Descanso Gardens grows a new attraction

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After five years of planning, preparation and construction, Descanso Gardens is growing a new attraction. The Sturt Haaga Gallery will open to the public this Saturday at 2 p.m. with the exhibit, “The Botanical Photographs of Andrea Baldeck.”

The gallery, funded by a donation of $2.1 million by Paul Haaga Jr. and Heather Sturt Haaga, was created by restoring and adding on to the original garage adjacent to the gardens’ historic Boddy House. The gallery gives La Cañada Flintridge its first publically accessible exhibition space, according to Descanso Gardens Executive Director David Brown.

In addition to augmenting the gardens’ education and outreach programs and providing an additional attraction to draw visitors to the gardens, the gallery perfectly meshes with Descanso’s accreditation as a museum of living collections, Brown said.

“It gives us the opportunity to tell the stories of the garden, of the landscapes, of the plants, of the ecosystem and of the history of the gardens,” Brown told the Valley Sun.

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