Happy Holidays!

Its such a big change to be back on the west coast and take my garden strolls in a short sleeved cotton shirt with temps. in the 70’s and low 80’s while New Hampshire is having snow storms and 20 degree daytime temperatures. I love the beautiful snow but I am definitely a native of temperate California!

My daughter renewed our membership at Descanso Gardens and was excited for me to go and see their newest addition- a garden train. And not just any small set-up but an elaborately crafted village with carved wooden model size buildings, tree trunk tunnels, bridges and support pillars made from sticks and track laid on timber rounds. The miniature replicas of train stations across the U.S. are a variety of architectures and reflect the communities they reside in. Model trains wind up and around the stations even passing overhead. So much fun! The little children and adults visitors were entranced with the set up and loved seeing the engines, unique train cars and following the progress of the trains around the garden.

I am not sure this a permanent installation. I am a bit worried about the wood veneers and smaller wood items holding up outside over a long period of time. But, it is L.A. and rain is occasional rather than year round. The use of natural wood products from the Descanso Garden property is a wonderful thing to see. Being a scrounger myself, I like to see stumps and sticks being integrated. The fun factor is most important of all and this certainly that.

Speaking of rain, it was quite dusty at the gardens and the insect pests (all over L.A.) are having a field day producing honeydew as they feed on the plants. Sooty mold then grows on the honeydew covering the leaves with an icky black coating. We really need some rain storms to wash off the leaves and clean out the stomata or pores of the plants. The lack of winter freezes and the large number of evergreens here means that rodent and insect populations have lots of food and shelter. When I came back I gave a lot of our plants a good bath with the hose and I will spray some non-toxic insecticidal soap to help the plants. A spray of soapy water from a hose end sprayer helps too.

One of the joys of fall in California are the autumn blooming Camellia sasanquas. These species tend to be much smaller than the large Camellia japonica and have smaller leaves and flowers. The flowers fall apart so are not as much clean up as the Japonicas. Blooming in fall rather than winter, these plants are a welcome colorful shrub in a time when not many shrubs are blooming in the garden. They are also more sun tolerant than Japonicas and can take half day light. They tend to be willowy so can be trained as an espalier or bought pretrained this way. There even some hybrids that are low growing that are good as a ground cover i.e. ‘Tanya’. Here are a few pictures of some at Descanso. Camellia flowers are red, pink and white colors.

I was taking some photos of flowers and found a tiny hummingbird’s nest in the Camellia foliage

Many botanical gardens have wintertime light shows as a fundraiser for the sites. We even went to a huge, spectacular lighting display at the L.A. Zoo last night. A very extensive and elaborate show with animals of all kinds made from thin nylon fabric like the lanterns in Descanso (photos to follow). Amzaing! I was so happy I got to go this year.

These stained glass houses are part of the lighting displays at the Christmas Descanso Evening Glow event but they equally pretty in the daytime and much loved by the small children exploring the garden.

The Japanese Garden is gorgeous all year round and I love their red lanterns and orange bridges. This part of the garden has a lovely brook and some small waterfalls. The Huge Live Oaks on the property shade the Camellias and tender Japanese Maples from the heat. There usually some Azaleas blooming too. The big Koi are very colorful in the dark pools.

Being L.A. there were many things blooming even in December. I found some Flag Iris and there were still a lot of roses blooming including my favorite- ‘Brass Band’

While fall is in full swing here with the Ginkgo trees showing beautiful color just before they literally drop all their leaves in just one to two days.

I was happy to see a lovely vignette of plants for dry shade in the garden. It has long been a struggle to find shade tolerant plants that are also drought tolerant. Turns out that some of the newly introduced grasses and succulents have these qualities. They also stand up to the leaf drop pretty well but the areas should be raked occasionally with a light plastic lawn rake- used gently around plants. I like this garden art also. It gives a nice vertical accent to the area.

One of the most lovely things about both Huntington and Descanso Gardens is the backdrop of the Angeles Crest. The rugged mountains are on the East side of L.A. and rise up to 6000-8000′ from the valley floor. These days the smog is not as bad as it once was with the exception of fire season. There are many crystal clear days with pure blue skies and the mountains in sharp relief.

Here is a link for the Gardens if you happen to have time and are in the L.A. area

For more posts like this one, you might enjoy having a membership to my Travelogue. I visit gardens around the U.S. regularly and write up articles about them using lots of pictures and examples for use in home gardens. The Travelogue has more in depth information on each section of the gardens I visit.

Have a great holiday season and I hope you have some time out in your garden or some other bit of nature.