 1997, providing a place for monthly educational programs (Saturday at the Garden), school tours, lectures, demonstrations, Garden Shop, and a variety of special activities for children. A full-scale greenhouse/nursery, completed in 1998, produces plants for the Preview Garden, for County parks, and for our plant sales.
To honor and preserve our connection with nature.
Ours is a story of connecting people and plants. We focus on the role plants play in our lives and how they advance human endeavors and cultures by providing food, shelter, clothing, and medicine.
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