About the Garden

Rooted in Nature Conservation

The mission of Sonoma Botanical Garden is to inspire an appreciation and understanding of the beauty and value of Asian and California native plants, and to promote their conservation in natural habitats and gardens.

Since its founding in 1987 by Jane Davenport Jansen, Sonoma Botanical Garden has been dedicated to celebrating and conserving the plant diversity of temperate East Asia. In 2021, this vision grew to encompass another biodiversity hotspot: the California floristic province. At first glance, the Garden is meandering pathways, seasonal features, and hidden picnic spots, but a closer look reveals there is so much more. Every plant is accounted for with unique identifiers (accession numbers), species name, and source information.

Seasonal changes of specific species are recorded, and data is added to a national community science effort that tracks the impacts of climate change.

Rare and endangered plants grown from wild-collected seed are carefully cultivated so their offspring can be sent to other botanic gardens increasing not only the genetic diversity in cultivated populations but as a safety measure against loss from fire or other natural disaster.

Cuttings and samples are sent to plant researchers around the world for analysis and study, enhancing our understanding of how to save these unique plants and minimize unintended consequences from humans such as introduction of invasive species.

Last, but not least, the Garden is a protected habitat for a variety of local wildlife. This corridor connects with the wildland interface along the Garden’s fence line to combat local habitat fragmentation and further ecosystem alterations.

The result – a unique, tranquil, immersive experience of conservation in action.