Small red berries on a bush

Garden Stories

The Garden blog with stories and information about our vast plant collections

Many bright pink flowers with layers of fluffy petals surrounded by pointy green leaves

February 28, 2024

Blue Roses?

Will there ever be a true blue rose?
Many thin green leaves covered with reddish-brown dots

February 9, 2024

Fern Reproduction

Ferns come from an ancient lineage of non-flowering plants that reproduce by spores

February 1, 2024

Aristolochia Pollination

Luring pollinators with smell

January 1, 2024

Banksia

The UC Botanical Garden has a small but remarkable collection of Banksia species flowering now in the Garden’s Australasian Area.
Sunshine on yellow and orange flowers against a blue sky

November 1, 2023

Pollinator training strategies

Colorful ways that plants entice pollinators to stick around
Clusters of blue-purple flowers

July 12, 2023

Nectar: A Renewable Resource

Nectar, a floral reward for bees and birds

April 28, 2023

What are sunspots?

How do plants thrive in the dense understory beneath redwood trees?
Several large trees that have fallen onto a picnic table

March 15, 2023

Bomb Cyclone of 2023

Heavy storm winds wreak havoc in the Garden
Bright yellow leaves glow in the sunshine against a blue sky

November 2, 2022

Coloring of fall foliage

What causes the foliage to change color?
People sitting on the ground sifting small red seeds into bowls

October 17, 2022

Amaranth Harvest

A special event in in partnership local cultural group Indigenous Permaculture
Three people walk in a field

December 14, 2020

Seed Banking of the Carquinez Goldenbush

Contributing to the California Biodiversity Initiative