— Bok Tower Gardens, Lake Wales, Fla., 863-676-1408, www.boksanctuary.org. Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted.

— Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens, Delray Beach, Fla., 561- 495-0233, www.morikami.org. Japanese museum and garden with "raked sands, carefully placed rocks and tropical plantings."

CALIFORNIA:

— San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Aroboretum, 415-661-1316, www.sfbotanicalgarden.org. Incredible year-round but with spectacular entry borders in spring featuring "unusual plant forms from around the world," and a rejuvenated Eastern Australian garden, said author Alice Joyce, who writes the "Garden Walks" column for the San Francisco Chronicle, in a phone interview.

— Filoli, Woodside, Calif., 650-364-8300, www.filoli.org. "Fabulous estate garden with exuberant displays of bulbs," said Joyce.

— Arizona Garden, Stanford University, Palo Alto, Calif., grounds.stanford.edu/points/gardens/arizonagarden.html. A cactus garden, designed for the Stanford family in the 1880s and recently rejuvenated.

— Cornerstone Festival of Gardens, Sonoma, Calif., 707-933-3010, www.cornerstonegardens.com. Gardens designed like contemporary works of art, such as Earth Walk by Pamela Burton, in which "a massive wedge has been removed from the earth and you are allowed to stroll down a diagonal path, past an expanse of billowy grasses," Joyce said.

— Walt Disney Concert Hall Community Park, Los Angeles, 213- 972-7211, www.wdch.org. (Open unless a concert is taking place.) "Full of intimate spaces, sinuous paths, beds filled with herbs and perennials, along with flowering trees with sculptural forms that reflect on the building's gleaming stainless-steel facade."

— Huntington Botanical Gardens, San Marino, Calif., 626-405-2100, www.huntington.org. "Wisteria, camellias and azaleas embellish lyrical formal garden spaces."

PACIFIC NORTHWEST:

— Volunteer Park Conservatory, Seattle, 206-684-4743. "A stunning Victorian glass conservatory," according to Joyce, filled with bulbs and blooming succulents.