Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Desert Botanical Garden

On Sunday we went to the Desert Botanical Garden. It was 88°F (31°C) so it was pretty warm but we soldiered on. Mom pushed her wheeled walker around, with one of us ahead of her and one of us behind. It worked pretty well but we all got tired fast. It was the Flower Festival last weekend, although there weren't a lot of wildflowers to see. Usually, Phoenix gets winter rains that really get the wildflowers growing; however, this year, we hardly got any rain at all. We also had several very heavy frosts in January that did some significant damage. Since they don't do any supplemental watering, the flowers were rather sparse. Anyway, here are some pictures I took so you can see what it's like in the Valley of the Sun.

Here's some golden poppies with just a few owl clover blossoms peaking through:
Poppies Poppies close

Here are some penstomen, verbena and a couple others I don't know yet (sorry) snuggled up against a huge agave:
Agave with flowers Texas lupine

Here is a saguaro cactus with it's "nurse" palo verde tree:
Saguaro with palo verde
Many times, in the desert, saguaros begin growing in the protective shade of palo verde trees, and after many years they tower over their "nurse's."

We also walked through the Butterfly Pavilion. It was alive with butterflies of many species and these two (a Zebra Longwing and a Julia butterfly) posed nicely together for a picture:
Butterflys

We got to see the Patrick Doughrty sculpture. I should have taken a picture with someone standing nearby so you can get a good idea of the scale. These wondrous things are large enough for several people to stand inside!
Dougherty sculpture 1 Dougherty sculpture 3

Here is what it looked like from the inside looking out and up:
Dougherty sculpture 4 Dougherty sculpture 6

I hope you enjoyed the tour and that this wasn't too picture heavy for dial-up users! More pictures can be seen on
my flickr site .

Quilting content in a day or two!

9 comments:

Rian said...

It has been a very dry winter here, too. (Happens every so often, nothing to worry about.)

The California golden poppies are in full bloom now. They don't seem to mind if it's a dry year. They, and blue lupine, paint the landscape. Glorious

Very interesting organic sculpture Thanks for taking us.

Debra Dixon said...

Dig the sculptures--have an Andy Goldsworthy look about them.

Rissa said...

Just beautiful!

Terri Lee Takacs said...

Great to look at the beautiful flower's and butterfly's as we are getting a big snowstorm here in Conn.!!!!! Terri http://lavenderbetweenthecracks.blogspot.com/

Possibilities, Etc. said...

Hi Marty - just now looked at your blog. Beautiful work you do. I enjoy your comments on Allison's blog! I love Phoenix - but I remember when Cousin Frank had to go out in back and water the cactus. Very dry year, it was. He is in Tucson now under the care of his children.

Susan said...

Beautiful pics, Marty. I miss the trips to the botanical gardens. It was one of my favorite spots. I like it when they do the jazz combos and lunches, and we always bought a Christmas cactus for my MIL. Always, because she killed it by giving it to much sunlight, repeatedly, every single year! LOL!

The butterfly picture is just priceless.

allie aller said...

Thanks so much for the tour, Marty. I am always so thrilled to see the beautiful flowers blooming in the desert.
The sculptures were cool too. Love the pic with the saguaro showing through the whole in the sphere.

Jen said...

Beautiful gardens, we have some of the same vegetation here in So Cal. I love the sculpture, and I thought of Goldsworthy too! Jen

Granny Fran said...

Oh Wow! What a wonderful tour of the garden. I haven't been there for several years and love seeing these photos. I would sure like to see that sculptor working on those pieces. Wouldn't mind a smaller version in my Toad Haven. Maybe I could do something similar with all the tumbleweeds that have been flying around lately. Your photo of the butterflys is amazing!