Descanso Gardens

Descanso Gardens is a public botanical garden and cultural site in La Cañada Flintridge, California, occupying about 150 acres. It originated as the private estate of newspaper publisher E. Manchester Boddy and later became a public garden.

The gardens encompass formal and informal plantings, including a prominent camellia collection, a Japanese Garden with a pond and traditional features, a rose garden, and large areas of oak woodland. Visitors come for seasonal displays, plant collections, walking paths and outdoor events across the year.

The site was developed from a private estate into a public botanical garden and has been managed to combine cultivated garden spaces with preserved natural hillside and woodland. Facilities include exhibition spaces and visitor services arranged around the core garden areas.

Descanso Gardens lies in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains in La Cañada Flintridge, northeast of central Los Angeles and within Los Angeles County.

• Size: covers roughly 150 acres of cultivated gardens, oak woodland and natural hillside.
• Highlights: noted for an extensive camellia collection, a dedicated Japanese Garden and seasonal spring displays of bulbs and magnolias.

What to See #

• Japanese Garden: a landscaped area with a traditional Japanese layout including a koi pond, stone lanterns and seasonal cherry and maple specimens; popular for spring blossoms and autumn color.
• Boddy House: the former estate house of newspaper publisher E. Manchester Boddy, used for rotating exhibitions and visitor information within the gardens.
• Oak Woodland: an extensive oak woodland and natural-area planting that forms the largest single landscape type on site and supports walking paths and nature viewing.