Ruth Bancroft Garden: Award-Winning Botanical Experience
4.5
8 Ratings
Walnut Creek
Discover the award-winning Ruth Bancroft Garden, a botanical gem in the East Bay. Explore rare and unusual drought-tolerant plants from around the world, including cacti, succulents, and California natives.
Duration:
2 hours
Cancellation:
1 day
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Highlights
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The Ruth Bancroft Garden - Discover this world-renowned 3.5-acre garden, housing a large and unique collection of succulents, cacti and drought-tolerant plants from around the world. Beautiful in every season. The Garden’s founder, Ruth Bancroft, lived to be 109 and was a pioneer in drought-tolerant gardening. Looking for a fun and relaxing outing with family and friends, garden inspiration, or a great place to picnic, take photos, paint or bring the dog, the Garden is the perfect choice. Bring your lunch along and make it a picnic! Free parking.
Note: The Garden is handicapped accessible, but the pathways are gravel not paved. There is seating scattered throughout the Garden including wooden benches and chairs and several sets of caf tables. No food is sold on-site.
What's Included
- Dogs on leash are welcome
- Children 12 and under enter for free
- Access to our retail plant nursery for browsing and shopping
- Self-guided Tour Book included
- Complimentary docent-led tours (schedule on website)
Additional Information
Nicknamed ‘The Pearl of the East Bay,’ the Ruth Bancroft Garden was recognized as the ‘Finest Botanical Garden’ by Sunset Magazine in 2019. Guests can admire cacti, succulents, native Californian plants, and other exotic and hard-to-find drought-resistant plants from across the globe. The Garden showcases numerous expansive, fully-grown plant species, initially planted by founder Ruth Bancroft, creating a unique viewing experience seldom found in other xeriscape gardens, throughout all the seasons.
- Dogs on leash welcome
- Picnics welcome but no food is sold on site.
Location
The Ruth Bancroft Garden
1552 Bancroft Rd,
Cancellation Policy
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
Customer Ratings
4.5
(8 Ratings)
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Revathirajakumar
Nov 18, 2023
Ruth Bancroft Garden - Ruth Bancroft Garden
This place has an amazing collection of cacti, succulents, trees, and other unique plants. It takes about an hour or two to explore the beautiful gardens. The entrance has a cute nursery with lovely plants.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Robertbuch47
Oct 21, 2023
Amazing experience in surreal garden - Amazing collection of plants, shrubs and trees from all over the world. It was a great experience. Both our grandchildren ages 6 and 10 enjoyed walking around the impressive garden. We took lots of pictures! Plenty to see.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Compass45565643280
Jan 11, 2023
Light - Excellent exhibits! My 2 years old grand daughter had a ball. She was monitoring the laser beam and have a lot of fun!! The hot chocolate is an unexpected bonus on a wet night . The ranger staff are very knowledgeable and friendly!!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Sharon
Aug 21, 2022
Succulent lovers’ idea if heaven. - One of my favorite places to spend an afternoon. An enormous variety of succulents and cactus from all over the world. Fantastic shopping in their huge nursery and gift area.
You can start a real obsession with succulents here.
Close to 680 and parking is free.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Joe_b
Jun 14, 2022
Nice way to spend a morning - The Bancroft Gardens has a really interesting collection of primarily drought tolerant plants. They have some very big agaves, etc. additionally, there are nursery has very reasonably priced plants to take home.
Review provided by Viator
Terryh659
Apr 24, 2021
An Oasis in the Desert; just superb. - These gardens are an absolute delight. They are beautiful and showcase the myriad flora that warm and dry climes can support.
When you pay for admission you are given a self-guided tour book at guide your meanderings. It was very hot the day we were there, so the chairs and small tables spaced apart in shaded areas was incredibly inviting.
There was even a guide there you could ask questions of - there are no guided tours at the time (covid precautions, I assume) but if you saw one, you could ask questions and get more information than you could really take in. Totally enchanting though.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Mini
Feb 24, 2020
Very Good Cactus Garden: The Ruth Bancroft Garden, Walnut Creek - We went to The Ruth Bancroft Garden. This is a beautiful cactus garden to walk through and enjoy. There is an admission charge for the gardens. There is lots of different types of plants to see.
The garden also has a nursery where one can purchase plants. They also have clases.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Jackpd6411fy
May 13, 2021
bad - very rude people. cost way to much for so little. Very bad place. was not fun. i wish it could have been a better place for my date and i.
Review provided by Tripadvisor