Descanso Gardens and Tomatomania!

Descanso Gardens is one of those wonderful places to visit in the L.A. area.  It is a large, mature, and beautiful garden nestled in the beautiful community of La Canada Flintridge, just a couple miles away from where I grew up in North Glendale.  I hadn't been there in so long, I was really looking forward to our visit today.  We actually planned our visit there because Tomatomania was going to be set up for their annual sale of tomato plants.  We have purchased our plants from them for at least five years now and have had great growing success!  They set up each spring in various locations in the L.A. area, and it's always an extra bonus when they set up somewhere beautiful like Descanso Gardens or  the Arboretum. They have so many interesting and unusual varieties available, and the staff puts on helpful workshops and will advise you which plants to choose.

Today I was so excited to awake to such beautiful sunny weather!  It was so pretty, it felt like a true spring day, and I was ready for an outing.  We actually ventured out for a double date with our longtime, dear friends Don and Roxane.  We are so thankful for the long, enduring friendship we have had with them.  We have too many memories with them to even mention (beginning with our first apartments first married in the same building together -- the Ricardos and the Mertzes -- such fun!). They are like family to us and we are very fond of them and their four boys.  It's not often we get to have an opportunity to do something fun like this together as couples, so I was especially excited for the to get to have lunch and go to Descanso with them.   Don was the one who first inspired us to grow tomatoes MANY years ago after we first tasted his homemade salsa from his own tomatoes.  Now, I think we inspired him with our Tomatomania varieties (last summer we dumped boatloads on them) and he and Rox wanted to come along to the sale this year.

First, we had a great alfresco lunch at Berolina -- a big fresh salad, a grilled portabello panini, and of course a slice of princess cake.  :-)  We then ventured over to Descanso, picked out our tomato plants (I think we each bought a dozen), and then decided we could spend some time in the gardens.  We had such a delightful time walking the grounds and admiring all the spring blooms and color.  Here are some photos from our beautiful day.

All excited to grow our selections! Glad our guys are great gardeners!

Breathtaking tulips in many colors all in bloom

So many to choose from!

It's magical (& fragrant) walking through the lilac garden

Rox snaps a "later gram"