Berkeley Rose Garden: Stop to smell the roses
They’re bright yellow and pure white, soft purple and classic red. Roses of every color grace the Berkeley Rose Garden – 250 varieties of them, to be precise. In bloom from spring to summer, the 3,000 rose bushes are a sight to behold on the terraced garden, built like an amphitheater facing a view of the Bay.
The Rose Garden is a peaceful destination to read or study, with a row of benches lined beneath the shade of a 220-foot-long redwood pergola covered by climbing roses. Other seating areas are spread out throughout the garden and at the end of numerous footpaths leading into the woodsy shade.
In addition to students and readers taking a moment to relax with a good book, you’ll find couples enjoying the flowers, families roaming toward the ornamental pool and footbridge at the base of the garden, and friends catching up over a long lunch break. From the top of the garden, the view is so pretty you may want to stay here, appreciating the colors of the petals from above, where you can also see the San Francisco Bay, the Golden Gate Bridge, and a perfect view of Mt. Tamalpais just across the water.
Keep in mind that traversing the garden requires navigating several steep steps. At 3.64 acres wide, the Berkeley Rose Garden includes hiking trails, picnic areas, and tennis courts. It is connected via underground tunnel to Codornices Park just across the way, where you can continue on to the playgrounds, grassy lawns, access to Codornices Creek, basketball courts, a gigantic cement slide, and a wider network of trails further up the hill.
City-owned Berkeley Rose Garden is a historic landmark, completed in September of 1937 with construction under the Civil Work Progress Project and the volunteer efforts of the community. USA Today selected the Berkeley Rose Garden as one of four most Famous Historic Rose Gardens in the country.
HelloSanFrancisco Tip: Planning a wedding? The Berkeley Rose Garden is available for public rental.
Posted by Renee Rutledge
