The Collection
Lester Hawkins and Marshall Olbrich began planting at Western Hills in the early 1960s. The plant collection grew organically as they brought back seeds of rare trees, shrubs, and perennials from their travels around the world. They also had an extensive mail correspondence and seed exchange with international plant enthusiasts.
As their nursery operation expanded and their unique style of garden design evolved, Western Hills became a mecca for plant enthusiasts searching for diversity and beauty. The collection continues to grow and evolve, resulting in an enormous palette of plants, all within an enchanting naturalistic setting.
Today, we have rare mature trees which were planted in the early days, including a 84' foot tall Japanese Zelkova (Zelkova serrata) with an enormous 91’ canopy spread, and a large multi-stemmed Persian Ironwood (Parrotia persica) with its stunning fall foliage.
Plants native to all five Mediterranean climatic regions mingle with Japanese, Chinese, and Middle Eastern specimens to create a dazzling mix of colors and textures that seem to change weekly.
In total there are over 800 trees of over 300 different species in the garden. Add in over 1,000 woody shrubs and innumerable perennials and bulbs, and the result is a virtually endless display of botanical diversity and density on just three acres.
Collection Highlights
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MAGNOLIAS
Magnolias are an ancient line of flowering trees, with fossil records dating back to the Cretaceous period, 95 million years ago. There are at least nine species of magnolias in the garden, with flowers ranging from white to pink to magenta. Late winter to early spring is the best time to see our magnolias in bloom.
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CAMELLIAS
At least 15 species and hybrids of camellias are found throughout the garden with a concentration in “Camellia Corner,” on the northwestern boundary. Our camellias bloom at different times through fall and winter, so it usually takes several visits to the garden to see them all. In 2019, the San Francisco Peninsula Camellia Society visited the garden and catalogued the entire collection, including a rare endangered Camellia granthamiana (30 known plants left in the wild).
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CHILEANS
The garden contains many species native to Chile, which do well here because of climate similarities. Several species of puyas bloom in our sunnier areas, and the Chilean wine palm (Jubaea chilensis) reigns over a back path. A stately Antarctic beech tree (Nothofagus moorei) is an early planting, and a Chilean myrtle, or temu (Luma apiculata) is a recent addition.
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MAPLES
Maple trees are iconic members of many northern hemisphere forests, recognized by their three-lobed leaf pattern and colorful fall foliage. Western Hills hosts 15 distinct species of maples and many more cultivars. Several of our specimens are rare and threatened in their native habitats, including the five-lobe maple (Acer pentaphyllum) and paperbark maple (Acer griseum), both native to China.
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CYPRESSES
Cypress trees (the family Cupressaceae) comprise half of the garden’s conifer collection. Some venerable specimens include bald, pond and Montezuma cypresses (Taxodium distichum, Taxodium ascendens, Taxodium mucronatum) which prefer wet environments like ponds or streams. Rare species include the elegant Kashmir cypress (Cupressus cashmeriana) and tiny Siberian cypress (Microbiota decussata). California natives are also well-represented, such as the Sargent’s cypress (Hesperocyparis sargentii), endemic to Sonoma County and the pygmy cypress (Hesperocyparis pygmaea) from Mendocino.
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EUCALYPTUS
The garden has five species of Eucalyptus which are native to Australia. Our largest - a candlebark tree (Eucalyptus rubida), or as we call it, the “White Whale” - has just been officially recognized as the “national champion,” the biggest tree of it’s kind in the United States, at 121 feet tall. In autumn its old bark exfoliates to reveal a new buttercream-colored layer that fades to white over time.
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LIVING FOSSILS
The term “living fossil” generally refers to a plant or animal that is nearly unchanged in appearance to an ancestor known from the fossil record. Our collection of plants with ancient lineages includes mosses, horsetails, and ferns, as well as ginkgos, umbrella pines, dawn redwoods, Norfolk pines, rare Wollemi pines, magnolias, and a tulip tree. Long thought to be extinct, the dawn redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) was rediscovered in China in 1949, and the Wollemi pine (Wollemii nobilis) was found in an isolated Australian canyon in 1994.
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AUSTRALIANS
Australian species, primarily from New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, and Southwestern Australia, form a large part of the collection. Dispersed through the garden are banksias with their sharp leathery leaves and distinctive seedpods, award-winning bottlebrushes, tea trees, acacias, grass trees, and grevilleas including an unusual, sprawling purple-flowered Grevillea rivularis.
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NEOTROPICAL SOUTH AMERICAN
The higher humidity of our coastal location allows us to grow plants from South American neotropical biomes. Our coral tree (Erythrina crista-galli) was planted in the mid-1960s and has plentiful red flowers in the summer for hummingbirds to enjoy. Numerous iochroma plants from Bolivia and Peru, as well as monkey hand trees (Chiranthodendron pentadactylon) from southern Mexico and Guatemala, populate the garden.
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CALIFORNIA NATIVES
Dozens of species native to the California floristic province also thrive in the garden. Some plants, like spicebushes, vine maples, and the endangered fernleaf Catalina ironwood tree, prefer the garden’s shady summer-dry nooks. Others, such as the manzanitas, coast silk-tassels, and California lilacs, prefer our sunny slopes.
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CONIFERS
Conifers comprise approximately 20% of the tree species at Western Hills, ranging in shape from dwarf Tyrolean pines (Pinus mugo mugo 'Tyrolean') to a weeping blue atlas cedar (Cedrus atlantica 'Glauca Pendula') to our 150’ tall coastal redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens). The garden also has many New Zealand and Japanese conifers, including four of the five species considered the Sacred Trees of Kiso.
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WESTERN HILLS ORIGINALS
Marshall Olbrich introduced several new cultivars into the horticultural trade developed here at Western Hills. These include Marshall's azalea (Azalea occidentalis) , Grevillea x 'Marshall Olbrich' and Epilobium canum 'Olbrich Silver'.