Behind some hedges between the Reuben Fleet Science Center and the Casa de Prado is a special place you’ve probably walked by a few dozen times without noticing it. The hedges hide a sidewalk that curves down to a sunken walled garden: Zoro Butterfly Garden. This one-of-a-kind six-acre secret garden has a fascinating history starting with the Panama Exposition in 1915-1916.
When Balboa Park, originally called City Park, was built for the Panama Exposition, the city leaders wanted to attract the attention of tourists and businessmen. This important world exposition, held in San Diego between January 1, 1915, and January 1, 1917, celebrated the opening of the Panama Canal. The exposition was meant to tout San Diego as the first United States port of call for ships traveling north after passing westward through the canal.
San Diego’s population in 1910 was 37,578, the least populated city to ever host an international exposition. With no federal and little state government funding, San Diego’s exposition would be on a smaller scale with fewer states and countries participating.
So the city leaders, Ulysses S. Grant and John D. Spreckels, and later “Colonel” D.C. Collier, put their heads together to make the exposition in San Diego one to remember. Collier was responsible for selecting the location of the city park as well as the architectural styles of Pueblo Revival and Mission Revival. He had the task of steering the exposition in “the proper direction,” ensuring that every decision made reflected his vision of what the exposition could accomplish.
Collier once stated, “The purpose of the Panama–California Exposition is to illustrate the progress and possibility of the human race, not for the exposition only, but for a permanent contribution to the world’s progress.” What that progress would look like was up for debate.
But Zoro Garden, supposedly named after Zoroaster, the religious reformer who founded Zoroastrianism, did become one of the many features of the ambitious park plan. The 1915-1916 Panama Exposition put San Diego on the map of growing, important cities of the future. The curving sidewalk and stone walls of the garden along with its natural amphitheater stayed intact.
Twenty years later, during the 1935-36 California Pacific International Exposition, Zoro Garden attracted a different type of attention. It was the site of the Zoro Garden Nudist Colony, which featured mostly-nude performers. Fair attendees could pay for admission to bleacher-type seats, or they could peek through knotholes in a wooden fence for free. The women were indeed topless, as countless undoctored photographs plainly show.
According to the Zoro Garden program, the garden was “designed to explain to the general public the ideals and advantages of natural outdoor life.” The public’s curious gaze quickly turned Zoro Garden into the Exposition’s most lucrative outdoor attraction. Despite protests, Zoro Garden lasted for the entire run of the Exposition.
The garden now serves a more modest purpose as home to many butterflies; many nectar plants in the garden provide sweet sustenance for the complete life cycles of butterflies. Milkweed, sunflower, passion vine and California lilac are included as suitable plants for the butterfly larvae (caterpillar) stage. Butterfly bush, lantana, pincushion flower and verbena are nectar plants for the adult butterflies. Look closely for tiny indentations built into rocks. They collect small pools of water for the monarch, sulfur, and swallowtail butterflies darting about the colorful perennials.
This spring, you’ll still see painted ladies in the garden, but they will be in the form of butterflies. Painted ladies make San Diego their main migration stop on their way from Mexico to the Pacific Northwest. The park has had several butterfly releases, most notably of monarchs, over the past several years. The garden is home also to swallowtail and sulfur butterflies.
Open to the public, Zoro Garden can also be reserved for special events. Over the decades, the garden has become a secret hiding place with romantic nooks for lovers and quiet weddings. A stone seat carved into the eastern wall is a pretty place for dreamy portraits. Aficionados of Shakespeare have also enjoyed small productions on the circular stage.
Enormous finger-like roots of the century-old Ficus trees crawl over a retaining wall behind the amphitheater. The roots conjure up images of trolls and other fantastical creatures.
Zoro Butterfly Garden is the place to be if you’re looking for a little hideaway in the middle of San Diego’s most magnificent park. When the sun makes its opening act this wild and rainy spring, look for butterflies sipping nectar among the perennials. Anna’s Hummingbirds are also regular visitors to the plants in the garden. You might also find the strange-looking red and black milkweed bugs on the milkweed plants. If you close your eyes and listen carefully, you might hear the tiny voices of invisible gnomes and faeries.
