Don’t you envy those whose birthdays are in Apri? It’s when the natural world turns out to celebrate with resplendence. LA’s gardens are blooming magnificently right now, and we recommend a jaunt to these rare environs to savor the scents and feast your eyes on the colorful shapes of the flowers.
Several subscribers have written to let us know that they recently dropped into The Descanso Gardens to enjoy the lilac trees in bloom. The Descanso is a place that we took our children frequently when they were young, traipsing across town to La Canada Flintridge to the 150-acre garden for a fun place to let the kids loose. And now is the perfect time to take a trip East and enjoy all this garden has to offer.
If you grew up on the East Coast, you are familiar with the sumptuous floral tails of these leafy green bushes, which have been nearly impossible to grow in Southern California, and makes bunches of these posies cost a pretty penny when they sporadically appear at Whole Foods. Edward Goldman, of KCRW’s ArtTalk just wrote posted a wonderful story about the “dangerous beauty” of the luxurious gardens bounty. “…it was the lilac garden with its spectrum of colors — from white to lavender to deep violet — that left me dangerously intoxicated. All of a sudden, I was transported to my childhood memories of the Russian countryside, with its fields of wild lilacs blossoming in springtime.”
The LA Times also posted a wonderful slide-show that shows off the gardens at their finest, with cherry blossoms, camelias and azaleas blooming alongside 250 varieties of lilacs. As a bonus, the tulips are blooming early this year so really… there is no excuse not to go.
