Escape The Cold And Visit This Stunning California Garden
While there are many beautiful gardens in California, one of the largest and most stunning is the Hunting Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. If you've ever wanted to visit somewhere that felt like a fairy tale, the gardens won't disappoint. On a recent trip, I walked through just the Desert Garden, one of 15 themed gardens immaculately maintained by the library. After a couple of hours in just this section, I was in awe. It's definitely on my list to go back and visit the other gardens as well.
Large, fully mature plants
Upon walking into the garden there was a group of potted succulents. While not the main attraction, these fully grown specimens were much larger than most I had seen. They weren't quite as pristine and perfect as succulents grown in a nursery, but I was impressed by how colorful and blemish-free many of them were even in a harsh climate.
Walking in Wonderland
Taking a walk through this desert garden feels other-worldly. You might feel like you're in a Dr. Seuss book or Alice in Wonderland as you walk through and examine all the beautiful drought-tolerant plants. There isn't a shortage of colors, textures, or variety in this impressive garden.
Golden Globes
Of course, a desert garden wouldn't be complete without cactus. It's no surprise the garden has large fields of the iconic Golden Barrel Cactus. These were frequently mixed in with other cacti (as seen here) but another section of the garden had them paired with Agave providing an interesting contrast of both color and texture. Some of the Barrel Cactus in the garden are more than 85 years old.
Oceans of Aeoniums
These Aeonium hybrids were all throughout the garden as well. They looked like polka dots on the hillside with bright green centers and dark red outer leaves. While Aeoniums can often look overgrown and bare long windy stems, these had so many rosettes on them you couldn't see any of the winding trunks behind them.
Aloes, oh my!
You couldn't walk very far through the garden without encountering huge Aloes. Frequently they were surrounded by Blue Chalksticks Senecio too. It almost looked like ocean waves with large sea urchins floating through.
Potted Perfection
I've grown a number of Sempervivum and trailing Sedums, but these were much larger than most I've seen. This potted arrangement was perfectly balanced with just enough variety to keep it interesting. The variegated Aloes were new to me. I was quite intrigued by the bright stripes running through each of the leaves, looking almost like candy.
Propeller Plant
Throughout the garden, there are large sections with one or two individual species. I've grown a few Crassula falcata (Propeller Plant) but have never seen so many of them growing so tall. This is quite an unusually shaped plant, but it looked well suited for the slightly sloped garden bed it was planted in.
Elegant Echeveria
Perfectly planted among the lava rock was a river of Echeveria elegans, also called Mexican Snowball. These delicate succulents provided a soft contrast to the jagged rocks. Even the reddish-orange color of the rocks was the perfect complement to the blue-green succulents.
Growing on the Rocks
Many of the succulents were growing in the ground like a traditional garden. But as you walked down the sloped pathways there were often large boulders with succulents growing in every nook and cranny. Some succulents were small and just barely fit while others, like this Aloe, were huge and almost seemed out of place. It truly shows how determined these plants are to survive even in unusual spaces.
Cacti of All Kinds
Columnar cacti are all throughout the garden as well. Here you can see several varieties along with some colorful softer succulents and Aeoniums surrounding them. The Huntington Desert Garden is home to more than 2,000 species of succulents and desert plants. A careful observer will be able to pick out which of these are cacti and which are Euphorbia. They can be tricky to tell apart!
Flower Power
I was fortunate enough to visit in the Spring when many of the cacti were in bloom. There were a number of red, orange, pink, and yellow flowers on many different species in the garden. The contrast between these delicate flowers and sharp-spined plants has always fascinated me.
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This article originally appeared on Succulents and Sunshine.