A prickly, beloved old-timer
THE CACTUS’ ONCE-muscular green trunks have withered to a pallid brown. Some visitors think the plant is dead. But to the staff at the Huntington Botanical Gardens, this Cereus xanthocarpus embodies the essence of the desert: rugged beauty and perseverance.
“This is a garden of survivors,” says Gary Lyons, curator of the Huntington’s Desert Garden, which celebrates its 100th birthday this year. Ever since Henry Huntington settled on cactuses for a south-facing slope on his San Marino estate, Cereus xanthocarpus and its companions have weathered a lifetime of tribulations -- scorching heat, freak snowfall, prolonged neglect during the Depression and World War II.
Yet the plants have survived. These days, the Desert Garden is widely considered to be the finest landscape of its kind in the world. “No other collection exhibits such extraordinary range or is managed by more extraordinary people,” says Richard Wiedhopf, president of the Cactus and Succulent Society of America, the premier group devoted to the subject. Rare specimens -- some no longer found in the wild -- have attracted researchers from as far as London and captivated lay visitors with sculptural forms and vivid blooms.
Here you’ll find the largest dragon tree in cultivation, one that dates to the 19th century and exudes a crimson sap called “dragon’s blood.” Nearby stands Neobuxbaumia scoparia, believed to be the only such specimen in the United States, a pale green behemoth from southern Mexico that is the garden’s rarest cactus. You’ll see ponytail palms with trunks as wide as some cars.
At once dangerous-looking and remarkably inviting, the garden does more than capture the imagination. It reveals the elements of a perfect home landscape: texture, color, fragrance and sound. Birds and butterflies. Winding paths and secluded benches.
The right plants are in the right place, the palette is diverse, and at every turn one sees contrast, repetition, picturesque views and -- perhaps most important -- tender, loving care.
YOU can trace Southern California’s love of these plants to the early 1900s, when wealthy landowners coveted succulents and cactuses as if they were sapphires and sculpture. Collectors hoped to impress their family and guests, and they competed with one another for the biggest and rarest displays.
Henry Huntington, of course, had an advantage: He owned the rail lines and could call upon plenty of manpower. Move a 3-ton cactus from central Mexico? No problem.
Huntington also had William Hertrich, the botanical gardens’ first superintendent. It was Hertrich who convinced his employer that a cactus garden was the logical choice for an unsightly barren hillside on Huntington’s estate.
Hertrich knew his stuff. He knew the sunny exposure and quick-draining soil were perfect for succulents. He recognized the site’s microclimates and knew to plant frost-tender species in the warmer upper section and cold-hardy flora in colder lower area.
He collected some of the plants during his forays to Arizona and Mexico; train cars of plants returned to the ranch on Huntington’s railroad. Tree aloes, cactus-like euphorbias and other Old World species were brought in from South Africa or obtained through European channels.
Life in their new home had its ups and downs. Early on, some desert species such as saguaro cactus from Arizona refused to grow in Southern California’s Mediterranean climate. A killer freeze destroyed part of the garden in 1913.
But then, an upswing: In the 1920s and ‘30s the garden grew in size and variety, expanding to include dry-climate specimens from Madagascar, the Canary Islands and other far-flung locales. Collectors (including renowned agave expert Howard Scott Gentry) and botanical gardens sent their treasures to San Marino for study.
Then, another downturn: Money and interest waned during the 1940s and 1950s, and valuable plants were smothered by weeds. Hertrich retired in 1949, and the Desert Garden didn’t regain its glory until Myron Kimnach arrived from the UC Berkeley Botanic Garden in 1962. He stayed on as director for the next 25 years.
Today, the Desert Garden’s 100th spring arrives at a time when cactuses and succulents are in vogue again and interest in water conservation is rising. Age, drought and January freeze notwithstanding, this landscape is flourishing, thank you very much.
It remains a gardener’s garden, tended by hand and carefully groomed by a five-man crew, one member of whom has been maneuvering around prickly spines for 40 years.
SOME tasks are gargantuan. The photogenic pincushion rockery, a 150-foot-long planting of mammillaria cactuses completed by Hertrich in 1929, needs to be refurbished. New, healthy plants will replace lost ones, but first the rockery’s worn-out soil must be removed to a depth of 2 feet and replaced with a fresh mix of organic matter, chunky pumice and slow-release fertilizer. Lyons estimates the process will take years.
But the golden barrel cactuses -- 500 strong, some 85 years old -- are spectacular, as always, especially when backlit by afternoon sun. Luminous ice plants shine in every color but blue, and clumps of jade-green haworthias sport lily-like flowers on wiry spikes.
The Heritage Walk, completed in 2003, encircles beds of thorny puyas dating to the 1930s, the giant Andean bromeliads shimmering with turquoise, apple green or radiant red flowers. The bank of winter-blooming Aloe arborescens at the top of a flight of steps is part of Hertrich’s original plantings.
While charcoal-colored lizards soak up the heat from black lava rocks that Hertrich laid decades ago, visitors stroll, eyes widen, fingers point, cameras click.
What will the next 100 years bring? Desert collections curator John Trager and succulent propagator Karen Zimmerman are working on hybrid aloes that endure winter better and deliver showy, long-lasting flowers. Jim Folsom, the botanical gardens’ director, sees an even bigger role for this place. As natural habitats are lost to development and climate change, some of these plants will go extinct in the wild.
“Once you could go and get another plant if one was lost,” Folsom says, “but things are changing.” It’s up to his staff to preserve the precious fragments of Eden protected in this collection, he says. He likens the Desert Garden to an ark -- one that propagates and distributes some of the most unusual and significant holdings in the botanical world.
Among the precious treasures being given to select guardians: cuttings of the old, dying Cereus xanthocarpus. In caring hands, these snippets may keep going for another 100 years.
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Art, music and a movie
Visiting: The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens (including the 12-acre Desert Garden) is open Tuesday through Sunday. Admission is $6 to $15 (free for kids younger than 5). The Desert Conservatory is open 2 to 4 p.m., as staffing permits. Information: (626) 405-2100, www.huntington.org.
For kids: “Drawing From the Desert” is a children’s art workshop inspired by the Desert Garden and led by artist Mike Wiesmeier. It runs 9 to 11:30 a.m. May 5 and is geared for ages 7 and up; accompanying adult required. Cost: $20 to $25. Registration: (626) 405-2128.
Movie night and fiesta: An evening celebration of the Desert Garden’s centennial will include Mexican munchies, mariachis and margaritas in the garden, followed by a screening of Walt Disney’s 1953 documentary “The Living Desert.” The event runs 6 to 9 p.m. June 2. Cost: $25 to $28 for ages 14 and older, $15 to $18 for ages 13 and younger. Registration: (626) 405-2128.
Sale: The Cactus and Succulent Society of America’s show and sale will be held June 30 and July 1 in Friends Hall. Admission is free.
Reading: “Desert Plants, a Curator’s Introduction to the Huntington Desert Garden” is a beautifully illustrated book by Gary Lyons scheduled to be published this month. “The Huntington Botanical Gardens, 1905-1949: Personal Recollections of William Hertrich” includes early history and vintage images.
-- Lili Singer
