Mike Bush has crisscrossed the world developing and operating botanical gardens, with posts in Santa Barbara, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Bermuda and Singapore. On May 23, Bush officially came home to California, where he is the newly named executive director of the San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden.

Bush’s most recent assignment was at Gardens by the Bay in Singapore, where he was responsible for construction and pre-opening operations of a $400 million horticulture conservatory that will open in phases beginning in November 2011.

He has held executive level positions at Santa Barbara’s Ganna Walska Lotusland, the Bermuda Department of Agriculture - Botanical Gardens, the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden in Belmont, North Carolina and Myriad (Botanical) Gardens in Oklahoma City. 

According to Dr. Ping Tsao, president of the board of directors for the San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden, timing and a shared vision combined to make Bush the ideal candidate for the position. 

“We are still amazed at the good fortune that found us conducting an executive director search at the very time Mike was exploring options for returning to California, Tsao said.  “We reviewed Mike's resume and were very interested in him, but we thought he was not likely to be interested in us. But Mike was impressed with our people, our plans and the progress we’ve made. He saw the opportunity to be part of something amazing, and he said yes."

As for Bush, he noted that the San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden had multiple appeals: it is situated in an area that boasts a unique combination of mountains, ocean and a Mediterranean climate; the Garden operation is in great financial shape and with 20 years’ operation under its belt, is moving ahead aggressively on development plans. 

“The job, the people and the place were a match. My wife and I are sad to leave Singapore, but ecstatic to have this great opportunity and return to the Central Coast,” Bush said.

Bush graduated from the University of South Florida with a degree in botany. He learned his love of growing things from his grandmother, whose WWII Victory Garden inspired the then-high school sophomore to give vegetable gardening a try.  It was an effort that more than succeeded, leading to nearly 38 years’ tenure in the botanical garden community.

The San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden is located at El Chorro Regional Park between San Luis Obispo and Morro Bay. The Garden got its start in 1989 under the direction of a group of volunteers.  The SLO Botanical Garden was developed to display the diverse plant life of the world’s Mediterranean climates and to provide education, recreation, conservation and research connecting people to nature and stewardship. The Garden operates a demonstration garden and has plans to expand onto its full 150 acre site.  

In 2007 an Education Center that is a living model of sustainability was added to the Garden.  The Garden today includes a greenhouse, an amphitheater and a Children’s Garden with continuing gardening education and cooking classes for children.  The Garden welcomes hundreds of school children and college students for docent tours of the gardens and rice bale construction buildings and is host to many community events and educational programs.

The San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden is governed by a 10 member board of directors and supported by a large group of volunteers and a small paid staff.  

The new executive director was introduced to the community at a series of events on May 25.