Los Angeles is not a city known for its gardens. We live in a desert and Palm trees constitute our iconic greenery. But, if you dig deep, we have some really lovely gardens here! To start: The Huntington Library in San Marino has amazing gardens. South Coast Botanic Garden in the South Bay draws rave reviews. Even the westside has the tiny but adorable Mathias Botanical Garden at UCLA.
In about 150 acres, Descanso Gardens offers just enough wonder for a quick stop. (The Internet said that most people spend about 90 minutes there and when I’d seen it all, I’d been there exactly an hour and a half!). This is not a formal garden, but rather a set of gardens and forests. Overall, Descanso Gardens contains that perfect mixture of cultivation and wildness. Beautiful, but you feel like you can walk around in sneakers and not have to whisper. These features may explain why so many elementary schools choose Descanso Gardens as a field trip destination. (Indeed, a lot of us Westsiders only experience Descanso by volunteering to chaperone one of those trips!) But it’s definitely worth a stop.
I went on a holiday (Cesar Chavez Day) and arrived when the gardens opened (plenty of free parking, yay!), so the crowd was probably less than a weekend but more than a normal weekday. There were a few school groups there, so no matter where I walked, I could faintly hear kids enjoying the hedge maze. We’ve had a cool spring, so roses were not in full bloom, but I got to see the tulips in all their glory. Amazing. I truly did not realize there were so many varieties of tulips.
What is Descanso Gardens?
Descanso Gardens, which nestles against the Angeles National Forest on the eastern side of the Los Angeles Basin, was developed as Rancho Descanso, a ranch and home,by self-made newspaper man Elias Manchester Boddy.
The Focus on Camellias
Boddy found himself quite taken by camellia and determined to cultivate them on his land. When the US government interned Japanese nursery owners (and expert camellia breeders) during WWII, Boddy bought their entire stocks, which jump-started his camellia cultivation project.
In the center of the modern day Descanso Gardens, a gorgeous camellia forest, filled will all varieties and colors of camellias enchants the visitor. I left wondering why in the world I don’t grow any camellias! (Later, wandering my neighborhood, I noticed lots of camellia plants, which are really not to my taste, and came to my senses, but that portion of Descanso is stunning).
The Boddy House at Descanso Gardens
High up on the hills over his Rancho, Boddy built his home, which you can still visit as part of the Descanso Gardens Visit. Next door you’ll find the Sturt Haaga Gallery, which hosts a variety of small exhibits.
While I was there, both the Gallery and the Boddy House hosted parts of the Daphne’s Wardrobe – Metamorphosis into Nature exhibit. Curated by Carole Ann Klonarides, the exhibit features a range of women’s and women’s garments made of natural materials (moss, branches, wasps’ nests). The small exhibition was a gorgeous complement to the surroundings of the garden.
Along the wall of the gallery is a stunning succulent wall and stairs up the side lead to a rooftop succulent garden and amazing views of Descanso.
Walking the Grounds of Descanso Gardens
For some reason it only felt natural to turn right after entering the gardens. There is a fun seasonal display right at the entrance.
The Rose Garden and Promenade
Behind a path to the right leads to the rose garden and promenade. These are the most cultivated and groomed parts of Descanso Gardens, the parts that feel most like a formal garden.
When I was there the roses were not in bloom but the start of the promenade was lined with scores and scores of blooming tulips, more than I have ever seen in one place, and all types and colors.
You can wander up the promenade which usually contains the seasonal displays and all kinds of beautiful trees and benches and foliage. Or, go a little father into the rose garden which has all kinds of little arches and gazebos to wander through (or play in, if you’re a kid!).
I enjoyed the meditation labyrinth, where you walk the spiraling path, which leads you around and around and final into the center of the circle and then back out. I walked a similar path in Audubon Park in New Orleans and it feels like the ideal kind of meditation for me (someone who has trouble sitting still long enough to properly meditate). You walk the path, focusing on the twists and turns, but because the path is guiding you completely, you can truly empty the rest of your mind, walking, moving, and yet not going anywhere. It sounds a little silly, but it’s lovely.
Even though this is the Rose garden (and not really in bloom while I was there) there are lots of other things going on all along the paths. I especially enjoyed the California poppies, which were just starting to come out.
Descanso Garden’s Ponds and Lakes
I walked quickly past the end of the rose garden, which holds the hedge maze and thus the largest congregation of kids, to the lake area. The lakes and ponds are home to all manner of birds and other wildlife and by the time you get to the fence, overlooking the lake and lined with comfortable Adirondack chairs, you feel like you have stepped out of Southern California. You just want to sit and watch the birds come and go.
The Oak Woodland and the California Garden
I kept walking forward on the path. The beautiful thing about these paths is that I took all kinds of branches (ooh! That looks interesting!) and always seemed to end up moving forward. You can’t always see the other paths but they are more or less parallel.
At this far edge of the gardens, paths start leading upwards and you can find your self totally alone in the wood, which feels amazing given how many kids you just passed!
These areas, particularly the California Garden, show our local native species in their full glory, inspiring for anyone interested in native gardening.
There are little surprises, bug houses, small exhibits, buried out along the peripheral paths. There are also things to look out for. One “display” showed me a large clump of Poison Oak. And, although in all the years I’ve lived in California, I’ve never gotten great at identifying it, that display prompted me to turn back when I went probably a little too far along what was probably a maintainance path (and not for me!).
