A Garden of Desert Delights Thrives in Phoenix

In the middle of this city in the middle of the desert, an extraordinary garden is growing.

Here, at the 145-acre Desert Botanical Garden, the most unusual and bizarre plants from the deserts of the world grow in spectacular profusion.

There are agaves, those overgrown relatives of the amaryllis that live seven to 40 years, bloom once a lifetime, and die after flowering.

All of the agaves’ energy is exhausted producing a gigantic stalk that grows as much as 14 inches a day--more than half an inch an hour--and reaches heights of 30 to 35 feet.

Saguaro (su-wah-ro) desert trees that with their dangling arms and weird shapes make garden visitors laugh, also take their time blooming.

For these trees, 60 to 70 years can elapse before the first bloom. But, unlike the agaves, the blossoming doesn’t kill them.

The saguaro arms do not develop until after the tree flowers. Botanists believe the arms provide balance for the saguaro, which can weigh as much as eight tons when full of water. They can grow 50 feet high and live to be 150 years old.

Birds nest in the naturally air-conditioned giant saguaro to escape the torrid desert heat. Temperatures inside the plant are a comfortable 10 to 20 degrees cooler than arid air around it.

There is the firecracker cactus. Of course, it looks like a firecracker. And the skunk tree smells like a skunk. The Old Man Cactus is covered with long wiry silver hair.

The botanical name for the barrel cactus, ferocactus, describes it perfectly. It means ferocious and aptly describes the plants menacing spines.

Established in 1939, the Desert Botanical Garden claims the world’s largest collection of desert plants in a natural setting. Altogether, it has more than 10,000 different trees, shrubs and plants representing nearly 3,000 species.

It is a private, nonprofit garden set aside 51 years ago by a group of Arizona conservationists who saw a need to study, preserve and propagate desert plants.

With an annual budget of $1.5 million, the garden is supported by entrance fees ($3.50), membership dues ($25 a year), gift shop sales, proceeds from special events, donations and bequests.

There are 50 employees and 6,000 members of the Desert Botanical Garden. Special events include an annual spring cactus festival, concerts, lectures, walks, lunches and dinners in the garden.

Guided tours along the 2 1/2 miles of trails are concluded with refreshing snacks, courtesy of the garden’s plant residents. How about a sandwich of saguaro bread with mesquite jelly? A cup of prickly pear punch, or cactus teas and cactus candy? Prickly pear and saguaro fruit are favorite snacks for visitors hiking through the garden.

Desert plant scientists from arid regions of the world come here to study plants, working beside the seven botanists on the botanical garden research staff.

A technical assistance program conducted here for five Mexican states brings a steady stream of botanists from south of the border to workshops on the commercial utilization of desert plants.

Tens of thousands of acres in Mexico are planted in agave, a rich source of fiber for brushes, medicines and beverages, including tequila.

Agave is also an ingredient in candelilla harvested for candle wax, shoe polish, floor wax and chewing gum, in desert spices such as oregano, basil and wild chilies.

Other important desert cash crops for Mexico include jojoba beans for perfume and motor oils; guayule, a source of rubber; the cactus prickly pear which supports an entire industry, and the leaves of aloe vera, the “first-aid plant” that is a popular salve for burns, insect bites and sunburn.

Researchers from the garden here travel to other deserts of the world to take plant censuses in the wild and to bring back endangered species for propagation.

One of the world’s biggest libraries on water-efficient, arid land plants is also here.

The Desert Botanical Garden boasts the largest agave collection in the world, with more than 100 of 140 known species. The stalky species is, in fact, something of a garden mascot. “Agave” is the name of the garden’s prestigious quarterly magazine.

Howard Scott Gentry, the world expert on the plant and author of the definitive book about the agave plant, was director of research at the garden for 11 years before he retired in 1988.