SPRING SHOWOFFS : During March and April, Descanso Gardens Is the Place to See Dogwoods and Lilacs, Flowering Cherries and Forsythia, Tulips and Trumpet Trees, as Well as 80 Acres of Azaleas and Camellias

Descanso Gardens in La Canada Flintridge is best known for its camellias--it inherited 80 acres of them along with the estate of newspaper publisher Manchester Boddy. But for several years, Descanso has also been furiously planting other spring-blooming things, from trees to bulbs, and each year the garden grows more glorious. It has become, perhaps, the best springtime garden in California.

To celebrate spring’s munificence, the Descanso Guild Volunteers puts on an informal show near the entrance this weekend through April 6 that includes special displays, sales and demonstrations. But the real show is out on the grounds.

The first thing you’ll see are thousands of flowering bulbs, annuals and perennials. Nearby is an extensive rose garden that should reach full bloom April 1, and as rose fanciers know, the spring bloom is the freshest and the best. This rose garden includes a large collection of old-fashioned roses that bloom only in the spring.

Up the hill is a growing collection of California native plants that put their all into spring flowering before summer drought sets in. And at the other extreme of gardening is a remarkable collection of flowering plants better known in colder, wetter climates. This includes dogwoods and true lilacs, which Descanso has always had good luck growing, probably because the garden is located at the bottom of a canyon where cold air collects and native oaks acidify the soil and temper the hot summer sun. That director George Lewis began his garden career in the penthouse gardens of New York City may also explain the unusual success Descanso enjoys with Eastern plants.

If you imagine the camellias being rhododendrons (and overlook the obvious subtropicals, including the spectacular trumpet trees), Descanso looks a good deal like Longwood, Winterthur or another of the grand East Coast gardens that belonged to Du Ponts or Rockefellers. But Descanso Gardens is here, at 1418 Descanso Drive; hours are 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily.