Filoli Gardens

My aunt and I visited Filoli in Woodside, CA, about 30 miles south of San Francisco, on a bracing weekend in February. She had visited Filoli several years before, in its spring time splendor and loved it, I had never visited. I’m interested in how gardens and plants appear throughout the seasons, so I thought a winter visit would be a good introduction to Filoli. We took a docent-lead tour of the grounds and the house.

View of the house across the western terrace.



Magnolia tree in bloom in February.

Filoli is a country estate built between 1915 and 1917 for William Bowers Bourn, a San Franciscan who made his fortune in a hard-rock gold mine, and his family. As many estates of its day, it was modeled after the estate gardens in Europe. The 36,000 square-foot house is a modified Georgian design, with separate service and living wings, and the 16,000 square-foot garden is an English Renaissance design. The house and grounds are designed as complementary units, and are situated on a gently sloping 654-acre property, with views of the Santa Cruz mountains and a nearby preserve. The garden is a series of “rooms,” each with a theme such as Dutch garden, sunken garden, woodland garden, knot garden, and rose garden. There are several terraces, an orchard, a bowling green, and a swimming pool.

Sunken garden with the hills behind as a "borrowed view".

Swimming pool with view of the clock tower.

I enjoyed seeing “the bones” of the garden – bare branches of deciduous trees, the walls and planting structures, the architecture of the house and terraces. And it is wonderful to see trees with plenty of room to grow. We did see flowers, even in February. The magnolia trees were in full bloom, as were narcissus, daffodils, and miniature irises. Now that we have seen the garden in winter, we look forward to returning to see how the garden changes throughout the seasons.

Yew allee with a view toward Crystal Springs.

Courtyard and entrance to the Filoli mansion.

During the tour we learned that "Filoli" is an acronym for "Fight, Love, Live" (Fight for a just cause, Love your fellow man, and Live a good life).