Filoli Estate and Gardens is a historic gem just south of San Francisco. The grand estate is known for its beautiful gardens, drawing crowds year-round. In the fall, you can take tours of the 100-year-old orchard, and during the winter, stroll through the garden’s beautiful light displays. Now’s the time for an equally charming season at the estate, exploring the beautifully manicured gardens in full bloom this spring.
Spring at Filoli
Filoli’s gardens are unique because they bloom all year thanks to their dedicated horticulture team, but springtime is an especially beautiful time to see the gardens, with over 75,000 spring bulbs planted this year. The spring flowers blooming include daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, and blue violas to create a colorful landscape. The formal garden area stretches 16 acres, with a large walled garden that looks like it could belong in a fairytale.
Plus, you can indulge in an elegant Spring Tea inside the Garden House featuring finger sandwiches, pastries, and sparkling wine. A perfect Easter weekend plan!
About the Filoli Estate
The Filoli property covers 654 acres in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The Gentleman’s Orchard is over 100 years old and currently boasts over 600 apple, pear, plum, apricot, walnut, fig, and quince trees. Filoli continues to produce fruit butters, hard cider, honey, dried lavender, and culinary herbs. The house itself is an enormous mansion with 56 rooms across 54,256 square feet. Visitors can tour both the mansion and the estate’s surrounding land, which has a beautiful trail to view Filoli’s forests, redwood groves, and chaparral.
A long history in the Bay Area
The land Filoli sits on originally belonged to the indigenous Ohlone people in the Bay Area. After the Spanish occupation and mission system seized their land and decimated their populations, much of California was parceled out as a Mexican land grant in 1856, which was later divided up following the United States annexation of the state.
After the 1906 earthquake, many wealthy San Francisco residents headed south to escape the city. The stunning Filoli estate was built in 1917 by socialite and entrepreneur William Bowers Bourn II and his wife, Agnes Moody. The couple wanted to create a self-sustaining estate, and they lived at Filoli until their deaths in 1936.
The property was purchased by heiress and philanthropist Lurline Matson Roth with her husband, William “Bill” Roth. Lurline Matson worked closely with Bourn’s original gardener to continue beautifying the gardens.
Upon Bill’s death, Lurline Matson donated the Filoli estate to the National Trust for Preservation, which it still remains under today. Lurline famously said, “Filoli is too beautiful to be private,” and in that spirit, the property was opened to the public in 1977.
You can visit Filoli at 86 Cañada Road in Woodside, CA, with prior reservation from 10 am-5 pm daily. General admission costs $25, and there are reduced prices available for children, seniors, and students.
Written by Jamie Ferrell and Dana Flynn