Decanso Gardens

After touring Heritage Square we had a few more hours left of our afternoon and realized that we did not have much further north to drive to see these gardens. The gardens are located in La Canada Flintridge, the area of concern last week with the heavy rains. Descanso in Spanish means restful and that is a good description of these gardens. E.Manchester Boddy (publisher and editor of the Los Angeles Daily News) built a home for his family here in 1938. Just before World War ll started he purchased a large amount of camellia plants from two Japanese-American nurserymen who later had been placed in the Japanese internment camps in California. Decanso now has a 20 acre oak forest which provides a canopy for a dazzling variety of camellias in every size and color. Unfortunately we would have to return in about another two months to view them in the peak of blooming. And yet we were satisfied with what we did see.

ir

The gardens also has five acres of roses, 500 lilac bushes, and an area featuring plants of the Southern California heritage. There is also a large redwood forest, Japanese and  iris gardens. For children there is a small Jurassic Garden featuring plants of prehistoric time. I did not know that ginkgo, redwood trees, also magnolias and ferns dated back to that time. Just before we left this rhododendrom caught my eye.