Huntington Gardens

Given their ridiculously close proximity to my grandparents’ house, I have been to the Huntington Library, Galleries and Gardens many times. I have fond memories of my time in the gardens (especially the cactus and succulent garden, my favorite) so when I realized that Steve had never been, we decided to spend one of the days before Christmas wandering the grounds.

We started in the Japanese garden.

Friendly Koi Fish (obviously hoping for a handout)

Spectacular Bonsai Forest (the tallest tree was less than 2 feet)

River stones that visitors are encouraged to touch (or plot evil deeds on)

We left the Japanese garden and headed though the spectacular bamboo forest on our way back to the tea room for lunch.

The tea room has a wonderful buffet. It’s pricey, but well worth it. They serve many varieties of tea sandwiches, salads, fruit, cheeses and desserts. We were too involved in our lunch to take a picture of the inside, so here’s the outside:

After lunch we visited the new Chinese garden. It’s still a work in process, but Steve and I were very impressed with the stonework. The “tiles” below are actually stones set on edge into the concrete. Very impressive.

We spent the most time in my favorite garden, the cactus garden.

I thought this wavy-edged cactus was really cool.

There were many varieties of beautiful and unusual cactus flowers.



Lastly, I paused to look at this spectacular tree. I don’t remember the name of them, but they’re fairly common in Southern California. They have thick spikes all over but also have surprisingly delicate flowers.


It was a wonderful day and we stayed until the grounds closed. As the sun was beginning to set, Steve took this great shot of a large tree on the expansive lawn outside the former Huntington residence.