The Huntington's Oak Meadow Is Planted. Its LOVE Is Still on the Way.

Between the Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art and the MaryLou and George Boone Gallery, The Huntington has put in a broad lawn shaded by oaks. It runs on toward The Rose Hills Foundation Conservatory for Botanical Science and is meant as a place to gather. It's called Oak Meadow, after the national tree, and it opened in June. By year-end it will also hold one of the best-known sculptures in American art. As of this week, that sculpture hasn't arrived yet.

That gap matters to anyone who lives a few minutes from The Huntington. The new garden is finished now, and most of it tells a Southern California story. The 12-foot sculpture headed there will land in a garden that already has something to say.

A Meadow Planted From Regional Stock

When the meadow opened, Sandra Brooke Gordon, Avery Director of the Library, told the audience it holds more than 5,000 plants of over 55 species, most of them native to California. It also has 22 trees, 16 of them oak species, according to Pasadena Now. The shaded lawn is framed by Coast Live Oak, Engelmann Oak and Valley Oak.

The Engelmann Oak is the one with a link to this area. The Huntington's own Oak Meadow page says it grows naturally only in California and Baja California. Its range is centered in San Diego County, with smaller populations in Pasadena, Orange County, southern Riverside County and Baja California. So one of the trees chosen for a national-anniversary garden is one that grows wild a short drive north of San Marino.

The two Western Sycamores carry an even more local history. They're clones of the Eagle Tree, which stood for centuries in what is now Compton and marked the northern edge of Rancho San Pedro, a Spanish land grant established in 1784. The tree fell in 2022. Historians Kim Cooper and Richard Schave, founders of Esotouric, came up with a plan to preserve it. Working with Donald R. Hodel, the California Botanic Garden, the Theodore Payne Foundation and The Huntington, they collected and propagated cuttings. Esotouric reported in July that the two genetically identical descendants had been planted at Oak Meadow.

The smaller plantings fit the same pattern. Toyon, also called California holly, is the official native shrub of Los Angeles. Purple Needle Grass is California's state grass, and individual plants can live for decades, sometimes up to 200 years. The Huntington describes the meadow as a working example of how a garden can handle limited water and a changing climate while still supporting wildlife. For anyone in San Marino planning a fall planting, that's a useful plant list to study in person.

The Same Story Begins Indoors

The meadow belongs to THIS LAND IS…, The Huntington's multiyear initiative for the 250th anniversary of the United States. The exhibition at its center, "This Land Is …," runs in the Boone Gallery, at the edge of the meadow, through Jan. 11, 2027.

Pasadena Now reported that one of the first things visitors see inside is a cross-section of a Pasadena oak, with more than 250 rings covering roughly 1740 to 1993. The same story lists what else is on display: two annotated July 1776 printings of the Declaration of Independence, a George Washington survey of Mount Vernon, a Thomas Jefferson garden design for Monticello, and a 1936 Woody Guthrie guitar on loan from the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle.

So the visit has a clear order. You see a slab of local oak indoors, then walk out among living oaks, including a species with native stands in Pasadena. Tongva artist Mercedes Dorame, who is featured in the initiative, spoke to that connection at the opening reception. Connecting to the land, she said, "is not metaphorical, it means feeling the bark of the oak tree," as Pasadena Now reported.

Where LOVE Will Stand

The Huntington announced in May that it had acquired Robert Indiana's LOVE, a gift of Terri and Jerry Kohl. The polychromed aluminum piece measures 12 feet high and 12 feet wide and is number three in an edition of five. It's planned for the meadow near the Erburu entrance to the Scott Galleries. Once installed, it will be the only publicly accessible museum-owned LOVE sculpture in Southern California. The acquisition also marks the 60th anniversary of the first LOVE sculpture, shown in May 1966 at Stable Gallery in New York.

The announcement promised an unveiling "before the end of the year." The fall page still describes the debut as coming "later this year," and no date has been posted. Huntington president Karen R. Lawrence said Jerry Kohl wanted the work seen by millions of visitors in the run-up to the Los Angeles Olympics, during the Games, and long after. For now, the sculpture's future spot is a shaded lawn anchored by oaks.

Three Buildings Around the Meadow

The meadow connects three buildings, and each has something new through the holidays.

1. Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art. "Doyle Lane: Master of Clay" is the first major museum retrospective of the Los Angeles ceramic artist, with more than 100 works plus archival material, on view through March 1, 2027. "Laura Aguilar: Day of the Dead" shares the building through the same date. It pairs her photographs of Día de los Muertos in Los Angeles with an ofrenda. Visitors may wear related attire or makeup, but costume masks and personal offerings aren't allowed.
2. MaryLou and George Boone Gallery. "This Land Is …" closes Jan. 11, 2027, so it's the first of these shows to leave.
3. The Rose Hills Foundation Conservatory. "Now Blooming: The Orchid Collection" opens Thursday, Nov. 5. It's a rotating display included with general admission, and The Huntington marks its dates as approximate.

Elsewhere on the grounds, camellias are listed as blooming from Oct. 12 through April 15, 2027. A few areas are off the route this season. The Desert Garden Conservatory stays closed until temperatures allow safe access, the Ranch Garden and Mausoleum are closed, and the Kitchen Garden is open only on Saturdays and Sundays.

Timing Visits From Now Through Year-End

What you pay and whether you need a reservation depend on the calendar. The Huntington is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day except Tuesday. Reservations are required Friday through Sunday, on holidays and during peak seasons. Adult tickets are $29 Monday through Thursday and $34 on weekends, holidays and peak days. Members get in free. The Huntington doesn't offer a local-resident discount.

The Tobar program is also livestreamed, and he's scheduled to sign books afterward. At the Holiday Market, vendors fill the Huntington Store, Rose Hills Garden Court, Rothenberg Patio and Haaga Hall. Pasadena's Salted Butter Company will take over Rothenberg Plaza with five stations: pastries and coffee, pies and savory items, giftable treats, cakes, and floral décor.

Free Day falls on the first Thursday of each month and requires an advance ticket. Tickets are released at 9 a.m. on the last Thursday of the month before. Each household is limited to five Free Day tickets a year, members can't use Free Day, and every guest needs a ticket, infants included. Upper-level members get early entry from 8 to 10 a.m., two hours before public opening.

Weekdays outside the two peak periods are the easy window. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays before Nov. 20 or between Nov. 30 and Dec. 17, skipping the Free Day on Thursday, Dec. 3, you can walk in without a reservation at the lower price and see the meadow as it stands now.

The city's own holiday season starts on Huntington Drive. San Marino's "Home for the Holidays" Tree Lighting Ceremony and Mayor's Reception is Friday, Dec. 4, from 5 to 7 p.m. at Huntington Drive and San Marino Avenue. Santa arrives by fire truck, and there will be cookies, hot cocoa and a holiday craft.

Living near a garden that keeps changing is part of what a San Marino address offers, and it's part of what we talk about when we sit down with owners here. If you're thinking about what your home is worth in a year when The Huntington is adding new ground, Kate Amsbry would be glad to walk you through it. Request your complimentary home consultation.