Sunnylands

Enjoy this last day of the 2023-2024 season with a stroll in the Sunnylands gardens. Open today, 8:30 am to 4:00 pm, with free admission. Sunnylands will be on summer hiatus June 3 through September 10, 2024.

Standing nearly nine feet tall, two Meiji-era cranes pose lakeside within eyesight of the Annenberg bedroom.

Detailed information on the plants in the Sunnylands gardens is always available at SunnylandsGardens.org.

Enjoy the nine acres of gardens at Sunnylands, featuring over 53,000 species of arid-adapted plants. For more information, visit Sunnylands.org.

In the early 1960s, Walter and Leonore Annenberg created Sunnylands with an environment where birds are encouraged to visit. Today, a wide and colorful variety of birds reside within, or migrate through, the 200-acre estate and the Center & Gardens.

Sunnylands Center & Gardens wows more than 100,000 visitors annually with spectacular architecture, world-class art exhibitions, informative tours and walks, restorative wellness programs, and nine acres of magnificent environmentally sustainable desert gardens. Admission and parking are always free. Summer hiatus begins June 3. Reopening September 11, 2024.
https://sunnylands.org/visit-the-gardens/

On this solemn day, we pause to remember and honor the brave men and women who gave their lives to protect our freedoms.

Benches line the various pathways throughout the Sunnylands gardens, offering a place for respite.

Sunnylands Center & Gardens is open Wednesday through Sunday, 8:30 am to 4:00 pm through June 2. Sunnylands will close June 3 through September 10 for its annual summer hiatus. For more information, please visit Sunnylands.org.

In 1972, President Richard Nixon gave the Annenbergs a cutting from the White House Magnolia tree, grown from a cutting taken to the White House by President Andrew Jackson from his estate, The Hermitage. Tour guests may notice the tree standing near the 7th green on the golf course.

One of our most popular plants at Sunnylands is the truncated variant of Parry’s Agave. When visitors hear its common name is Artichoke Agave, the response is an instant head nod and verbal agreement—of course! It displays a tight, perfectly round rosette that is reminiscent of an artichoke bloom. Its arrangement in uniformed rows at Sunnylands draws the eye to its oval, blue-green leaves.

Like other "parryi" varieties, Artichoke Agave is versatile in garden design, pairing gracefully among wildflowers and perennials, or stealing the show in groupings. It adapts well to both desert floor and hillside gardens, making it a great choice for any space.

The main swimming pool provided a beautiful setting for entertaining or relaxing at Sunnylands.

The Golden Barrel cactus forms dense wooly caps, from which it can grow crowns of yellow, cup-shaped blooms in spring and summer. These cactuses, like agaves and many other succulents, also produce clones and can create a colony of barrels all stemming from one parental plant.

Sunnylands Center & Gardens features art exhibitions, a theater showing the film, "A Place Called Sunnylands," an indoor/outdoor café, gift shop, and a stunning nine-acre desert garden with over a mile of paths for exploring. Sunnylands is open Wednesday through Sunday, 8:30 am to 4:00 pm, through June 2. Annual summer hiatus begins June 3. Admission and parking are free.
https://sunnylands.org/visit-the-gardens/

There is still time to visit Sunnylands before our summer hiatus begins on June 3. Enjoy the nine-acre gardens, view art exhibitions, enjoy a light lunch, snack, or beverage indoors or out, or purchase unique gift items in the shop.

Newly replicated sunflower fabric carefully includes the wavy brick-quilting pattern seen here in the Game Room. To ensure that today's visitors experience Sunnylands as vibrant, the Trust has undertaken a fabric replication project to refresh furnishings that show wear.
https://sunnylands.org/variations-to-a-theme/

Planted in the specimen beds between the café and the solar field, Prickly Pear is one of the earliest Opuntias recorded by traveling European botanists, listed by Ferdinand Lindheimer in 1768. Prickly Pear is one of the most known names in popular culture for Opuntias, becoming a generalized name applied to all padded cactus. Prickly Pear can grow low, creating a shrubby appearance, or may ascend on a single, tree-like stalk. Spines (leaves) may be absent or irregular in growth. Its cup-shaped flowers bloom yellow to red and are followed by green, orange, or red fruit. A highly cultivated species, its origins are not confirmed, though it is likely native to Mexico. For more information on the plants at Sunnylands, visit SunnylandsGardens.org.

The sculpture, "Birds of Welcome" (1971) by Art Price, greets visitors on the drive to the residence from the estate's historic entrance on Frank Sinatra Drive.

The Blue Elf Aloe is a small but mighty succulent that can withstand the sun’s full attention on the hot desert floor. The smallest of the aloes at Sunnylands, its clumping nature allows it to spread readily to two feet. Visitors will first experience Blue Elf growing in four beds below the Sweet Acacia trees that frame the Center entrance outside. It is also on the west side of the gardens where it replaced the less successful Angelita Daisy (Tetraneuris acaulis) from the original 2012 landscape plan. It has proven to be a true powerhouse in the gardens. For more information, visit SunnylandsGardens.org.

Follow the newsletter link below to see what's in store for the final weeks of the season, including tours, a free film screening, bird walks, and more.

Behind the Pink Wall: Closing out the 2023-2024 season It’s hard to believe, but yes, we’re in the final throes of the 2023-2024 season. Be sure to stop by for one of our guided bird walks, an outdoor movie in the gardens, or a tour of the Annenberg home before we close for summer in early June. 

May tickets for the Historic House Tour are available now. Explore the Annenbergs’ historic winter home—a 25,000 square-foot midcentury modern masterpiece. Walk through the spaces where history took place, including extravagant New Year’s Eve parties, nationally and globally important meetings, and intimate moments spent with the Annenbergs’ family and close friends. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit Sunnylands.org/tickets

The Palo Brea and Palo Verde trees are blooming in the Sunnylands gardens. Open Wednesday through Sunday, 8:30 am to 4:00 pm. Admission is free. Summer hiatus begins June 3, 2024.

Swans are one of numerous species of local and migratory birds that visit Sunnylands for respite. Over 170 species of birds have been spotted at Sunnylands.

The historic entrance to the Annenberg estate, located on Frank Sinatra Drive, features bermed walls painted pink, matching the iconic roof color of the residence.

A path lined with Palo Verde trees encircles the lawn in the West Gardens at Sunnylands.

Water features create a scenic reflection of the trees above in the Sunnylands gardens.

Over 650 olive trees, easily recognized by their gnarled, twisted trunks and their silvery-green leaves, dot the landscape at Sunnylands.

May is a fantastic month to visit Sunnylands Center & Gardens. Open Wednesday through Sunday, 8:30 am to 4:00 pm. Admission is free. Summer hiatus begins June 3.