Comments (0) Around the World in 80,000 Plants (1956) - 2010
Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden
Joyce Kilmer wrote: “I think that I shall never see/A poem lovely as a tree.” What about an entire huge place full of trees, huh Joyce? Amazing, inspiring trees from around the freakin’ world. Old Joyce would have flipped her proverbial wig if she’d ever visited the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden in Arcadia. Opened in 1956, the 127 acres feature specifically re-created vegetation zones — Australia, Africa, Asia, the Americas — each a large enviroment unto itself, with beautiful, exotic, towering trees. There’s also turtle-filled Lake Baldwin, placid Tule Pond, greenhouses with smaller plant species, the Queen Anne Cottage (a ridiculously ornate and luxurious 1885 Victorian house), orchids, desert succulents, citrus gardens, a bamboo forest, a waterfall, the picnic-friendly Bauer Lawn and fountains, a horse barn, an old rail station and the Catawampus, an art installation/structure made within a tree’s twisting branches. Oh, and don’t miss the colorful and hyperaggressive peacocks and other big birds, who will chase and peck you as you run for your life (a great aerobic workout). 301 N. Baldwin Ave., Arcadia. (626) 821-3222, arboretum.org. —Adam Gropman
