
Dodger Stadium Tour – Los Angeles
April 14, 2022
Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture of the Riverside Art Museum – Riverside
January 8, 2023Completing The San Gabriel Valley Garden Trifecta
Descanso Gardens – La Cañada Flintridge
Last Visited: July 2022
Due to the Covid-19 shutdown of museums, restaurants and virtually everything else, I, like most people in the world, became stir crazy. So when gardens started opening back up, we jumped at the opportunity and immediately became members the Los Angeles Arboretum and Botanical Garden, along with today’s featured point of interest, Descanso Gardens, in La Cañada Flintridge, a community located just northwest of Pasadena.
Throughout the years Tracy and I have made numerous visits, but with membership comes the opportunity to enter before the regular opening time. Descanso Gardens is always a serene place to walk, but with that earlier entrance time, it is even more special.
In 1937, Etias Manchester Boddy, who was the publisher and owner of the Los Angeles Illustrated Daily News, purchased the land that is today Descanso Gardens. He paid the price of $125,000 for more than 150 acres. He named the working ranch “Rancho Descanso” (Ranch Of Rest). He hired famed architect James Dolena (“Architect To The Stars”) to produce a 12,000 square-foot, two-story home with incredible views of the San Gabriel Mountains, which can be seen from many vantage points throughout the gardens.
Many people were curious what Descanso looked like, so in March 1950, Boddy was convinced to open his ranch to the public for one weekend only to view his gardens. Nearly 6,000 people attended the first day at what was called “Descanso Gardens,” and there was such a ruckus from the neighbors that he did not open it again to the public until 1951, this time charging $1 admittance fee for people over 12 years-old to keep the crowd down (to put that in perspective, gas at the time was $0.20 per gallon).
On a really busy day, Descanso has about 3,000 visitors (pre-Covid-19), so 6,000 would be unimaginable, especially as there was no parking available and people just parked in the neighbors’ yard or on the side of the road. In 1952 Boddy retired, put the ranch up for sale and moved to San Diego. Walt Disney was considering purchasing the property as a potential site for Disneyland. But the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors voted to keep Descanso in the public trust “and a four-year lease/purchase plan was signed in 1953 in the amount of $1,160,000. Descanso Gardens went from private estate to public garden.” In 1993, Descanso Gardens became an independent entity.
There used to be a tram tour, but a fire in 2014 destroyed all of Descanso Gardens’ vehicles (photo above from lacanadaonline).
During non-Covid time, you can be transported though the gardens by The Enchanted Railroad.
When (if) the pandemic ends, this is what it looks like (from a previous visit).
The following is a compilation of many visits (my many masks will give it away). On our circuitous route through Descanso, our first stop was the Rose Garden, which has a sign stating “Come to your senses.”
On the way to the Rose Garden, I ran into an old, nutty friend.
The morning is a perfect time to visit the Rose Garden, because it’s then when the “rose’s perfume is the strongest.”
During a pandemic, sometime’s it is hard to stop and smell the roses, however.
Early morning is also the perfect time, because for the first hour only members are allowed in, so it sometimes feel like you have the place to yourselves.
The 5.5 acre Rose Garden includes roses from around the world, and features more than 1,600 roses.
Interspersed among the roses are numerous perennial plants and shrubbery (cue Monty Python and the Holy Grail), including daffodils, foxgloves, snapdragons, irises, chaste trees and more.
Coast Live Oak trees and sycamores surround the garden.
We always enjoy walking through this part of the garden.
You can spend a long time enjoying this area. A gazebo adds cool structure to the Rose Garden.
The colors …
… never stop popping.
Listen to the Mission Fountain as you stop and smell the bougainvillea (drop your mask for a minute).
You can even get married here.
We had no idea what these colorful plants were named, but people sure loved them.
One afternoon, we witnessed a bee party.
Actually, a few bee parties.
Yes, Descanso was abuzz with activity.
Tracy tried to live “stream” our visit.
After passing by the Lakeside Lookout (the Audubon Association leads occasional tours (for members only) …
… Tracy and I took the path around the lake (which is actually a pond). Beyond the bird observation station is a pond fed by a spring from the nearby mountains. Boddy purchased a property in the mountains with a spring and ran a 4” line from the spring all the way to Descanso (under nearby Foothill Blvd.) so he would always have a source of water for his ranch.
They used to boat on the pond, but now there’s a walkway built around it. The former dumping area has been reclaimed and Descanso opened a native garden area in October 2014.
The bees love it here, too.
Being California natives, Tracy and I hit the California Native Garden. Spring and summer is the best time to check out this area, and according to Descanso’s website, we saw the “show-stopping Matilija poppies, with their dramatic ‘fried-egg’ flowers topping lanky stalks.”
There are many trails in this part of Descanso. Be on the lookout for a guy in a black mask wearing a “Harvard Of The West” t-shirt..
“Bring me another shrubbery!”
There were peaceful areas to stop and contemplate along our 4 1/2 mile hike through Descanso Gardens.
I think that’s a California Buckeye, at least it looked like the one I saw at the L.A. Arboretum a few weeks ago.
Oprah Winfrey would have loved this plant that was the color purple.
Colorful Poppies and more Fried Egg plants abounded.
We momentarily stopped to get a little shade.
Next we stopped by what I call, “Little Stonehenge.” I read the sign, which stated something about spirals. Thinking this was a football display I read on. However when I got to the word “geometry,” I knew it would be fruitless to understand, since I barely passed that class in high school.
