About

Get To Know the Garden

An upward angle of a winding large tree with twisting branches. The sky is light blue with wispy clouds scattered the background. The foreground has big rocks with sun rays across the face of them.

People & Plants

More Than a Beautiful Place

As the first botanic garden to focus exclusively on native plants, Santa Barbara Botanic Garden has dedicated a century of work to better understand the relationship between plants and people.

Our Mission

History

The Garden was established in 1926 when local philanthropist Anna Dorinda Blaksley Bliss purchased 13 acres (5 hectares) in Mission Canyon to create a botanical garden that would unite the aesthetic, the educational, and the scientific.

Two women in mid-calf skirts and blouses sit in the meadow. It's a historic moment, captured in black and white, there's a stone tower in the center of a dirt circle. The expansive meadow is just dirt at this time, but the mountains still stand tall in the background and large bushy trees flow down into the garden.

White wildflowers with yellow centers in sunny meadow.

Meet the Team

With our shared passion for the natural world, our team of scientists, horticulturists, and advocates from across industries unite to conserve native plants and habitats for the health of our planet and ourselves.

Who Are We?

Employment

If you envision a world where every person understands the interdependency between people and plants and you’re ready to act to preserve this precious natural world, we want to hear from you.

Current Openings

A beautiful bending tree, viewed looking up from the bottom of the trunk. The sky is a vibrant baby blue peeking out behind the bright green leaves of the tree. The branches bend every way creating a mosaic of bark, leaves, and sky.

The sun is shining on the Pritzlaff Conservation Center. The mountains in the back are sprinkled with lush greenery and the rock remaining is a pinkish hue. It's golden hour, the island plants cast soft shadows across the Island View Lawn. There are blue and orange lounge chairs on the patio. The bushes are blooming with white pink and sage colored flowers.

Financials
& Media

As a 501(c)(3), we are committed to being transparent about our operations and performance. We welcome you to review our reports, including our IRS 990 forms, and press releases to stay informed on our work to conserve native plants and habitats.

Learn More