What to Know
- Descanso Gardens in La Cañada Flintridge
- Some 30,000 tulips bloom in March each year
- The garden is open daily; advance tickets required (and times can get busy during the tulip bloom, especially around late March)
February can famously fall the soggy side around Southern California, but late January?
When the daylight stretches well past 5 p.m., and the evening sky grows as rosy as the parade we just celebrated on New Year's Day, it can feel downright spring-like, or at least like sprinter, which is the soft spring overlay that winter can sometimes take on around these parts.
There are other signs that we're experiencing sprinter as we enter the final third of January 2022, and we're not even talking about the pink trees that are bursting out all over the place.
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Tulips are at the top of our mind these days, thanks to the flowery fact that devoted bud buffs have gotten to work at Descanso Gardens.
If you know what happens at the La Cañada Flintridge destination each March, then you know just what these volunteers and staff members are doing: They're planting thousands of bulbs, one by one by one by one, in an area not far inside the main gate of the 150-acre property.
In just a matter of weeks — think six or seven weeks, give or take — the area will be awash in tulip-y loveliness, with purples, yellows, and even stripes making a spectacular showy.
But hold up: You won't need to hang on for March to spy these marvels, for the first tulips usually appear, here and there, soon after Valentine's Day.
If you're holding out for the blanket of tulips, well, the middle of March, or even the end of the month, is what you'll want to focus on (but keep in mind advance tickets will be required, and weekends do get busy).
Eager to see the "blanket" we're swooning over? Check out a bygone bloom now to see thousands of eye-bright blossoms, tall and stately and sublime to see.
