The California Botanic Garden, formerly named Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, was conceived of and created by Susannah Bixby Bryant in 1927 as a memorial to her father, John William Boxby. She set aside 200 acres of her Santa Ana Canyon Ranch near Yorba Linda, and for many years was in personal charge of the garden. She consulted people like Charles Sprague Sargent and Willis Linn Jepson, and was well acquainted with Theodore Payne, the well-known plant conservationist. She persuaded landscape archiect and USC botany professor Ernest Braunton to draw up plans for the garden, and it thrived until 1943-1944 when a disastrous fire swept through the grounds followed by torrential rains that caused landslides and devastated the garden. In 1946 Dr. Phillip Munz became the garden's botanist and after Mrs. Bryant's death arranged to have the garden transferred to Clarmont. Recently its name was changed to the California Botanic Garden. The garden today is comprised of 86 acres containing some 70,000 plants of 2,000+ species and is the largest botanic garden in California dedicated to native plants. This gallery includes photographs taken on over 20 visits over a 20+ year time period, and is the longest photo gallery I've ever done. One of the things I have most enjoyed about doing this is being able to display photos of some taxa which rarely or never show up in my photo galleries. I dedicate this photo gallery to my good friend Lorrae Fuentes who more than anyone guided the beginnings of my botanical explorations with field trips and classes at the garden. Identifications for the species displayed here are based on signs posted in the garden. All pictures were taken at the garden with the exception of a very few flower photos that were substituted because mine didn't turn out. More pictures will probably be added at a later date as the 2025 season progresses.