Friday, February 04, 2011
Balboa Park, San Diego - The Desert Garden
As mentioned in the previous post I recently visited southern California. During a day off I and a couple of colleagues decided to visit the San Diego Zoo - I have to confess that I also had a cunning plan to lure my not-so-cacti-interested colleagues into visiting the Desert Garden located in Balboa Park just next to the Zoo.
My plan succeeded and after enjoying the fabulous Zoo we spent some quality time among the cacti and succulents growing on the slopes of the Desert Garden. Unfortunately the visit was improvised and rather badly planned so I missed the Old Cactus Garden, the Botanical Building, and several other interesting gardens in Balboa Park, places that I in hindsight would have liked to visit. Then again, now I have a good excuse for going back to San Diego ;-)
According to their website “the Desert Garden contains more than 1,300 plants, including succulents and drought-resistant plants from around the world, within its 2.5 acres. The peak blooming period is January through March”. I guess my visit in very early January was a tad too early to experience the full-throttle flower fest as only a few of the plants were blooming (several of the cacti were budding, though - again a good reason for revisiting Balboa Park ;-)
Yet another reason for coming back is that several of the pathways in the Desert Garden were closed during my visit due to heavy rains just a few days prior.
Labels:
Botanical Gardens,
California
Share post:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
All Time Most Popular Posts
-
Lophophora williamsii (peyote) populations have diminished in large areas of South Texas where peyoteros harvest the cactus for ceremonial ...
-
Below is a list of retailers/nurseries selling cactus seed and plants. I've only listed vendors I've done business with. If you ar...
-
On various occasions I've been asked what growing media I'm using for my cactus plants. I don't have a set soil mix recipe as su...
-
Most cacti are easily grown from seed - and with a little patience and care they can be grown into beautiful plants. Lophophora williamsi...
-
In last month’s post on the troubled Texan peyoteros I referred to Anderson’s article on the peyote situation in Texas. Given the importanc...
-
Yet another slightly off topic and probably not entirely politically correct post, but I couldn’t help noticing the similarity of my monstr...
-
There seems to be an increased focus on the alarming Texas peyote situation. A couple of weeks ago the Houston Press published a mournful, i...
-
I spent two weeks working in Delhi, India during January. I had one weekend off and had planned to spend it in Delhi at my own leisure, but ...
-
Flowering stand of San Pedro cacti (Trichocereus pachanoi) To me the main draw of the San Pedro cactus ( Trichocereus pachanoi (syn. Ech...
-
As is evident from several posts on this blog I enjoy visiting botanical gardens whenever I have the chance. Spending part of my summer vac...
