HUNTINGTON LIBRARY TROPICAL CONSERVATORY

I'm a huge fan of Huntington Library & Botanical Gardens in Pasadena, California and am lucky enough to live less than a mile away so I often find myself strolling the grounds here. One of my favorite spots to hang out there is inside the 16,000 square foot Rose Hills Foundation Conservatory, opened in 2005. This gorgeous greenhouse features three different sections: a tropical rain forest, a cloud forest and carnivorous plant bog, as well as a plant lab with lots of cool hands-on botanical experiment stations. It's also home to the Huntington's infamous corpse plant, (Amorphophallus titanum) whose rare stinky bloom every few years attracts thousands of spectators (and probably just as many flies). I snapped some shots on a recent visit. These photos only show a few sections and hardly capture the grandeur of this stunning greenhouse. I'll post more photos in future entries. But here's a taste of what's to be found inside.

 

 

 

 

 

HUNTINGTON LIBRARY, ART COLLECTIONS AND BOTANICAL GARDENS

1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, CA  91108

TRADER SAM'S ANNIVERSARY TIKI MUGS

If you've been to the Disneyland Hotel in the past year, you might have had a chance to enjoy a cocktail at Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar. It's truly a proper tiki bar in every possible way. The Disney Parks Blog announced that today, Trader Sam's is celebrating its one-year anniversary and to mark the occasion, they've got two new souvenir tiki mugs.

 

 

The new tiki bowl for Uh Oa! (light and dark rums, orange,

passion fruit, guava, and grapefruit juices, falernum, cinnamon

and freshly squeezed lime juice)

The new Barrel mug for Shipwreck on the Rocks (bourbon,

freshly muddled lemon and mint with organic agave nectar)

TRADER SAM'S ENCHANTED TIKI BAR

Disneyland Hotel - Disneyland Resort
1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

THE NEW TROPICAL HOUSEGUESTS

The dilemma of every obsessed gardener: Too many plants and not enough space in your garden. My solution to this problem was to invite them into the house and integrate them into the decor. I guess you could say I'm kind of like the botanical version of a crazy cat person. Fortunately, I have a wife who likes indoor plants (maybe "tolerates" is a better word) and a son who doesn't feel the need to destroy them, so the plan worked well.

A livened up drab entryway.

The huge living room window keeps these plants very happy.

The fireplace doesn't actually work so there's no worry of burning these tropical beauties.

My kitchen windowsill has become sort of an impromptu nursery. 

And a bit of tiki spirit thrown in for good measure.

HUNTINGTON LIBRARY JAPANESE GARDEN GRAND RE-OPENING

To celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the Japanese garden at Huntington Library in Pasadena, a year-long, multi-million dollar makeover was done to this cenetarian garden.  The Japenese garden will have its grand re-opening on April 11th. I was fortunate enough to see it during a sneak preview a few weeks ago and took some photos. If you've been to Huntington Library in the past few years, a lot of what you see in the photos will look familiar since the main structure/layout of the garden hasn't been changed. But they've added many new features and enlarged the garden. Construction was in full-force when I visited and there was clearly still a lot of work to be done so I'll be surprised and amazed if they actually finish on time but the grand opening date hasn't been delayed so it looks like they might actually pull it off.

Check out the official Huntington Libary Japenese

press release for more photos and details here:

HUNTINGTON LIBRARY, ART COLLECTIONS AND BOTANICAL GARDENS

1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, CA  91108