I asked Tracy, “Would you like to see some elders.” She responded, “Why? I’m married to one.” Ah, spousal humor. We were now in the Oak Grove canopy. Before cars, smog and quarantine, Los Angeles used to be shrouded with these “elder” guys.
On our first visit soon after Descanso opened back up, as we entered the Oak Grove, there was strange music coming from this area, and it had nothing to do with Yanni.
Trying to get to the root of the matter, we discovered the music turned out to be a piece called The Sky Beneath Our Feet. Going out on a limb, Pete Wyer wrote this symphony for trees, which plays occasionally throughout the day and early evening on 72 outdoor speakers. (My neighbors would love it if I had 72 speakers blasting Led Zeppelin … I only have 10.)
Soon however, we would branch out to other areas. I know, I kept a log of our visit, which I leafed through to remember this info.
We found ourselves going even further back in time to the Ancient Forest where we could “experience our own Jurassic world, a place where dinosaurs would feel right at home.”
Looking out for Velociraptors while walking …
… we headed up (a rather steep climb) to the hilltop garden where the Boddy House is located. We visited a number of years ago after it had been redecorated and was a Pasadena Showcase House.
From the website: “Working with Showcase volunteers, interior and exterior design firms completely rehabilitated and restored the Boddy House, bringing it back to life in a contemporary re-interpretation of its original Hollywood Regency style.” It might have been remodeled since our last visit.
There was also a short movie about the history of the gardens and Mr. Boddy. Among other things, Boddy hung out with stars and unsuccessfully ran for California senator in 1950 (didn’t Dianne Feinstein start that year?). From a 2004 story in the Los Angeles Times: “During World War II, Boddy suggested in an editorial that the Allies smuggle rubber out of Malaya for the war effort. They followed his advice…to the tune of 300 tons…and Spencer Tracy and Jimmy Stewart starred in a 1949 movie, ‘Malaya,’ based on Boddy’s screenplay.”
Boddy said something quite prophetic in a 1964 interview on the TV program Ralph Story’s Los Angeles. “The gardens will be remembered long after the Daily News and all the other newspapers in Los Angeles, perhaps, are forgotten.”
The home is also available for weddings. The former garage has been converted to an art gallery thanks to a generous donation of the Sturt Haaga family (seems his family forgot to buy a vowel or accidentally added it to their last name).
Take a look at the Vertical Garden near the house and art gallery.
Each year, primarily in January and February, camellias dot the Descanso Gardens’ landscape. Many were planted during World War II when Boddy purchased nearly 100,000 camellia plants from his friends at Mission Nursery (F.W. Yoshimura) and Star Nursery (F.M. Uyematsu…below), who were being sent to Japanese internment camps.
According to a KCET (public television in Los Angeles) article: “Boddy was certainly sympathetic to the plight of Japanese-Americans. At a time when legislators were calling for the ouster of Japanese immigrants in the 1920s, he penned ‘Japanese in America,’ dedicated to the ‘preservation of peace and the presentation of actual facts regarding the character and accomplishments of this alien people.’”
Today, Descanso boasts one of North America’s largest Camellia collections. If you’re in the area in January or February, that’s when you want to visit. (Photo on left courtesy of Descanso Gardens)
As we walked back toward the entrance, we made a quick stop at the Japanese Gardens. March is a better time to visit the Japanese Garden (photos below are from a March visit) and check out its arched bridge (a staple for any Japanese garden worth its Plum and Cherry trees), a Full Moon Tea House complete with blue roof tiling imported from Japan and a koi-filled stream.
It’s a beautiful and tranquil part of Descanso Gardens.
A few years back, we hit Descanso during tulip season. On a guided tour, we headed into a maze of amazing colors. We were tiptoeing past the tulips.
The only thing missing was Tiny Tim (the singer, not the little guy from A Christmas Carol).
Our tour guide on that day, Jim, told us that he had received a call that morning from one of his best customers, who also happens to be famous. The woman caller said she was distressed to hear the tulips were no longer in bloom. She didn’t have to call a policewoman, because she WAS Police Woman.
Jim then told Angie Dickinson not to worry. The tulips were still blooming and colorful, and he said for her to come out and see for herself the tulips “in all their splendor.”
If you are a flower and plant aficionado, Descanso Gardens is a must-see attraction in Southern California.
As members, Tracy and I come here often in the early mornings or late afternoons and stroll the grounds admiring the beauty and serenity. It seems each time we visit, there’s something new to see.
Some of the plants look out of this world.
Literally!
There are so many trails we have still yet to explore, even after so many visits. We never tire of coming here.
Color and fragrances abound around throughout the 150-acre botanical garden. It’s the perfect place to spend an entire morning or afternoon enjoying nature and all its glory.
It’s also a peaceful spot to take a brief respite from all the worries and problems in the world. Yes, sometimes even I can relax, and this is the perfect spot to do it.
Descanso Gardens
1418 Descanso Drive
La Cañada Flintridge, CA 91011
818.949.4200
Hours: 9 a.m. – 8 p.m. (8 a.m. admittance for members)
(Currently non-members must purchase advance timed tickets)
$15
Seniors 65 & older/Students with ID $11
Children 5 – 12 – $5
Children under 5 Free
Sky Beneath Our Feet plays at 10 a.m. & 12, 2, 4 & 6 p.m.
Parking: Free
descansogardens.org