The Desert Botanical Gardens sits on 145 acres and has more than 50,000 plants in its collection. Since 1939 the Gardens has been home to one of the finest and most diverse collections of succulent plants in the world including rare, threatened and endangered species from the around the southeast USA and the world. It is the only botanical garden in the world to focus soley on desert plants. For more infomation about the garddens, click here.
The giant Saguaro plant is only found in Arizona and some parts of Mexico, particularly in the Sonoran Desert, and is a protected species. The cactus can grow up to 20 metres in height and the number of arms is an indication of age. For example, only after 50-75 yrs of growth does the first arm develop.
For more information about the Saguaro click here.
The location of the Sonora desert of southern USA and Mexico can be seen on this map.
Examples of mass plantings of cacti and succulents.
Depending on the time of day, light rays from the sun can add beauty to displays.
The white deposit on this cacti is the colchineal beetle. This beetle has been harvested for centuries for the production of red dye used in food colouring, lipstick and cloth dying. For example, the British Redcoats had their uniforms dyed using a colchineal beetle extract. Click here for more information.
The Bunny Ears Pricklypear is a nasty piece of work. Fine barbed hair-like fibres can penetrate skin and cause pain and discomfit. Your skin does not need to touch the plant; just being less than a cm away is enough for the plant to find its target. Click here for more information.
Mass planting of cacti and succulents can be enhanced by companion planting with grasses of different types and colour.
Different ways of showing desert plants in pots and containers was on display.
Throughout the garden there are shady areas to rest and great cafes and a restaurant for light snacks and coffee or something more substantial. Very easy to spend the whole day at the gardens which I did.
This is not the flowering season but some of the cacti and prickly pear are showing flowers or an attempt at flowering.
Sculpture is scattered throughout the gardens including this sun dial and a wooden statue entitled "Earth Mother".
They did not seem to rest on me that much so was very disappointed. I imagined and was hoping for the situation below:
A foretaste of an exhibition to open in November by the artist Dale Chihuly. These are representations of cacti and other desert plants constructed entirely of coloured glass.
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Great pictures
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