Filoli

There is nothing secret about the Filoli Garden and House, which draws 100,000 annual visitors, but many people even in the Bay Area still haven’t heard of it. Hidden in the dense pine forests that blanket the Coast Range west of Highway 280 near Redwood City, you have to make an effort to visit.

The effort is worth it, even if horticulture and architecture aren’t your passions. This is no ordinary garden. Even if you don’t come in early spring, when 500,000 daffodils fill a single field, you’ll be dazzled by the colors. The 1,200 volunteers and 15 staff horticulturists keep the plants rotating through the seasons (Filoli is closed in the winter), with the daffodils followed by tulips, wisteria, roses, foxgloves, hydrangeas, dahlias and much, much more.

The English Renaissance garden is divided by hedges, lawns and brick walls in 20 areas. Among the most impressive are the Sunken Garden (with a reflecting pond), Walled Garden (with a 15th-Century Venetian fountain), Rose Garden (500 rosebushes) and Daffodil Meadow (with all 500,000 of those daffodils in early spring).

While the gardens are the main attraction, Filoli House offers a glimpse into the lives of the families whose shipping-line and gold-mine wealth allowed them to develop and maintain the country mansion and gardens for six decades before it became a National Trust for Historic Preservation property. The House is filled with 18th-Century furnishings in the well-preserved ballroom, dining room, drawing room and library, with 13 of the mansion’s 43 rooms accessible to visitors.

Free, twice-daily Garden/House tours and Saturday morning hikes into the 654 acres of surrounding forest can be reserved ahead. There are also seasonal events, including a monthly afternoon tea, summer jazz concerts, summer/fall orchard tours, an Autumn Festival and the Holiday Traditions festival after Thanksgiving.

Filoli is open Tuesdays to Saturdays, 10 a.m.-2:30 p.m.; Sundays 11:00-2:30; and closed Mondays. The gates always close at 3:30 p.m. and Filoli is closed between late October and mid-February.

HelloMetro Tip: Master gardeners offer free advice to anyone—even if you only tend to a single backyard rosebush—from noon to 3 p.m. every Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Filoli’s Garden Shop.

- by Bob Cooper, San Francisco Reporter for HelloMetro  (Click to leave a message)

Bob Cooper

Bob Cooper is a full-time freelance writer (www.bob-cooper.com) who writes about travel, outdoor sports and health. He is a monthly contributor to Runner's World and has written recent articles for other national magazines such as Continental, Ladies' Home Journal and Inc.