This place isn't worth a visit. There are no beautiful or interesting plants. Waste of time! Cost is $10 per person (self-pay box) but it doesn't worth it.

Nice and peaceful. Some interesting plants. Lots of lizards and hummingbirds. Some good photo ops with the wooden statues. Cute gift shop and new things to learn.

Large arboretum with excellent display of Australian and South African plants. The arboretum has its own entrance off of Empire Grade/High Street. There is a large free parking area. You can buy admission tickets online or at the gift shop, if it happens to be open. If not you can stuff money into a metal tube, which is what we did. The gardens for Australia and South Africa are large, with many diverse trees, bushes, succulents, and other plants. The setting is beautiful, though casual--nobody would accuse UC Santa Cruz of having formal gardens. Squirrels and rabbits wander here and there, and useful signage tells you about the plants and their normal environment. There is a New Zealand section, we didn't visit that but looking through the fence it appeared to be a picturesque meadow with wooden sculptures.

We visited the Santa Cruz Arboretum in the morning hours and found various gardens with plants from areas around the world such as South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. We saw plants and trees that we have NEVER seen before and I took so many pictures because so much of what we saw was so different from what we are used to. There were trees with corn cob-like cones of varying sizes, flowering trees, and others too many to mention. Just say, take lots of pictures as all will be beautiful!

My daughter-in-law and I stopped at this tranquil place while our husbands were golfing something different to do . and very interesting I enjoy the succulent garden the most and I’m sure there are things that blossom during different seasons of the year. Most plants were labeled but it would’ve been nice to have a guided tour - it was a very hot day and you could stay as long as you’d like. we liked the little gift shop as well