Botanical Gardens Mirror Life in L.A. (The Huntington 1)

Showing off in pinks: magnolia tree at the Huntington Gardens

Roses, camellias, cacti; sages, jacarandas, and palm trees: last week a friend invited me to spend an afternoon at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, an affluent suburb of L.A. The Huntington boasts more than 14,000 varieties of plants in 14 principal garden areas and one section or another is always at its best. Right now the magnolias and parts of the cactus garden are showing off in oranges, reds and pinks.

Natural habitat, home base: cactus garden

As my companion and I were wandering down through the desert garden, into the Australian garden, and, later, through the Chinese garden it struck me how the Huntington is a mirror for life in Los Angeles. Botanical sections adjoin and sometimes blend into each other the way neighborhoods in L.A. do.

To the immigrant from Europe some parts of the Huntington such as the Asian areas and the jungle seem strange and alien; others, like the rose garden, appear familiar though belonging to some earlier stage of life. The parts of the Huntington I feel most comfortable in are the herb garden with its mediterranean touch and the desert garden. They are the sections I am first drawn to when I visit the Huntington; they are my natural habitat, my home base. They are what L.A. is for my life.