The weather is far too beautiful today! I need sunshine! I need blue skies! I need a stroll, so a stroll I shall take. The destination this time: the Huntington Library and Gardens in Pasadena!
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When I was looking for beautiful places where George might like to hang out, I ran a search for the most beautiful gardens in Los Angeles. Bada bing, bada bang, bada boom, The Huntington topped the chart
Why, you ask? Well, the gardens span 120 acres, and every centimeter is packed with botanical brilliance! I started in the sparsest area, the Desert Garden. As you can see below, “sparse” is hardly the word I’d used to describe it! I had no idea there were so many types of cacti in the world, not to mention the countless succulents (even just euphorbia)! What surprised me even more was how many giant cacti there were, just like the saguaro I visited in Arizona but from Argentina, and an entirely different specie! I’m already getting some ideas for future travels.
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I passed clockwise around the perimeter, through the Australian garden, overflowing with the steamy scent of fallen eucalyptus nuts, and into the Japanese garden. I stopped to admire the selection of bonsai, mostly juniper varieties but including an exquisite bald cypress. Oh, but these are details to be appreciated only by my fellow horticulture buffs. Let’s talk flowers!
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The apricots were in bloom! The magnolias were in bloom! The cacti and poppies and cherries were in bloom! Spring has come to Pasadena, and I couldn’t be more excited about it. The whole area around the Japanese garden was simply ablaze with pinks and whites. I stood entranced for quite some time until an errant photographer tripped over me—the curse of being short. Needless to say, I chewed him out for that! These big teeth do come in handy from time to time.
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I could feel the sun scorching my skin through my short fur, so I headed inside and check out the galleries. I had no idea I would encounter such famous paintings as Blue Boy by Thomas Gainsborough, Pinkie by a second Thomas (var. Lawrence), and the Portrait of Washington by Gilbert Stuart! As I stopped to admire the latter of the three, an aged security guard with hair wild as Medusa’s struck up a swift and probing chat. Where are you from? Where did you go to school? Do you like nature? Do you work with manatees? I love meeting new people, but I just couldn’t keep up! I think she breathed in the middle of her sentences so I couldn’t interject! Clever girl…
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The rest of the experience, I shall leave to your own exploration. There is a Shakespeare garden, an herb garden, a redwood grove, and a jungle garden that reminded me ever so much of Costa Rica. There are plant sales twice a year, including the camellia sale I witnessed but could not afford today! They also have a series of free lectures and activities, so if you’re a plant nut like I am and have four hours to wander on a sunny day in Pasadena, give the Huntington Library a look. You may even get lucky and catch their rare Corpse Flower (Amorphophallus titanum – pardon my language) in bloom! It burns my eyes and nose, it’s so beautiful!
Cheerio!
