Southern California Montane Botanical Garden

My folks and I recently completed our annual pilgrimage to the Southern California desert, in pursuit of beautiful wildflowers after El Niño rains. They flew in from Southeast Alaska and I flew in from the San Francisco Bay Area for a week of exploring, hiking, and wonderful companionship. We have our favorite places to visit, like Whitewater and Oak Glen Preserves, Skinner Lake, Palm Springs area, Joshua Tree National Park, and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. We like to compare conditions from year to year, and to try something new!

Apple orchard

Apple blossom

HTML Tables

This year we visited the Southern California Montane Botanical Garden, which is adjacent to Los Rios Rancho (a working apple orchard); and is part of the Oak Glen Preserve, which is managed by The Wildlands Conservancy. The Preserve is located in the San Bernadino Mountains, in a portion of the Transverse Range (oriented east-west, rather than north-south), with an elevation that ranges from 4,900 to 9,300 feet (or 1,493 to 2,835 m). It is a botanically diverse area with close to 1600 plant species.

Early spring visit to the Southern California Montane Botanic Garden

Hummingbird Hill

The botanical garden specializes in plants of the Transverse Range, including many that are endemic to Oak Glen. The garden includes a hummingbird garden, duck pond, pioneer garden with antique farming equipment, forests, and many hiking trails. We visited on a cold misty afternoon in late March (recall two years ago we experienced snow at Los Rios Rancho at this same time of year, see Snow Blossoms)!

Penstemon eatonii (Eaton's firecracker) - Oak Glen Native

Ribes malvaceum (Chaparral currant) - Oak Glen Native

The garden has excellent signage, so we learned about the many species of penstemon and currant species that thrive in the area, and provide nectar to a wide range of pollinators, including hummingbirds, native bees, wasps, and moths.

View of the duck pond

We also enjoyed strolling through the Pioneer garden, and around the duck pond, which is active with wildlife. And yes, we purchased apple turnovers and enjoyed them in the car with the heat cranked up!