Imagine a garden that replicates the majesty of an illuminated manuscript in the hushed poetry of its undulating borders. Picture a place where the suffused colors of a Mary Cassatt portrait are echoed in three thousand roses. Envision this and more at The Huntington, only 12 miles from downtown Los Angeles.
From all corners of the estate, the legendary Rose Garden at The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens beckons visitors with its intoxicating fragrance. Among its most romantic and unique features is the faux-bois arbor, which displays banks of blossoms that sprawl above.
Above left: Among the aromatic climbers is ‘Nur Mahal’ (translated as “Light of the Palace”), a 1923 hybrid musk. Above right: Twenty-eight statues accent a collection of 1,200 camellia trees, for which the museum is renowned.
Dating from 1907, The Huntington’s naturalistic 10-acre Desert Garden was far ahead of its time.
Clytostoma callistegioides (Argentine trumpet vine) gambols over the faux-bois arbor in the Rose Garden, encasing the guide wires in heavenly petals.
The Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art (a 1980s addition), with its loggia cosseting a bronze sculpture of Diana of the Chase by Anna Hyatt Huntington, seems to have always belonged here.
Swathes of flowers give the Shakespeare Garden its painterly ambience.
Text Tovah Martin
Photography Marcy Black Simpson
To learn more about The Huntington, see “The Huntington: A Celebrated American Beauty” on page 43 of the March/April 2014 issue of Victoria.
What a delight to see this wonderful article today as I watch it pouring down with rain!
The flowers and hardscape design are simply beautiful!
Thank you Victoria for sharing this wonderful location with us!
Brandon Hartford
Te Deum Cottage
Waking up to seeing this stunning garden was good for the soul.
Thank you once again, Victoria Magazine, for putting extra beauty into our lives.
I have been reading Victoria for years, I still get so excited when it comes in the post, love the English and French issues, but all are so entertaining. Thank you for always giving readers the best of the best.
Best Regards, Carole Tom