After the Wind, After the Fire

Descanso Gardens was spared by the Eaton Fire, but it was hit hard by the 100 mph windstorm that fanned the flames. The staff had grim and grueling work this week to assess the damage and start cleaning it up. Especially beaten up were the deodar cedars, and the live oaks. Their crashing branches, in turn, took it out on our fences and power-lines. 

Altadena, and Nuccio Bros. Nursery

One of the first priorities of the Horticulture department was to send teams out to fire-stricken Altadena, to Nuccio Brothers Nursery, to rescue as many camellias as we could carry. This landmark camellia and azalea nursery, family owned in Altadena for 90 years, and famous for developing many gorgeous varieties, has over the years played a prime role in building Descanso's camellia collection. The Eaton Fire raced right through Nuccios', destroying many buildings and systems, while miraculously sparing much of the plant stock. But now totally cut off from its water supply, the nursery is forced to go out of business. We loaded up about 100 camellias, sadly aware that all the plants we couldn't take, will soon die.

LA Times article: Nuccio closing

Nursery supervisor Frank Obregon led our Horticulture team to retrieve what we could on our last trip to Nuccios'.

We were escorted by a firetruck past the police cordon and through the deserted city of Altadena. Descanso gardener Jenny Perez-Flores took these photos of the devastation.

Altadena is - was? - one of the few remaining middle class, tightly knit, walkable/bikeable, affordable, vibrant, racially mixed communities in Southern California. 

Saving the Nuccios' camellias boosted our morale somewhat through this very trying week. But there was one other event that brought us some cheer and positivity. That was the arrival of eight koi fish, rescued by the Pasadena Humane Society from the backyard pond of a destroyed house in Altadena. We welcomed these new residents, photo-documented them, and released them into our Japanese Garden pond. Here we hope they will have a long, happy, and beautiful life.

   

Horticulture Director David Bare and Display Gardener Shana Babbs greet the new arrivals.

Gardeners Jenny Perez-Flores and Lili Stainbrook 

As of this writing, on the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, the fires are contained but still burning in the back country. Worryingly,  Los Angeles weather forecasts are showing another bout of high-speed Santa Ana winds is headed our way this week and could bring more tree damage and even revive the fires. The disaster isn't over for Los Angeles.

The Eaton Fire

 

Wednesday morning, January 8, 2025. Looking east from the Universal Overlook on Mulholland Dr., toward the golden glow of Altadena burning.

Sunrise view from Valley Village.

This fire event, and all the other apocalypses burning around Los Angeles this week, are catastrophic for the urban fabric and for our uprooted citizens. The fires are also doing massive damage to our public lands -- parks and beaches, hiking trails, and historic sites. Not to mention the loss of thousands of acres of wildlife habitats, nature reserves, scenic areas, and native plants and animals.  It's not over yet. Ye gods.

Fall of the Golden State

Photos from September to December 2024, up and down California

Exhibit of gilded leaves in the Sturt-Haaga Gallery, at Descanso Gardens.

Exhibit of gilded leaves at Placerita Canyon, site of California's first gold strike.

California Natives Garden at Descanso.

California this autumn was breathtakingly beautiful, especially where the CFP still prevails. After last winter's record rains and last summer's record heat, our chaparral, woodland and riparian habitats have gotten a break this fall with cool, dry, stable weather. The color shows in all habitats have been gorgeous.

Maxfield Parrish in Placerita Canyon

Deerweed, sagebrush, oaks and laurel sumac along the Old Stagecoach Road in Santa Susana Pass.

Fremont cottonwoods along the 5 Freeway near Gorman.

Tule fog over the Merced River.

The Geometries of Their Nature

Fall means the onset of dormancy for many species. Spent flowers, dry husks, bare or fruited branches, empty seed pods, acorns, etc. are on full view. They are held out to passersby like receipts or expense statements justifying their commitment to their physical location, and displaying the outlay of their resources - sunlight, water- versus their demonstrable growth and resilience over the previous winter, summer and spring. 

Tujunga Wash 

A huge white sage, Salvia apiana, sprawls over an embankment.

Eight feet in diameter, with spikes in all directions dropping seed, it claims space while awaiting the inevitable encroachment of the neighboring buckwheat, Eriogonum fasciclatum:

The buckwheat claims its space with a 3D lattice structure. This Tinkertoy of twigs will fill in those gaps in the understory left by the white sage across its eight-foot territory.  Inter-grown, they will share the sunlight and make attractive air-space for pollinators. Together, they will mutually support each others' structural resilience against harsh winds or the crush of blundering animals. 

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California cherries, Prunus ilicifolia. Delicious when black.

Mountain mahoganies at Tujunga Wash. 

I've watched this little grove of Cercocarpus betuloides grow from saplings, marveling at their beauty through many seasons, but they never pulled off a catkin show like they did this fall.  Otherwordly.

Infinite spiral galaxies

I'd love to see this pattern in a series of designer wallpapers and gift-wrappings, based on California native plants.

The Old Stagecoach Road

 L.A.'s most romantic and picturesque hiking trail. For the viewer of this historic landscape, the subtle colors of fall reveal each plant as an individual playing its part.  E pluribus unum.

Gracile and rosy, Eriogonum roseum, or wand buckwheat, prefers the dry, open uplands. It waits for fall to bloom, when it can stick above its shrunken neighbors to draw pollinators.

Placerita Canyon

Arroyo willows share their color with the gold-bearing stream.

Western sycamore, Platanus racemosa... 

...and toyon, Heteromeles arbutifolia. Both species are big fall show-offs, and claim the bright spotlights in this generally shady canyon to strut their stuff.

Greenspot nightshade, Solanum douglasii. I've found much conflicting information on whether the black berries are edible and delicious, or, like the leaves, deathly toxic. I'll stick to the precautionary principle.

California asters, Corethrogyne filaginifolia.

Gorgeous goldenbush, Isocoma menziesii.

The handsome acorns of scrub oak, Quercus berberidifolia. Fellow travelers on this branch include a wasp gall masquerading as an acorn cap, and colonies of crown whitefly larvae, in the shapes of tiny white florets.

Tip of the hat to the spectacularly complex geology at Placerita. The canyon is an uplifted back-arc basin from the collision of the wandering West Transverse Range Block with the point-edge of the more ancient continental North American craton. The collision and partial subduction zone became San Gabriel Fault (now defunct) which runs underneath the canyon. Not only California's gold, but also petroleum - rare white petroleum - were mined here first, by none other than Gen. Andres Pico.

The California Natives Garden at Descanso.