Descanso Gardens

Descanso Gardens, located in La Cañada Flintridge, Los Angeles County, California, is a botanical garden. At one time, this property belonged to newspaper magnate E. Manchester Boddy, who owned the Los Angeles Daily News. He ran a commercial camellia garden at the location, supplying prom boutonnières, for example, until he ceded the site to Los Angeles County in 1953. The county has developed the property to include a rosarium, as well as a Japanese tea house, lilac garden, bird sanctuary, xeriscape, and a gift shop. They also regularly host professional camellia shows, chamber music, and weddings. They are busiest however on the Easter weekend, when the tulips are in bloom. The park also features the Descanso Gardens Enchanted Railroad, an eighth scale replica of a diesel train, that takes visitors around a section of the park. In 1942, while the Japanese and Japanese-Americans living on the West Coast of the United States were being sent to internment camps, Boddy bought out two local successful Japanese nurseries. According to different sources, he acquired somewhere between 60,000 and 100,000 camellias.