My “craft fame” brought me to this hidden gem: the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek! I was invited to teach a crafty workshop in the garden this spring so I came for a tour of the workshop space. If the weather is good I’ll be teaching out on the patio with garden views; if it’s cold we’ll set up indoors in the new event space.
After my crafty workshop tour, I got to explore the garden! It is a beauty!
The Bancroft family owned over 400 acres of Walnut Creek. The property was a fruit farm in the late 1800s and was passed down for generations.
Eventually, the family sold much of the land and the last of the fruit trees were cut down. Philip Bancroft, Jr, encouraged his wife Ruth to take over the land with her plant collection. Apparently, she owned so many potted plants – she was an original plant lady!
The garden now sits on 3.5 acres, and their original family home still sits on the property (you can see the house from the garden). The garden became a public garden in the early 1990s.
You can join a docent-led tour or explore on your own. The garden provides garden information including a ‘what’s in bloom’ info sheet so you can spot all the fun things. My favorite spotting: this cactus with pineapple-like cuties. There are also lots of areas to sit throughout the garden. I want to come back and practice my watercolor; there are so many things to paint!
Before you leave, you can shop for garden goodies in the plant shop, too.
I can’t wait to return! Have you visited the Ruth Bancroft Garden? Where my plant ladies at?