Nearly a Century of Dedication

Origins of
the Garden

1925

The Carnegie Institution suggested a cooperative undertaking with the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History to administer what it envisioned as a botanical garden “reaching from the sea to the crest of the mountains, connected by a drive lined with trees, shrubs, and flowers from all parts of the earth.”* Plant ecologist Dr. Frederic Clements came to Santa Barbara as Carnegie’s representative in search of geographic sites that could be used for experimental plant research.

*Carroll, Mary. “A Garden for All Time: The Santa Barbara Botanic Garden 1926–2005,” Noticias, Vol. L, No. 4/Vol. LI, No. 1, Winter 2004/Spring 2005. Santa Barbara Historical Society, 2005.

1926

Local philanthropist Anna Dorinda Blaksley Bliss purchased 13 acres (5 hectares) in Mission Canyon with the request that it be developed into a botanic garden as a memorial for her father, Henry Blaksley. At the same time, Bliss created an endowment fund to care for the maintenance. The Garden was named after the founder’s father as Blaksley Botanic Garden, and Dr. Elmer J. Bissell was chosen as the first director.   

1926–1932

With the substantial endowment given to the Garden by Bliss, followed by the subsequent 11 acres (4 hectares) given by 1932, the foundation for the Blaksley Botanic Garden’s first 10 years of operation was put in place.

From its start, under direction from the Bissells, the Garden stated its commitment to native plants and named Lockwood de Forrest as the Garden’s botanist in 1928.

The Caretaker’s Cottage, a ready-cut (prefabricated) house ordered from Sears, Roebuck, and Co., was built near the site of the current Blaksley Library. In 1941 it was moved over a large boulder (now gone) to its present location. 

1936 

1938 

1939 

The Garden was incorporated as a separate organization from the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History and was renamed Santa Barbara Botanic Garden.

History
of Research

Research at Santa Barbara Botanic Garden traces its roots to our first director, Dr. Frederic Clements. Clements envisioned the Garden as the first of a series of planting sites ranging from the sea shore to the top of the Santa Ynez Mountains, which could be used for investigations of plant adaptations. While Clements’ vision was never fully realized, scientific investigation has been an integral part of the Garden’s identity since its inception.

Dr. Maunsell Van Rensselaer

Our first full-time director, Dr. Maunsell Van Rensselaer (director from 1936 to 1950), strongly encouraged undergraduate research and numerous students participated in research projects led by Garden staff and research associates. Several of those undergraduate students followed their experiences at the Garden with a life committed to botanical investigation.

Clifton Smith (author of the book “A Flora of the Santa Barbara Region, California”) and John Tucker, Ph.D., eminent oak systematist at University of California, Davis, both began their careers as undergraduate researchers at the Garden. Reid Moran, Ph.D., who studied the genus Dudleya and later the flora of Baja California, Mexico, also began his career at the Garden.

1960s & 1970s

During the 1960s, Garden research expanded to include formalized plant exploration of the Channel Islands by E. R. “Jim” Blakely, analysis of past climates in the tree ring lab of Harold Gladwin, and cytogenetic studies of brome grasses (Bromus spp.) by Marta Walters, Ph.D.

In 1967, then-director, Ralph Philbrick, Ph.D., convened the first symposium on the biology of the California Islands and prepared a proceedings publication; this started a tradition of the California Islands Symposium. Botanical exploration on the islands greatly expanded with the addition of Steve Junak as Clifton Smith Herbarium curator in 1976, and extensive research on island botany, rare plants, and vegetation has continued to this day.

Rare Plant Conservation

With the addition of Dieter Wilken, Ph.D., in 1993, the Garden’s botanical work expanded to include rare plant conservation on the islands and mainland, and in 1996, the Garden became a member of the national Center for Plant Conservation.

In the early 1990s, Sherwin Carlquist, Ph.D., joined the Garden as a research associate and has published prolifically on wood anatomy and island biology ever since. Carlquist was joined on many studies by Ed Schneider, Ph.D., Garden director from 1992 to 2010. Charis Bratt added lichen expertise in the late 1990s and was joined by Shirley Tucker, Ph.D., in 2003.

Research as of Late

In 2012, the Garden’s research and conservation efforts further expanded to include community ecology with the addition of Denise Knapp, Ph.D., director of Conservation and Research, who focuses on plant-insect interactions and pollinator networks.

Shortly thereafter, Matt Guilliams, Ph.D., became the Tucker systematist and curator of the Herbarium, and established the Garden’s first molecular lab for taxonomic, evolutionary, and conservation genetic research. The Conservation and Research Department has grown rapidly since then, with the addition of Heather Schneider, Ph.D., as the Garden’s first full-time rare plant biologist in 2016, Kristen Hasenstab-Lehman, Ph.D., as a conservation geneticist in 2017, and Rikke Reese Næsborg, Ph.D., as the Tucker lichenologist in 2019.

This diverse team works to understand, protect, and restore California’s native plants, lichens, and habitats from the level of genes to ecosystems on the central Coast, the Channel Islands, and throughout California.