The California Garden Tour by Donald Olson will be published soon by Timber Press a specialized American publishing house about gardens, plants and flowers. This one is an interesting book about the most iconic, important gardens of this superb and diversified State of the West American Coast that it is: California.

A dream for many thanks in general at the good weather,California offers spectacular views, thanks to the extension of this State, but also wonderful landscapes, beautiful corners.
We will also find different kind of weather and so diversified plants, and flowers.

The book is divided in sections: Northern California, East Bay, Sonoma & Vicinity, Central and North Coast, Southern California starting with Los Angeles & Vicinity, Pasadena & Vicinity, South Coast, Santa Barbara & Vicinity, Palm Springs & Vicinity, San Diego & Vicinity.

In each section you will find the various private mansions, parks or universities gardens of the area where you live in or where maybe you are in vacation in at the moment and a visit in some of these places don't appear to be bad considering that it is summer-time.
From the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden with its carnivorous plants, to the Getty Center and Getty Villa in which they incorporated diversified genre of plants including beautiful superb succulents but also romantic flowers, passing through The Secret Garden of Monterey located in the heart of the old part of the city, to the beautiful Californian vineyards seen in all their beauty thanks to the chapter dedicated at the Ferrary-Carano vineyards and winery, Alcatraz won't disappoint you as well. You can't believe it, but they created a stunning and remarkable garden in the island and considering the weather, plants and flowers are pretty interesting.

I thank NetGalley and Timber Press for this ebook.

The CALIFORNIA GARDEN TOUR is a book design for garden lovers. If you are not a garden lover, you probably won't even understand this book. This book is designed for garden lovers. If you are not a garden lover, you probably won't even understand this book. I have been to more than one of these gardens featured here. Each one has been an inspiring, fun trip.

The sections of the book are geographically designed. So for example there is a big section called Northern California, and of course one called Southern California. In the Northern California area, it is further divided into San Francisco and Peninsula, East Bay, Sonoma and vicinity, and Central and North Coast. This division makes it easy to navigate. I was pleased to discover that there are many Northern California gardens close to me.

As you might expect, each garden is accompanied by a variety of color photographs, showing the highlights from that particular Garden. In the San Francisco area, where I live, there's even a section on Alcatraz! I had no idea that Alcatraz would be a featured Island. However, I'm pretty sure that was after the prisoners were all removed.

All in all, I found the CALIFORNIA GARDEN TOUR to be an inspiring, fun read. If nothing else, enjoy looking through the beautiful photographs. They are very inspiring--even the ones from Alcatraz Island.

Advance Review Copy courtesy of the publisher.

“Garden Tourists” are a real thing. These are folks who plan their outings around locations such as Filoli, Sunnylands, and botanical gardens such as Southern California’s Huntington Gardens.

In The California Garden Tour, Donald Olson gives all the information a garden tourist needs to know about 50 outstanding public gardens in California, and thanks to Timber Press and NetGalley, I received an advance copy in exchange for my review.

This guidebook is amazing. It is arranged geographically, and includes maps and gorgeous photos, along with useful information such as hours, fees, parking, etc.

The geographic regions within Northern California include the East Bay,
San Francisco/Peninsula, Sonoma, and Central & North Coasts. In Southern California, we have Los Angeles, Pasadena, Santa Barbara, Palm Springs, the South Coast, and San Diego.

In addition to being a lovely coffee table book, fun to browse, this would be a great gift for both garden tourists and anyone who appreciates plants! Great job! Five stars.

A fantastic resource for plant lovers looking to visit gardens in California - would be great for people currently living in or who hope to visit California.

"The California Garden Tour" is a garden-lover's dream guide. It begins with a brief historical summary of gardens in California, which I found quite interesting. Then, the book is divided into geographical sections, with each garden's story told in a multi-page combination of text and photos. Important information for visitors is organized at the start of each garden profile. I particularly enjoyed reading the history of each garden. For example, the story of Alcatraz tells of how both inmates and keepers at the prison overcame harsh gardening conditions to produce the gardens on this piece of rock.
The photos in my copy (a PDF advance copy) seem poorly focused at times, but the colors are vivid. A variety of gardens are described, from native to exotic, from desert to tropical, from private homes to large botanical gardens. This would be a quintessential guide for the west coast dweller who wants to explore local botanical gardens, but also for the tourist with an interest in gardening. I found gardens I didn't know about, and look forward to visiting soon.
Olson has done an outstanding job of organizing information, telling stories, and selecting photographs that will most interest the reader. I highly recommend this book for any gardener!

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