What’s Blooming at Desconso Gardens?

The Tulip Fields at Descanso Gardens

If you haven’t visited Descanso Gardens, especially during tulip seasson, you will be enchanted. For those of you who haven’t been, Descanso Gardens is a botanic garden located in Flintridge/La Canada. It spans 150 acres of some of the most stunning flowers, plants and trees. The land was purchased in the 1930s by Elias Manchester Boddy who had an extraordinary vision. The Camilla Collection was begun in the 1940s, and in the 1950s Descanso became a public garden. Since that time, the Descanso Garden Guild has provided direction for the garden. Asa result, there are many beautiful gardens to explore; more on that later. First let’s talk about the tulips!

Visiting the Tulip Fields

My friends and I decided to take a field trip to Descanso to visit the amazing tulip fields. Tulips typically bloom starting in mid-March and are done by mid-April. It is a very short season! The drive to Descanso was a bit over an hour but it was totally worth the time. There are countless varieties at the garden so it’s impossible to show all of them. But a few of our favorites follow…

Descanso Gardens planted 30,000 tulips in January so the variety that you will see is expansive. The colors and are endless and include Crispa fringed tulips, mostly in pinks and corals, to the Greigili variety in reds and yellows. Our favorites were the the two tone pink and white tulips pictured above. Although we think it is a Greigili, our guide wasn’t certain so I can only show you the beauty of the species.

Map of Descanso Gardens

Hopefully you will have time to get to Descanso in the next couple of weeks to see the tulips; however, there are so many other things to see and do at the garden. The map above gives you an idea of the variety that the garden offers: Rose Garden, Camillia Forest, Lilac Gardens, Japanese Garden and the Oak Grove just to name a few. The Lilac Garden was coming to life during our visit; the roses were not yet in bloom so the next month should bring that garden alive. The Camillia Forest features the largest collection of camillias in North America. And if that isn’t enough, Descanso has five heritage oak trees that are 300 to 500 years old. The garden has also focused on plants indiginous to California in the California Garden The poppies were in bloom and were stunning.

Striking a Yoga Pose in the Garden

As is apparent from this pic, there are a multitude of things to see and do at Descanso Gardens. You will view the beauty of flora and fauna throughout the garden We did get a peek at some of the local animals including squirrels and rabbits, but many birds, snakes, deer and mountain lion also live at Descanso. To give you an idea of the wonder of Descanso, I have included some of our favorite shots.

If you decide to visit Descanso Gardens, you might want to purchase tickets in advance. It is very reasonably priced ($5.00 for kids to $15.00 for adults) and the third Tuesday of each month admission is free. There is a small market where you can purchase food and, of course, an interesting gift shop. If you decide to eat off property, we had a nice lunch at the Hillstreet Cafe which is 5 minutes from the garden. It took us about three hours to walk the entire area; however it would be easy to spend much more time there. All in all, it was a lovely day. Highly recommended.

XO

Wendy