About us
We are a non-profit organization focused on information exchange among plant enthusiasts and educational outreach to the community.
In 1963 a group of both professional plantsmen and amateur gardeners banded together to create a local society where plant and garden lovers could learn from each other, and share that knowledge with others. In promoting the future of horticulture, we award two scholarships annually to students in local college horticultural programs.
The sharing of plant knowledge is an important part of the Western Horticultural Society credo. Our monthly meetings feature speakers from all facets of gardening, and a plant discussion in a “show and tell” format. How better to learn about a plant than from someone who actually grows it? In addition, we have member open garden visits and offer tours to horticulturally inspiring sites including nurseries, farms and non-private gardens.
Membership fee is $35/yr - see westernhort.org for more info and upcoming speakers.
Upcoming events
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Pollinator Gardening and Dahlia Hybridizing at Sisterhood (Community) Gardens
Garden House @ Shoup Park, 400 University Avenue, Los Altos, CA, USWednesday, April 8, 2026, 7:30pm, 400 University Ave, Shoup Park Garden House, Los Altos
Pollinator Gardening and Dahlia Hybridizing at Sisterhood Gardens – A Community Garden Project
by Tim Wong, garden manager at Sisterhood GardensTim will speak about how the mixed use spaces at this San Francisco community garden have been successful in attracting native pollinators and have also supported the creation of new dahlias. Tim will share his experience in attracting California Pipevine swallowtail butterflies, and his initial findings in hybridizing dahlias, the flower of San Francisco.
Tim’s love for butterflies started in his youth, raising butterflies from caterpillars in his backyard in San Mateo County. Today, Tim is a Senior Biologist at the California Academy of Sciences, where he has worked with the museum’s living collection for the past 15 years. Tim works on horticulture in the Osher rainforest exhibit and coordinates the living butterfly display. When not in the rainforest, Tim may be diving in the Philippine coral reef aquarium or feeding the museum’s colony of African Penguins. Outside of the museum, Tim can be found tending a growing collection of Dahlias, many of his own hybrids, and tending the butterfly resource plants of Sisterhood Gardens.
More info: westernhort.org
Free for members and first-time attendees. Zoom link available for members.
Doors open 7pm with plant sale plus tea and snacks.1 attendee
Past events
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