Descanso's Japanese Garden Turns 60, and the Daytime Weeks Before Enchanted Tell Its Story

When Enchanted Forest of Light opens at Descanso Gardens on Nov. 22, one of its new installations will be Giant Koi in the Garden of Good Fortune. Descanso added them to celebrate the Japanese Garden's 60th anniversary. They will glow after dark, as the light show is meant to. The history the koi stand for is a different matter. It is in a house exhibit, a gallery show, a garden built by volunteers in 1966, and a camellia collection that dates to 1942. All of that is open only by day.

Carved, the fall night event, runs through Nov. 1. Enchanted starts Nov. 22. From Nov. 2 to Nov. 21, both anniversary exhibitions are open, the sasanqua camellias are in their listed bloom months, and no public night event is running. That combination doesn't come around again this season.

The Camellias Came First

The Japanese Garden is 60. The connection between Descanso and Japanese American growers is older. Descanso's own history says Manchester Boddy, who bought the land in the late 1930s, got to know Japanese immigrant growers who were raising camellias in Southern California before World War II. It names two nurseries, Star Nursery and Mission Nursery.

The garden's mission and history page states plainly what came next:

"On Feb. 19, 1942, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which led to the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans on U.S. soil during World War II."

Descanso says the growers were forced to sell their camellia plants, and that "the purchase of their plant inventories became the basis for Descanso Gardens' first signature Camellia Collection." The Camellia Collection page says the 1942 purchases came from at least three Japanese-owned nurseries. Accounts differ on how big the Star Nursery purchase was. Discover Nikkei reports that Boddy bought nearly all of that nursery's camellias, and that surviving records put the stock at either 60,000 or 100,000 plants.

The camellias in Descanso's forest today are the plants that came out of that sale.

The 1966 Garden Was Built by the Community

Twenty-four years after the camellia purchases, Descanso was a county-owned public garden, and the Japanese Garden opened there. Descanso credits Eijiro Nunokawa with the design and Frank Kuwahara with building it. The work was done by volunteers and paid for by the Japanese American community. San Marino architect Whitney Smith designed the teahouse. Bob and Mary Matsumoto added the Minka, a Japanese country-style farmhouse, in 1969. The Rafu Shimpo puts the garden's debut at June 3, 1966.

Descanso has spread its 60th-anniversary programs across the year. In September it held an anniversary End of Summer Celebration for members and La Cañada Flintridge residents, with koto music, ikebana, poetry, taiko, calligraphy and origami. An anniversary ikebana display filled the Minka from Sept. 14 to 20. Those events are over. What's left are two exhibitions that run past Nov. 21, and only one of them makes it into the new year.

Two Exhibitions, Two Closing Dates

The anniversary's daytime material comes down on this schedule:

1. Nov. 1: Carved's last night.
2. Nov. 2 to 21: No public night event. The one evening booking is the paid preview party on Nov. 21.
3. Nov. 19 and 21: Saikei Jade Forest workshops, 2 to 4 p.m., $75 for members and $80 for nonmembers. These are part of Descanso's regular workshop calendar, not the anniversary program.
4. Nov. 21: Enchanted Preview Party, 7 to 10 p.m., $275 per ticket.
5. Nov. 22: Enchanted Forest of Light opens for its 10th year.
6. Nov. 29: "LA's Garden" closes at the Boddy House.
7. Jan. 3, 2027: "Sound of Water" closes at the Sturt Haaga Gallery.

"LA's Garden" is the exhibit that ties the anniversary to the camellia story. Rosten Woo curated it, pairing archival maps, documents and vintage photographs with contemporary art. Descanso describes the history it covers as running "from the ancient stewardship of indigenous communities to the legacies of Japanese-American nurserymen and visionary volunteers." It closes one week after Enchanted opens. Anyone planning to fold it into an Enchanted outing would need a separate daytime visit in that last week anyway.

"Sound of Water: Feminine Expressions of Fluidity" is the anniversary's gallery show. Meher McArthur curated it, and it features six Japanese women artists. Both exhibitions are included with garden admission or membership.

What a November Daytime Visit Costs, Next to an Enchanted Night

The prices make the case for the daytime weeks on their own terms.

Daytime admission is $14 for seniors 65 and older and for students with ID. Children 2 and under get in free. Enchanted prices change by night and entry time. Members pay $22 to $45 per adult and $65 for an Anytime ticket. Members do not get free Enchanted tickets. An Enchanted ticket does not include daytime entry, and a daytime ticket does not include Enchanted. An adult nonmember pays $20 to see both anniversary exhibitions by day. The cheapest adult Enchanted entry costs $29 and includes neither exhibit.

A Route Through the Anniversary, Start to Finish

The order that follows the history is camellias first, then the Japanese Garden, then the two exhibitions.

The camellia forest. Descanso's bloom guide lists sasanqua camellias in October and November. Sasanquas bloom in fall and winter, while the japonicas bloom in winter and spring. The collection usually peaks in January and February, so a November walk shows the start of the season. Descanso points visitors to its social media for current bloom updates.

The Japanese Garden and the Minka. These are the 1966 garden and the 1969 farmhouse addition. The Garden of Good Fortune, where the koi will be installed, is part of this area.

The Boddy House. "LA's Garden" is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. That is an hour after the garden opens and an hour before it closes, so a 9 a.m. arrival works best if the camellias come first.

The Sturt Haaga Gallery. "Sound of Water" keeps the same 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. hours.

Parking at Descanso is free and first come, first served.

After Nov. 22, Day and Night Share the Grounds

Enchanted doesn't close the garden by day. Descanso stays open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily during the run, except Christmas. The installation crews work to keep the light displays from taking over the daytime view. The roughly one-mile route is limited to areas Descanso already uses for evening events, which keeps the lights out of wildlife habitat. From Nov. 22 on, though, a daytime visit shares the grounds with the Enchanted route.

Besides the koi, Enchanted adds two things this year. A laser show on the Main Lawn ends in a "snowfall" finale, and Tom Fruin's luminous house sculptures move to the Oak Grove. The run ends Jan. 9, 2027, and is closed Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.

The Holiday Market, presented by LAist, sets up on the Main Lawn Dec. 2 to 6. Local makers will sell jewelry, pottery, botanical gifts and plants. It is open 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. with Enchanted admission and 1 to 4 p.m. with daytime admission or membership. By then "LA's Garden" will have closed. "Sound of Water," the camellia forest and the 60-year-old Japanese Garden will still be open by day.

Descanso is one of the reasons people choose La Cañada Flintridge, and it helps when a neighbor can explain why those camellias are there. If you're weighing a move in the foothills, or wondering what your own place near the gardens would sell for, Dan Regan Properties can walk you through it. Start with a free home valuation.