History of Those Beautiful Jacaranda Trees in Bloom Around L.A.
Are you wondering where all these trees with beautiful purple flowers came from in LA?
Keep reading I’ll tell you how one woman changed the way LA looks with these Jacaranda Trees!
We owe these beautiful purple flowers tree to one amazing woman named Kate Sessions. Sessions was born in San Francisco in 1857. Fun fact, she’s also known as the “Mother of Balboa Park“! Sessions was educated in Oakland but moved with her family to Lake Merritt when she was just six. She attended University of California, Berkley with a degree in natural science. Sessions was always fascinated with all the different plants growing in all the exotic parts of the world. She started to bring seeds and plants from Europe, Mexico, and South America. At one point she became the most sought after landscape designer of her time.
1892, this was the year that Sessions would change California’s landscape forever! She leased out 32 acres of land owned by the city of San Diego (was known as City Park at the time). The field was a mess to say the least. She agreed to fix the situation by planting 100 new trees per year in the park and 300 additional trees per year elsewhere on public lands around the city of San Diego. That property was eventually renamed as what we know today as Balboa Park!
There a bronze statue at Balboa Park of sessions. If you are around San Diego..see if you can find it..
Sessions never married and live to the amazing age of 82, when she passed in San Diego on March 24, 1940.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BgkDy_EDCye/
Entering the Hall of Fame – Kate Sessions
In 2006 Kate Sessions was inducted into the Women’s Hall of Fame from the Women’s Museum of California.
Purple flowers Tree California (Jacaranda Tree)
When spring is here, you’ll find the streets lined with these purple trees! Los Angeles has jacarandas as old as 100 years old. There is an estimated 20,000+ of them along public streets in the city. The city of Pasadena has a lot to see. You can view this as “L.A.’s Cherry Blossom” seeaon! The tree itself orginated from Brazil, Argentina and Boliva and can grow 25 to 40 feet tall and wide. They can also be found around some parts of orange county as well
Bloom time …
These purple flowers tree California bloom in …
May/June. Usually when the humidity is higher and daytime temperature don’t exceed the low 70s.
September: In the fall, there’s usually a secondary bloom. The leaves stay on the tree, mess these flowers less noticeable.
Where can you see Jacaranda Trees
Some of the many popular places for viewing the color include:
Paloma Street in Pasadena; Del Mar Boulevard in Pasadena
Stansbury Avenue in Sherman Oaks; Gothic Avenue in North Hills
North Whittier Drive in Beverly Hills; Index Street in Granada Hills
Los Robles Avenue in San Marino; and older residential streets in Hollywood
