The garden began in the 1930s as the personal collection of Rae Selling Berry (1881–1976), who obtained seeds from plant explorers including Frank Kingdon-Ward, Francis Ludlow and George Sherriff, and Joseph Rock. She also collected alpine plants herself from the mountains of the Western United States, British Columbia, and Alaska. In 1938 she established the garden's current site, and the garden became a public, nonprofit organization in 1978. She had a two-story Bungalow style home built at the location in 1939, which was designed by Reuben T. Sinex.