Santa Barbara Botanic Garden has unveiled Still Growing: 100 Years of California’s Native Plants, a new exhibit now on view in the Pritzlaff Conservation Center Gallery through March 21.
Created as part of the Botanic Garden’s centennial celebration, the exhibit offers visitors a visual journey through a century of dedication to California’s native plants while inviting them to help shape the future of conservation.
Drawn entirely from the Botanic Garden’s extensive archives, Still Growing showcases over 200 photographs spanning the organization’s 100-year history. The exhibit highlights the fieldwork, research, stewardship, and community efforts that have defined the Botanic Garden’s mission since its founding in 1926.
The exhibit offers a collection of archival images that immerse visitors in the people, plants, and places that have shaped the Botanic Garden’s legacy.
In place of traditional interpretive labels on the gallery walls, visitors are invited to experience the display through a custom-built digital companion.
By scanning a QR code with their phone and hovering over each photograph, viewers can instantly access the story behind every image, creating an immersive experience that allows the archival photographs to remain the visual focus while revealing the history behind them.
“For 100 years, countless botanists, horticulturists, researchers, volunteers, and community members have contributed to protecting California’s native plants,” said Kevin Spracher, Santa Barbara Botanic Garden’s interpretation and exhibitions curator.
“Still Growing brings those stories together in a way that feels both personal and collective. While the exhibition reflects on the Garden’s past, it’s ultimately about the future,” Spracher said. “Native plants have the power to restore habitats, support wildlife, and build more resilient communities, but that future only grows with people behind it.
“We hope visitors leave inspired to see themselves as part of this living legacy and join the Native Plant Movement as stewards of California’s native landscapes.”
Coinciding with the exhibit, Santa Barbara Botanic Garden is also opening its new public Digital Archives, making nearly a century of the garden’s history available online for researchers, students, garden supporters, and the broader community.
The growing collection includes historic photographs, documents, botanical records, publications, and artifacts that chronicle the evolution of the Botanic Garden and its leadership in California native plant conservation, organizers said.
From early landscape designs and field expeditions to groundbreaking research and restoration efforts, the archives preserve the stories of the people and plants that have shaped the garden’s mission since 1926.
Visitors can begin exploring the Digital Archives at https://archives.sbbotanicgarden.org/.
At the heart of the Still Growing exhibition is a call to action. Visitors are encouraged to become Native Plant Stewards by joining the Garden’s Native Plant Movement and committing to supporting California’s native landscapes through everyday actions, advocacy, and planting choices.
Visitors can learn more and sign the Native Plant Pledge during their visit, becoming part of the next chapter in the Botanic Garden’s century-long legacy of conservation by clicking here.
Admission to Still Growing: 100 Years of California’s Native Plants is included with Botanic Garden admission. For more, visit here.