Descanso Gardens is a one hundred fifty-acre botanical garden in La Cañada Flintridge whose history stretches from an eighteen seventy-four Spanish land grant to the Verdugo family to its transformation in nineteen thirty-seven by newspaper owner E. Manchester Boddy into Rancho del Descanso. Boddy expanded the estate, built a mansion, and created major camellia, rose, and lilac collections, including camellias purchased in nineteen forty-two from Japanese-owned nurseries after their owners were forced into internment camps. Los Angeles County bought the property in nineteen fifty-three, and the Descanso Gardens Guild later began managing it with the county. Today it remains both a historic estate landscape and an active public garden, recognized on the National Register of Historic Places in two thousand twenty-one.

Photo: Wikipedia

Photo: Wikipedia

Photo: Wikipedia

Photo: Wikipedia

Photo: Wikipedia

Photo: Wikipedia

Photo: Wikipedia

Photo: Wikipedia

Photo: Wikipedia