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Botanical Garden Attractions in Los Angeles and Southern California

See Attractions for more fun things to see and do.

La Canada

• Descanso Gardens.   A natural "bowl" in the San Rafael hills provides a secluded setting for Descanso Gardens. The first inhabitants of the area were the Los Angeles basin's Gabrielino Indians. They relied on the native oaks for the mainstay of their diet, pounding acorns into meal for mush and bread.
  In 1769, the Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portola arrived in San Diego and traveled northward along the route now known as El Camino Real ("The King's Highway"). He claimed the area which includes Descanso Gardens for the King of Spain. Governor Fages in turn deeded the site as part of a vast rancho--over 36,000 acres--to Corporal José Maria Verdugo in 1784, probably as a reward for loyal service.
  Verdugo died in 1831, and his estate was divided between his son Julio and his daughter Catalina. The property remained in the Verdugo family until 1869.
  Its sale marked the beginning of a long series of transactions that involved buying, selling, and subdividing thousands of acres of land.
  However the 160 acres that form Descanso Gardens today, had never been developed when E. Manchester Boddy, publisher of the Los Angeles Daily News, purchased them in 1937.
  Boddy cleared the land and built an elegant two-story mansion of 22 rooms, designed by architect J. E. Dolena of Beverly Hills. This mansion overlooks 25 acres of live oak forest and a camellia-lined driveway. The Boddy House, used today as an art gallery, is open to visitors from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. Boddy named his estate "Rancho del Descanso," which means "rest" or "repose" in Spanish. He also purchased an additional 440 acres north of the original property, whose mountain streams provide fresh spring water for the Gardens today." 

Long Beach

• Earl Burns Miller Japanese Garden, California State University, Long Beach. "Dedicated in April 1981, the garden was built through the generosity of Mrs. Loraine Miller Collins. The contribution was made in memory of her late husband, Earl Burns Miller, for whom the 1.3 acre plot is named. Following three years of planning, in cooperation with California State University Long Beach, Mrs. Collins selected Long Beach landscape architect Edward R. Lovell to design the garden. In preparation for the project, Mr. Lovell visited similar gardens in Japan and in the United States
  
  The resulting garden reflects the university's continuing interest in international education, and the university community is delighted to have you share in this educational, cultural, and aesthetic resource..." 

Pasadena

• Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. "The Huntington is a research and educational center set amidst 150 acres of breathtaking gardens. Three art galleries and a library showcase magnificent collections of paintings, sculptures, rare books, manuscripts, and decorative arts. The botanical collection features over 14,000 different species of plants.
  A private, nonprofit institution, The Huntington was founded in 1919 by railroad and real estate developer Henry Edwards Huntington and opened to the public in 1928.
  Highlights of the collection include the Ellesmere manuscript of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (c.1410), a Gutenberg Bible (c.1455), Thomas Gainsborough's masterpiece The Blue Boy (c. 1770), Sir Thomas Lawrence's Pinkie (1794), Edward Hopper's The Long Leg, Rogier van der Weyden's Madonna and Child (15th century), the spectacular 12-acre desert garden, the serenely beautiful Japanese garden, the camellia gardens, and much more. English tea in the Rose Garden Tea Room is a popular highlight to a day spent enjoying the cultural treasures of The Huntington."   

Santa Ana

• Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden. "Featuring more than 500 plants and illustrated with 450 color photos, California Native Plants for the Garden is a comprehensive resource that will appeal to every gardener who has an interest in California’s unique flora. Authored by three of the state’s most experienced native plant horticulturalists, this beautiful reference book describes the best California species for gardens and provides detailed advice on their cultivation, from landscape design and installation to watering, pruning, and pest control. Regardless of where you live or your level of horticultural expertise, California Native Plants for the Garden will help you succeed in growing California’s remarkable plants."

West Los Angeles

• Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden. "Located on the beautiful campus of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), this garden maintains one of the most important living botanical collections in the United States, with plant specimens from all over the world. Our seven-acre garden is frost-free and therefore can exhibit many different species of tropical and subtropical plants. Approximately 5000 species in 225 families are growing here outdoors. Feel free to roam this Website to enjoy and learn about this special garden spot in Westwood." 
• Spotlight: Mildred Mathias Botanical Garden. "In the heart of UCLA's busy campus, students, staff and visitors find an oasis of peace and tranquility in the Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden.
  
  A "living museum," as the garden's director, Professor of Organismic Biology, Ecology and Evolution Arthur C. Gibson, aptly describes it, the seven-acre garden serves as a home to some 5,000 species of tropical and subtropical plants from around the world, as well as frogs, turtles, goldfish, streams and even a waterfall.
  
  On any given day, visitors stroll the garden's sloping pathways, enjoy picnic lunches, or sit on stone benches to read or meditate. Schoolchildren march through on tours, breaking away from their guides to look for frogs. Visitors sometimes celebrate birthdays in the garden. Some have proposed marriage there, and couples have exchanged wedding vows under the leafy canopy.
  
  Among the natural wonders to be seen in the garden is the tallest dawn redwood in North America that grows near the center of the garden beside a stream. The Metasequoia was once thought to be a fossil until it was found growing in central China in 1944. The garden's tree sprouted from seeds from China planted in 1948.
  
  Two Eucalyptus grandis trees, natives of the Australian rain forest, were planted in the garden 40 years ago and now are among the tallest specimens in the United States.
  
  Visitors will also find special collections of such plant groups as Malesian rhododendrons, the lily alliance, bromeliads, cycads, ferns, Mediterranean-type climate shrubs such as chaparral and native plants of the Hawaiian Islands."
  Comment:  When I worked at UCLA, one of my favorite pleasures was taking my brown bag lunch to the botanical garden. My favorite tree was the Dawn Redwood. I met Dr. Mathias and volunteered to work on a couple of her high desert conservation projects. She was a wonderful person to work with. Her passion for conservation was contagious. M. Lent.