I recently visited the Huntington Botanical Gardens with family and a few friends. Wow. The place is stunning.
If you haven't been to the Huntington Garden in San Marino, California before, here is a quick "about" info from their website:
The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens is a collections-based research and educational institution serving scholars and the general public. Each year, The Huntington:
Provides nearly 2,000 scholars with access to a world-class collection of rare books, manuscripts, photographs, maps, paintings, prints, sculpture, and decorative arts.
Awards $2.1 million in fellowships (through a peer-review process) to scholars for advanced humanities research.
Educates thousands of schoolchildren and their teachers in art, history, literature, and botanical science through special tours and programs.
Organizes special exhibitions to enhance the visitor experience, interpret the collections, and facilitate learning.
Hosts more than 800,000 visitors.
As for the Botanical Gardens, they span about 130 acres. With young kids in tow, we weren't able
to see every inch of them. However, we were able to stroll through three beautiful gardens:
- Liu Fang Yuan 流芳園 (Garden of Flowing Fragrance)
- The Japanese Garden
- The Rose Garden
The Garden of Flowing Fragrance is as delightful as its name. Modeled after the traditional style of scholar gardens in Suzhou, China, Liu Fang Yuan stretches over 12 acres. It features a 1.5-acre lake, a complex of pavilions, a teahouse and tea shop, stone bridges, and waterfalls set against a handsome backdrop of mature oaks and pines.
Plants of literary or cultural significance flourish in the Garden of Flowing Fragrance. For example, visit in the spring and you'll find the season's symbol: peach blossoms. Other flowers symbolize human qualities, like lotus for purity and plum trees for perseverance.
As someone born and raised in China, it was an experience walking through this garden.
South of Liu Fang Yuan, tucked along a canyon, is the nine-acre Japanese Garden. It is considered one of Huntington's most beloved and iconic landscapes, and for good reason. The Japanese Garden was completed in 1912 and has been accessible to the public since the institution's opening in 1928.
The Japanese Garden is truly picturesque with its moon bridge, willow trees, and raked gravel paths. The children loved walking over the bridges and pointing out the koi fish swimming around the ponds.
To reach these two beautiful gardens, you'll have to walk through the exquisite rose garden. It contains more than 2,500 individual plants and more than 1,300 different cultivated varieties (cultivars). Roses give off such a subtle, sweet scent, and it was lovely walking under arches of them on our way to the Japanese Garden.
Let me know in the comments if you've ever visited the Huntington Gardens. After spending the morning and afternoon there, it has become one of my favorite places to see.
Not able to visit the gardens just yet? I put together a short IGTV video of our visit there. :)
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