Lost and found: Descanso Gardens Winter flowers

Camellias bloom in January and February

If any of you have been passengers in my car, you know that I hate taking typical routes anywhere, preferring instead to wander and discover the interconnectedness of all the side streets. I've been accused of having an internal GPS system. But I've got to get the coordinates in place and the best way for me to do that is to get lost and then find my way back.

Leucadendron, "Red Gem"

After my walk around the Rose Bowl yesterday I got in my car and climbed the steep roads up to Pasadena's Art Center College of Design—a fascinating school where future car, package, special effects, and hotel interior designers get their start. I'd need a whole posting just to begin to cover the work I saw there, but for today I want to show you what I found when I took a left turn out of the campus instead of a right turn back to Pasadena.

Japanese Gardens and Tea House

The road wound up and up until I saw signs that told me I was entering La Cañada. A few moments later, signs for Descanso Gardens appeared. One hundred and sixty acres of gardens, woodlands and chaparral— founded in the 1930s by Manchester Boddy, publisher and owner of the Los Angeles Daily News, these gardens boast the largest variety of Camellias in North America. The international rosarium has more that 3,000 roses (not in bloom in January, however). The main house completed in 1938 was under repair so I wasn't able to visit that part of the preserve, but I wandered along paths, both paved and unpaved, discovering winter blossoms, the Japanese garden, bamboo forests, and some fossil stones inset into a larger stone wall. Ponds with giant Koi dotted the woods.

Prehistoric forms solidified

The word descanso means quiet place. And that is what I found.