The Taft Garden in Ojai, California
http://anpsa.org.au/APOL9/mar98-3.htmlThis garden is one I had the opportunity of visiting with a local Bay Area gardening group known as the Hortisexuals, back in 1999, and I found the gardens there fascinating. The garden has had its ups and downs since then, and has been mostly closed to the public due to conflicts with access and quantities of visitors exceeding what had been permitted by the county use permits, and also because site access was via a complaining neighbor's property. In any case, the gardens in early spring were delightful, and full of rare treasures seldom seen from South Africa and Australia, and some day I will have to digitize my old 35mm slides from that visit to relive the experience myself. I hope people find this reprised article from Pacific Horticulture Magazine interesting, even though it doesn't have many pictures. Having searched through several web pages on Taft and his garden, unfortunately there aren't that many photos of the gardens available on-line. I'm not clear if it is again accessible in a limited way by reservation or not, but there was a fund raiser for a proposed new Botanic Garden to be built in nearby Ventura held in the Taft Gardens as recently as March of this year. I'd hazard a guess that it is every bit as interesting as Tresco in the UK, but more focused on Sonoran Desert, Western Cape South Africa, and the Mediterranean Climate zones of Australia.
If this boutique hotel offer is still current, it may be possible to book a room and get yourself a self-guided private tour of the Taft Garden, here's the link:
http://www.californiatravelnews.com/eve ... ic-escape/