Landscape Information
In 1937, newspaper magnate E. Manchester Boddy, owner of the Los Angeles Illustrated Daily News, purchased a 165-acre tract in the San Rafael Hills and named his estate Rancho del Descanso. Architect James Dolena designed the mansion, completed in 1938, which he sited on a hillcrest with panoramic views of the San Gabriel Mountains. Boddy planted thousands of camellias in the estate’s hills alongside coast live oaks and chaparral. At its peak the estate had over 20 acres planted with 60,000 camellias, the largest collection on the continent. In 1941, Boddy hired expert camellia propagator J. Howard Asper and opened a commercial nursery on the property, and soon thereafter commissioned Dr. Walter E. Lammerts to hybridize roses and lilacs and design the original, five-acre rose garden, completed in 1948.
Boddy sold the estate to Los Angeles County in 1953, which transferred management to the Descanso Gardens Guild in 1993. The county and the Guild developed 80 acres of gardens from Boddy’s original landscape, including lilac and iris gardens, a bird sanctuary, and an eight-acre native plants garden in collaboration with Theodore Payne. In the early 1960s the Guild created a Japanese garden with a koi-filled stream and arcing bridge, a pool with waterfalls, Japanese maples, stands of bamboo, and a teahouse designed by Wayne Williams and Whitney Smith. In 1994, the old rose garden was redeveloped as the International Rosarium, designed by Steve Smith of Lawrence R. Moss and Associates with more than 4,000 rose bushes that trace the history of the species through 20 thematic rooms. In 2021 Descanso Gardens was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
