A historical and botanical park preserving the experiments of Luther Burbank. Free and open daily, dawn to dusk.
7781 Bodega Avenue
Sebastopol, CA 95472
Note: Please enter at 7777 Bodega Avenue, Burbank Heights and Orchards Senior Housing
Plan your visit
Visit our Nursery
Our nursery is open daily. We have a variety of plants available for purchase, including Burbank varietals, fruit trees, perennials, and succulents.
Take a Self-Guided Tour
Stroll the grounds every day, dawn to dusk. You can find a self-guided tour brochure at the parking lot kiosk, or in the decorative mailbox by the cottage. See our Self-Guided Tour. Leashed dogs are allowed.
Visit the Historic Burbank Cottage
Our cottage is open Wednesdays 9:00AM – 1:00PM.
Schedule a Docent-Led Tour
Docents provide guided tours of the historic farm, cottage, and barn, to groups of adults and schoolchildren. Our tour cost is $5 per adult, $2 per child, with a minimum of $25. Email us to schedule a tour.
Get involved!
Our volunteer workday is every Wednesday from 9 AM to noon. On Wednesday mornings, you can talk to our volunteers and ask questions about the park, plants, and history.
Follow us on Instagram: @lutherburbankfarm
The Farm is a unique laboratory
At the farm in Sebastopol, see some of Burbank’s experiments that he worked on more than 90 years ago. You can also see experiments we’re restarting today, extending Burbank’s legacy. You can view plant hybrids that don’t exist anywhere else in the world, as well as the varieties Burbank developed that are now found world-wide. Our volunteers work to preserve and promote Burbank’s legacy, and you can too! Follow us on Instagram and help spread the word, or get your hands dirty volunteering.
History
In 1885 Luther Burbank bought land in Sebastopol, complementing his separate ornate home in Santa Rosa. For the next forty years, Burbank conducted his large-scale plant experiments on the 18 acres in Sebastopol. During his career, he introduced over 800 varieties of fruits, flowers, vegetables, and grains. He developed many of California’s plums and prunes, the ancestor of the Idaho Potato, the Shasta Daisy, and novelties such as plumcots, thornless blackberry, and spineless cactus. See Luther Burbank Biography for more information.
After his death in 1927, his wife leased the Sebastopol property to Stark Brothers Nursery until 1957. In 1973, she sold the property to the Sebastopol Area Housing Corporation, which shortly thereafter began development of the Burbank Heights Housing complex. At the time of the sale of the property, the Corporation agreed to preserve the three acres in the northwest corner of the property. This parcel includes the cottage and many important plant specimens developed by Burbank at the Farm.
Preservation
By the mid 1970’s, the cottage had fallen into disrepair, and the property was overrun with poison oak and blackberries. Community members formed the Western Sonoma County Historical Society to restore and preserve the Farm. In 1975, as its first order of business, the society filed applications to place the Farm and Burbank’s cottage on the National Register of Historic Places. The property was placed on the register in 1978, and the Society has continued since that time to work at restoring the Farm.
In 1995, the City of Sebastopol acquired the property title and now leases the Farm to the Western Sonoma County Historical Society for preservation and management.
Code of Conduct
Visitors are free and welcome to enjoy the farm. We ask that you treat the property with respect. Please stay on the pathways, and do not climb trees or pick fruit. Many trees are old, and some have historical significance. We use the fruit for fundraising to help with ongoing maintenance costs. Leashed dogs are welcome. Thank you for helping to honor Luther’s legacy. Your donations help to keep this outdoor history museum alive in Sebastopol. Donate today!