Half Day at the Huntington Library

On a hot afternoon, we still couldn't resist being lured outside into the stunning Botanical Gardens. From the main buildings, lawns and towering trees stretch out toward specialty areas. 

The 12-acre Desert Garden, for instance, has the world's largest group of mature cacti and other succulents, arranged by continent. Visit this garden on a hot midday walk may be a little too authentic. In the Japanese Garden, an arched bridge curves over a pond; the area also has stone ornaments, a Japanese house, a bonsai court, and a Zen rock garden. There are collections of azaleas and 1,500 varieties of camellias, the world's largest public collection. The 3-acre rose garden is displayed chronologically, so the development leading to today's strains of roses can be observed; on the grounds is the charming Rose Garden Tea Room, where traditional high tea is served and it was packed. There are also herb, palm, and jungle gardens.

Opened in 2005, the Rose Hills Foundation Conservatory for Botanical Science, a child-oriented center with dozens of hands-on exhibits to illustrate plant diversity in various environments. (These rooms are quite warm and humid, especially the central rotunda, which displays rain-forest plants.) 

There is an ambitious classical Chinese Garden "Liu Fang Yuan" (or Garden of Flowering Fragrance) which was opened in late 2008, set to be the largest of its kind outside China. Work on this will be underway for the next several years.

I believe we enjoyed the rain-forest plants most, which made us quite sweaty though. We'll try to visit art collections next time.