How does a flower know when it has reached the zenith, the tip-top, the absolute peak of popularity, the ultimate apex of general belovedness?
There's no scent-sweet scale to measure such things, but let us ponder the signs. If you're a flower, but you're also known as a color, and a well-known perfume type, and a first name, well, congratulations: You are unequivocally, indubitably famous.
And there isn't a flower more widely known than the rose, flat-out, no ifs, ands, thorns, or petals about it. Shakespeare, Valentine's Day, and a certain Pasadena parade have helped make this so, and thank goodness: This bud's a beaut.
Descanso Gardens certainly thinks so, and it will pause on Saturday, May 14 and Sunday, May 15 to shower this showy specimen in affection and attention. (Two things we do believe a rose very much enjoys.)
The Rose Festival, which is included with admission to the La Cañada Flintridge nature destination, is all about honoring "America's favorite flower" through a veritable blooming bush brimming with buds. (Less poetically, a busy schedule full of events.)
There's the Rose Garden Walk and Talk, Floral Art Activities, and a station where one might get acquainted with rarer roses.
No word if rarer roses are a bit formal when you first meet them, but we sense they might be.
The Scene
Want to find new things to do in Los Angeles? The Scene's lifestyle stories have you covered. Here's your go-to source on where the fun is across SoCal and for the weekend.
The quirkiest happening of the weekend? The "Human Vase" Living Art. Two artists, one a floral pro and one a make-up maven, will "create a living work of floral art" by "(u)sing the body as a canvas."
Intriguing.
All the rosy to-dos are happening on both days, so if you can only make Sunday, or Saturday, you're in lovely luck.
And if you haven't properly welcomed spring yet, in a lush and leafy setting, here's your make-good before summer arrives, in, whoa, just over a month.
Spending an hour with the queen of the flower kingdom is kind of the quintessential spring thing to do, even as the rose also ably rules Feb. 14, and New Year's Day, and Mother's Day, and birthdays...
Yep. This flower has power.