Explore Old Trees in the Oak Forest
Between the California Garden the the camellias, you find the Oak Forest, full of majestic Coast Oaks that are 100-150 years old. Walking under these trees you can imagine what these parts of California were like before “civilization” arrived. The oaks are a keystone species for our area and where a key food source for the Tongva People who lived on the land (and much of Southern California) long before Doddy decided to build his ranch.
Descanso Garden’s Famous Camellia Garden
When you drop down out of the hill gardens, you find yourself in a garden full of camellias and lilys, ever type and color, for as far as the eye can see. It’s camellias, you haven’t see them, grow on trees, so lilies and other flowers fill in the ground level spaces, and camellia tries fill everything at eye level with flowers. It’s almost like being in a candy garden, with all sorts of sweets dangling before you.
As you walk, sometimes on clear paths, other times, just through the lawns, you feel like you should stop and look at each plant, because each flower seems a little different: different shade or variegation, different size or structure. I am not a camellia girl, but they were so captivating that for the time I walked in that forest, I would have committed myself to cultivating them.
As you walk through the gardens, you also throw up a quick thank you to the Yoshimura and Uyematsu and other families, who had dedicated themselves to breeding gorgeous camellias before they were forced to give up their life’s work because they were interned during WWII. I guess it is a bit of a blessing that someone who loved the camellias as much as they did bought them and continued to grow them, but it’s heartbreaking nonetheless.
Descanso Garden’s Ancient Forest
As you head out of the camellia forests you can head uphill toward the Boddy house and art gallery or down into the Ancient Forest. In between, you may stumble on some of the Descanso Garden calls its secret place, containing old stone benches and a Fibonacci spiral. In a tiny valley in the garden, the special was shrouded in shade when I found it and it felt a little like stumbling on a spot where mythical creatures can be conjured.
Then you enter the Ancient Forest, which is just what its name implies: a forest dedicated to the oldest species of plants and trees that still exist today. Wandering the paths through the ferns and cycads you feel like this is a very different type of forest — one from which a dinosaur might peek around a tree trunk.
The Lilac Garden and Japanese Garden
When you leave the Ancient Forest, you feel like you’ve dropped back down into the more managed part of Descanso Gardens. The Lilac Garden is a small fenced off area with all manner of lilacs in wild abundance. Apparently, Descanso, which has an active breeding/hybridization program has developed lilacs that thrive in the Southern California heat (rare for typically cold-loving flowers).
And next door to the lilac garden, I was lucky to find the cherry blossoms in bloom in the Japanese Garden. This garden is a perfect, tiny replica of a Japanese garden, complete with cherry trees, red bridges, ponds full of koi, and tiny wooden structures.
The bridge was an incredibly popular selfie location and there were hordes of kids watching the koi (they are lovely and plump!).
I, on the other hand, felt obsessed with the notion of finding the two persimmon trees that had been donated by the City of Hiroshima. These trees, descendants of a Hiroshima tree that survived the atomic bomb in 1945, were donated by the Rotary Heiwa: Hiroshima Survivor Tree group.
Like so many outreach groups from Hiroshima, this group aims to spread the message of peace, and I wanted to see the little trees. It took me a couple of loops around around the garden but I finally found them, between the red bridges and the tea house, in some of the areas between the wooden walkways. Having been so affected by our visit to Hiroshima, it felt important to find these little trees.
Descanso Gardens Railroad
As I looped around, trying to see if I missed anything, I found the Descanso Railroad! I didn’t intend to ride the little train (that does run all around the Promenade area of the garden), but I stepped into the railroad area and it captured me immediately. Not only are there all sorts of model trains circling at ground level, eye level and above, but they move through these beautiful, imaginative, and exquisitely created fantasy-scapes.
The set was designed by a company that specializes in combining sculpture, plants, and trains and they live up to the hype. Kids of any age, and any adult with imagination, will be captivated by these train sets.
Descanso Gardens Gift Shop (aka Descanso Nursery)
Before you go, stop by the gift shop! Yes, everyone always says that and yes, the gift shop contains all kinds of typical knickknacks that every gift shop contains (and also some other stuff like seeds and naturally made cosmetics and other fun stuff).
But, the outdoor part of the shop is lovely. I arrived during tomato season, so the nursery was full of heritage tomato plants (of course, one is growing in my yard right now!). They also had lots of the other cool plants that you might have fallen in love with while wandering the gardens. Plus, there’s all manner of pots and garden decor. It’s like a super-well curated boutique nursery, lovely to just walk around. Just be warned, you will be in a vulnerable state having just wandered these gorgeous gardens. Maybe have someone else hold your credit card.
Really? Just 90 Minutes in Descanso Gardens?
My 90 minute trip was me, on my own, trying to absorb everything, but also moving pretty quickly. With my not-rushing-but-not-dawdling-either pace, I covered the whole Descanso Gardens in 90 minutes. That said, if I hadn’t had some other things to accomplish that day, I could have easily brought a book, settled in on a bench and just enjoyed another hour or two in the gardens.
If you are going with friends or kids, there are lots of places to hang out, chat, or picnic. For artists or photographers, Descanso offers tons to sketch or capture. For those who prefer to amble slowly, two-three hours is a probably a better estimate. But if you are looking for a way to spend a morning (or, if you’re on that side of town, part of a morning), I highly recommend. It was lovely.