Desert Botanical Garden

Exploring a new world at Desert Botanical Garden

by W. Hubert Earle, Director Desert Botanical Garden Today growing out of doors in an unspoiled Arizona desert setting, are cacti from North and South America, trees and shrubs from the Karoo, the Kalahari, the Sahara, the Gobi, and other deserts of Asia, Africa, and Aus tralia, as well as trees and shrubs from our own Southwest.

Yearly, over 110,000 Phoenix residents and visitors alike enjoy the oppor tunity to see the Desert Botanical Garden with its unusual plants and flowers. Photographers, perhaps most of all, are overjoyed to find such a collec tion and seem to be forever running out of film.

A "Self-conducted Nature Walk" pamphlet explains the plants at 46 stations for the visitor, who is then able to fluently speak or write about them when he arrives home.

Arizona has more than 3800 species of plants, about one-third of which are found in the desert or at the base of the foothills. The question, "What is in flower today?" was asked by so many visitors that a chart was set up in the Visitor's Building to tell them.

Following is only a sample: January - creamy white Joshua tree; February - cerise Beavertail cactus and white Prickly Poppy; March scarlet Ocotillo, blue Lupines, yellow Desert Mari gold and yellow Brittle bush; April yellow Prickly pears, red strawberry Hedgehog cactus, white to yellow Eve ning Primrose, pink-red Sand Verbena, white-yellow Mustards, red Owl Clover, yellow Creosote Bush and the yellow Palo Verde (state tree); May - white Sacred Datura, white Saguaro cactus (state flower), yellow Mesquite trees, purple Ironwood trees and white Yuccas; June - purple to red Penstemons and lavender-blue Gilias; July the white nightflowering Cereus cactus; and through winter and back to spring, October to April yellow Acacias, copper to red Aloes, yellow Cassias and multicolored wildflowers are in evidence as they are from the southern hemisphere.

What is the best time to see most of the blossoms? Well, the period of April 10 April 25 includes the last of the wildflowers, most of the cacti and the beginning of the tree species.

In addition to the plants and trees from many lands, there are books in the Research Library written in many languages and Garden members in a score or more countries. The Desert Botanical Garden is in correspondence with botanists and researchers in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Australia and the Orient. The Garden staff members have traveled in many of these countries on consultation work, and visitors have come from distant lands 138 countries last year, according to the Visitor's Register, to see this unique collection.

The Garden has had an extensive research program for the last two decades. Foremost is the continuous introduction, by seed, of plants that will grow in our area and give us winter colors for our visitors, home owners, motel, and hotel guests.

Successful plant cuttings are also propagated by large West Coast nurseries, then trucked to Arizona to be sold by local nurseries and landscapers.

Native plants of Arizona are now being propagated by the local Mountain States Wholesale Nursery, then used to cover bare "overburden" from open-pit copper mines. The plants are then watered by drip-irrigation to provide a green cover. The banks along Arizona's state and Interstate roads are another example of the use of native plants.

Several years ago the Garden began working with the newly formed Office of Arid Lands Studies, University of Arizona, to locate suitable clustered jojoba seeds. These seeds produce an oil which is equivalent to that of the sperm whale. The exceptional quality of this product makes it ideal for use with high speed machinery. This project has evolved into a world-wide organization, as many semi-arid countries desire to grow their own crops of jojoba to produce oil and wax. Of additional local interest was the possibility to create a cash crop for Arizona and California Indians on whose reservations the jojoba grows in quantities. San Carlos Indians are, at the present time, making and selling long-burning candles from the wax of the jojoba bean. Many experiments are being done by commercial chemical organizations, and the University of California at Riverside is in the midst of numerous jojoba horticultural experiments under the direction of Dr. D. M. Yermanos.

The Garden has a five year National Science Foundation research grant for the study of the Agave (century plant) that grows naturally in North, Central, and South America. Dr. Howard Scott Gentry, a research botanist, is gathering and compiling information on all the agaves, as to their proper taxonomy and classification. He will publish, in 1977-78, a monograph on his research which is needed by botanists, growers, and nurserymen. Recognized world wide for its vast collection of desert plants, excellent library, herbarium of dried desert plants, and the hard-to-find seeds in its seed list that goes to 110 botanical gardens in over 100 countries, the Garden is a real asset to the State of Arizona. Many botanists and photographers from foreign lands make the garden a "must" on their American tours. The Garden has many different activities, appealing to many different individuals, scheduled throughout the year. The first Saturday of each month from October to May finds members and visitors on field trips to remote and interesting areas within 100 miles of Phoenix. Three six-week courses are held during fall, winter and spring for those persons wishing to learn about the deserts and their plants. Each course concludes with an all day desert field trip to identify the plants they had used in the classroom. Illustrated lectures are given each Thursday from November through April by staff members on cacti, wildflowers, trees and shrubs, as well as the birds and animals of Arizona. They are free to all visitors. In 1910 Gustaf H. Starck, a Scandinavian engineer, came to Arizona to work on the Salt River Project's Arizona Canal. He enjoyed roaming the desert and began making a collection of dried desert plants which he sent to the National Herbarium in Washington for identification. Soon, people from around the area began to hear about this engineer who knew all about native plant forms . . . and by pony, wagon and Model T they came to his Scottsdale home. At first he organized Sunday "Desert Plant Classes," and in the late 1920s these gave rise to the Arizona Cactus and Native Flora Society.

One of the Society members in the early '30s was Gertrude Divine Webster, a well-traveled New Englander who wintered in Arizona at the foot of Camelback Mountain. She developed a beautiful garden with large cactus plants, most of them brought in from California that lured many visitors to her home. This dynamic woman used her time, and considerable influence to establish a permanent Desert Botanical Garden.

The Society began to earnestly raise funds to develop a Garden, and in 1938 they hired George Lindsay as the first director. Interestingly enough, he began construction of paths and beds with plants from the gardens of Gustaf Starck and Mrs. Gertrude Webster. Aside from his other tasks, Lindsay took time out to go on collecting trips to Baja California, Mexico, to gather plants for a garden section exclusively from that region.

In 1949 a group of cactus enthusiasts joined together and called themselves "Cactomaniacs." They meet the first Tuesday of each month. This unique group has no officers, no dues and welcomes visitors to meet with them, socialize, and gain knowledge of plants. Out of this group has emerged, the Central Arizona Cactus and Succulent Society which is affiliated with the Cactus and Succulent Society of America. They meet on the fourth Sunday of each month at the Garden and also welcome visitors.

No support is received from city, county, state or federal governments. Instead, it comes from endowments, gifts, memberships and donations. In addition, the Garden has developed, in the last two decades, an unusual cactus seed wholesale department which is available to any botanical garden. The vast amounts which are sold to jobbers has given the Garden enough revenue to build several facilities. Visitor's Center besides producing revenue for operating expenses, is a treasure trove of hard-to-find works on the desert.