Turning Over a New Leaf
Follow the howl of the peafowl to the Arboretum of Los Angeles County.
11 a.m. to 1 p.m.: A peahen strutted majestically across the impeccably manicured expanse of lawn; even the view while parking at the 127-acre arboretum was a thrill. (Peahen necks are a shimmering green, peacocks’ are royal blue.) The calls of more of the birds within punctuated the air.
But plants are what the arboretum is all about. Near the entrance is a 26,000-volume plant science library. On the other side of the entrance I chanced upon a docent just about to lead her weekly tour. (Free walking tours are Wednesdays at 11 a.m.; trams, $1.50, run continuously every 20 minutes from 11 a.m. on weekdays, 10 a.m. weekends.)
I had the docent, Siby Minton, all to myself, and I learned a lot:
* That palms are not trees.
“They don’t have roots like a tree, they don’t have leaves,” Minton pointed out. “They’re in the lily family.” One climbing flower had completely taken over one of whatever-they-are: It looked like a palm tree wearing a hula skirt!
* That the purple and red of bougainvillea are leaves--tiny flowers inside the leaves are in bloom right now.
* That all members of the mint family have square stems.
Oh, and why the silk floss tree wasn’t in bloom like almost everything else on the grounds.
“Silk floss trees bloom in the fall because they think it’s the spring in the fall because they’re from the Southern Hemisphere,” explained Minton, a docent for 24 years.
Already the 45-minute drive to Arcadia was worth it.
The Hugo Reid Adobe, built in 1839, is no little shack, and even the two Gabrielino Indian wickiups nearby seemed pretty roomy. Reid was a world traveler, and through the windows you can see a Tahitian cloth-hanging, and European as well as Native American ceramics.
The rose garden was exclusively a rose garden until a few years ago, when other flowers were introduced to ensure perpetual bloom. The roses are the old-fashioned 19th-Century varieties, not hybrids. Rather than single buds on long stems, most came in clusters, with as many as a dozen flowers to a cluster. The flowers of one variety resembled a half grapefruit.
The opening of “Fantasy Island” (“The plane! The plane!”) was filmed near the Queen Anne Cottage, built by Elias (Lucky) Baldwin in 1886 as a guest house and dedicated to his third wife, Lucy. (Yup, Lucky and Lucy.) Lucky owned the Comstock Gold Mine.
The cottage interior has been lovingly restored, and again, you can look in through the windows. In the music room are a square grand piano, reed organ and squeeze box. In the office is a very old typewriter that types from the back of the paper; in other words, you can’t read it while you’re typing.
“I guess they figured another way to do it,” Minton said.
Outside the Coach Barn are an Asian tree with fan-shaped leaves, a fallen tree whose trunk had rejoined itself, and a Victorian doghouse once used to shelter Baldwin’s bull mastiffs. Inside are a maul (a 12-pound wooden sledge), a cycle-powered saw (to cut, the user had to ride it like a bicycle) and a collection of buggies, including a Drag Four-in-Hand with a wine cooler on the roof.
Near the Shakespeare Garden and Herb Garden is a distinct fossil impression in one of the stones that had evidently gone unnoticed by the stone layers. The Meyberg waterfall is pretty, but walk up to the Aquatic Garden above, where you’ll find blooming water lilies and all kinds of great places to propose marriage, or to read.
We headed back through the crater-like bowl of Tallac Knoll, where plants included the poisonous angel of death, with its downward-facing trumpet flowers, then continued along the Meadowbrook Stream and through the Tropical Forest, formerly the jungle where Johnny Weissmuller’s “Tarzan” and, said Minton, some scenes of “African Queen” were filmed.
Even Minton couldn’t identify all the intriguing plants and flowers we saw.
“I don’t know that anybody knows what everything is in here,” she said.
1 to 1:30: You can sit outside on the patio at the Peacock Cafe. Peacocks parade before you on the lawn below, and indeed, they’re all around you. Hot dogs are $1.50, cheeseburgers $2.75, most sandwiches $3.50 and entree salads around $4. (Picnics are not allowed in the gardens; a picnic area is outside the arboretum south of the main entrance.)
1:30 to 2: I strolled up to the Tropical Greenhouse, where the sights and smells of the orchids can be overwhelming; the arboretum boasts 10,000 orchids representing 2,000 species. (On the way, if you’re so inclined, you can also visit the compost demonstration site: “Compost easy as 1-2-3!”)
Peafowl roosted atop gazebos and in trees. I found a secluded grassy area in the African section and sat for a few moments, enjoying a stillness made exotic by their cries. One pair warily approached until the male, in a fabulous display and a fitting finish to the day, stopped before me and fanned his iridescent five-foot train.
Arboretum admission is $5 for adults, $3 for senior citizens and students; children 5 to 12 are $1, 4 and under are free.
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)
3-HOUR TOUR
1. The Arboretum of Los Angeles County
301 N. Baldwin Ave., Arcadia
(818) 821-3222
Open daily 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (closed Dec. 25).
PARKING
Parking: There is ample free parking in lots near the entrance and free overflow parking south of the entrance.
