Garden Society Sniffs Bouquet of L.A. Springtime

Shocking pink azaleas and red camellias in full bloom--a sure sign of springtime in Southern California--greeted amateur and professional gardeners from across the country visiting Los Angeles on Wednesday for the American Horticultural Society’s annual spring symposium.

Society members visited the Virginia Robinson Gardens in Beverly Hills, where they were treated to a tour through elegantly landscaped and terraced hillsides, perfumed gardens and lush, subtropical, clumps of jungle-like trees that fill the six-acre estate of the late Virginia Robinson, the department store heiress who bequeathed her Beverly Hills estate to Los Angeles County for use as a public botanical garden.

Los Angeles was picked this year by the society as a “horticulturally significant” city in which to hold the annual springtime event and offer its members a chance to explore the area’s fauna and flora.