For one weekend each December, the Santa Rosa home of Luther Burbank, the celebrated plant breeder, opens dressed for the holidays inside and out. The Holiday Open House is an old-fashioned affair: you walk through the decorated house, browse the gift shop for plants, garden gifts and holiday decor, and stop for homemade cookies and a slice of persimmon bread.
For one weekend each December, the Santa Rosa home of Luther Burbank, the celebrated plant breeder, opens dressed for the holidays inside and out. The Holiday Open House is an old-fashioned affair: you walk through the decorated house, browse the gift shop for plants, garden gifts and holiday decor, and stop for homemade cookies and a slice of persimmon bread.
It is the gentlest holiday outing in the county: small, unhurried and inexpensive, which makes it a fine choice for families and for anyone who wants a quiet hour away from holiday crowds.
The real attraction is the chance to meet Burbank on his own ground. This is the house he lived in and the garden he worked, kept much as a visitor would have found it, and seeing it in its holiday finery makes it feel lived in again. Pair it with an afternoon in downtown Santa Rosa, where the house already sits.
Luther Burbank Home & Gardens keeps the plant breeder's downtown Santa Rosa house and gardens open to visitors and hosts the Holiday Open House each December.
Visit organizer site →The house is older than its fame. Built around 1875 in the Greek Revival style, it became Luther Burbank's home in 1884, and he lived there until 1906, when he moved to a new house across Tupper Street. After his death in 1926, his widow, Elizabeth, returned to the old house and stayed until her own death in 1977.
The state named the site a California Historical Landmark in 1935, and in 1964 it became a National Historic Landmark.
