By Darlene Donloe
Contributing Writer
LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE — There are times when everyone needs a break from the crowded streets, congested traffic, hustle and bustle, sights and sounds and fast-paced activities of an urban city.
When that time comes and you need to sit back, relax, and enjoy some peace, there is a place where serenity awaits.
Just 20 minutes outside of downtown Los Angeles, northwest of Pasadena, is the Descanso Gardens, a 150-acre lush, dense botanical garden that, according to the Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation Department website, boasts one million plants including one of the largest displays of camellias in the world. It’s a welcomed sanctuary from life’s incessant chaos.
Descanso Gardens is a member-supported garden accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. Owned by Los Angeles County, Descanso Gardens opened to the public in 1953. Community volunteers created the Descanso Gardens Guild in 1957 to support the new garden. Since 1993, the nonprofit guild has managed the gardens in a public-private partnership with the county.
Descanso Gardens’ mission statement says, “Descanso Gardens is a unique Southern California landscape distinguished by its specialized botanic collections, historical significance and rare natural beauty. Our mission is to practice exemplary stewardship of Descanso’s distinctive character and assets; offer people an experience close to nature; and cultivate an understanding of the natural world and people’s place in it through inspiration, education, and example.”
Descanso, which means “rest” in Spanish, features nine botanical collections, an art gallery, a café, a gift shop and more.
The urban oasis, considered a living museum of the city’s evolving relationship with nature, also has lakes, streams, a bird sanctuary, a redwood forest and several activities for everyone including an extensive, yearlong performing arts program with stage and musical performances, lectures, yoga classes, nature workshops, art exhibits at the Sturt Haaga Gallery, story time for kids, wreath-making workshops, and horticultural classes.
Nuzzled in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, there are also walking and tram tours, and an enchanted railroad for kids.
The Enchanted Forest of Light, which, at night, transforms the gardens into an entirely different realm of magic, mystery, and luminescence, will remain open through Jan. 5. It’s an interactive, nighttime event, featuring a one-mile walk-through lighting experience.
There also is an ancient forest, full of prehistoric plants, allegedly from when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.
One of Southern California’s most beloved public gardens, which welcomed more than one million visitors in 2023, Descanso Gardens is a place of natural beauty, with internationally renowned botanical collections and seasonal horticultural displays.
The main collections include California native plants and oak woodlands; a rose garden with specimens from all corners of the globe; and significant presentations of lilacs, maple trees, cherry trees, and iris.
It has been designated an International Camellia Garden of Excellence by the International Camellia Society and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2021.
It all started in the 1930s with E. Manchester Boddy, a Los Angeles newspaper owner and entrepreneur, who established the plantation as a commercial venture in 1937 to provide flowers and foliage for the floral trade.
The story goes that when people of Japanese heritage were forced into internment camps during World War II, Boddy purchased 60,000 camellia plants from two Japanese-owned nurseries in the San Gabriel Valley. The plants, mostly japonicas, were the foundation of today’s collection and significantly shaped the area’s floral landscape.
In 1966, Descanso Gardens unveiled its Japanese Garden, a tranquil environment of walkways, waterways and vegetation native to East Asia, created by landscape architect Eikiro Nunokawa.
Cages protect two small persimmon trees in the Japanese Garden from pests. The trees are growing from the seed of a plant that survived the atomic bomb blast over Hiroshima.
Signage throughout the gardens pays homage to the Japanese-American contributions — to ensure their story is told and remembered.
In addition, Descanso Gardens, a story of plants and the people who loved them for their life-giving utility, honors the indigenous people who originally inhabited the area. The Tongva, Tataviam, Serrano, Kizh and Chumash people were the first stewards of the land.
Today, visitors enter Descanso through a courtyard complex finished in 1982, including the Visitor Center, gift shop, classrooms, a café, and Van de Kamp Hall.
The International Rosarium opened in 1994; in 2014 came the Oak Woodland, which recreates the native L.A. habitat from before the Spanish arrived. The following year, the Ancient Forest opened, with cycads and other plants around during dinosaur times.
An education arm of the Descanso Gardens allows attendees to dive into a spring of opportunities for kids and adults to learn, observe nature and participate in the garden.
Descanso Gardens is more than just a beautiful place filled with beautiful plants. It’s a demonstration of the lasting power of nature, a place where history, culture and nature unite.
Descanso Gardens, 1418 Descanso Drive, La Canada Flintridge, is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Members can enter at 8 a.m. Admission runs from $5-$15, Information: 818-949-4200; email: horticulture@descansogardens.org, www.descansogardens.org.
Darlene Donloe is a freelance reporter for Wave Newspapers who covers South Los Angeles. She can be reached at ddonloe@gmail.com.
