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I love my cactus collection.

The thing you have to understand immediately when you move to Arizona (and visiting the gardens is a good lesson in this) is that EVERYTHING there, plants, animals, insects, the land, etc, etc, wants to kill you.

My backyard (shout out to Estrella) has fifty different ways to die.

This is the only place I have ever been where taking a nap in the wrong place at the wrong time of year is likely to be a fatal mistake.

The orange vine sounds like dodder, a parasitic vine. It’s orange due to lack of chlorophyll. There are several species in the U.S. I occasionally see them at the side of the road during the summer here in NC –a startling sight.

of course I also think it’s impossible to ever not want to see another saguaro. . .they are so lovable :)

also, @Takuan: Actually, New Age quasi-religion is a cottage industry in Sedona, which is said to have a lot of “vortexes” where magic happens. If you want details, ask anyone who buys a lot of crystals and turquoise.

That’s why I like your mom so much.

Also, every year during the Christmas season, they have the lluminaria exhibit, where the garden is reopened after dark and the paths are lit with thousands of luminarias (candles in paper bags to those not familiar). While you walk through there are several performers at different points doing everything from carols to a jazz trio.

Seeing all of this light up in the night was truly magnificent. maybe if I get off my ass and do somthing about it I can get it into my flickr stream…

“…everything wants to kill you.”

Yes, but only in self defense!

Perhaps the thorns help prevent it from digestion before the fruit drops, to maximize the spread of seeds among many small fury creatures rather than a few large ones?

I took my own pictures from the Botanical Gardens. I also recommend visiting Red Rock State Park if you get a chance.

My Arizona pictures (including botanical gardens)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samsview/collections/72157604068790742/

Wow, two boingboing posts related to my Flickr pictures in one day…what are the odds?

Have I given you a clue ?

There’s a motel called the Ghost Ranch Lodge in a slightly shabby section of town. When it was built, it was a nicer neighborhood.

As of about five years ago, the prices were quite reasonable. From the front, the motel doesn’t look like much, though it has a snappy logo, a neon sign that features a Georgia O’Keefe cow skull.

Turns out the fellow who originally opened the museum was a buddy of O’Keefe’s, and the fellow who collected many of the specimens in the Desert Museum.

The motel itself is my idea of heaven. It has spacious grounds with many gardens. Half the ground are in an orange grove, the other half are in an exceptional cactus and succulent garden. The boojum tree here is better than the one at either Phoenix’s botanical garden or the Desert Museum’s. Why? Because it was collected by the same guy who collected for the museum collection.

The gardens are maintained by the folks from “Plants for the Southwest” a nursery that is a MUST on your tour if you are interested in desert plants. I’m a lithops freak and they let me have a tour of their propagation area. Lithops are “living stones” and native to South Africa, but they are very happy to grow in Southern Arizona. This nursery has more of them than any other place outside of South Africa.

Lithops are wonderful. Lithops, like striped pajama squid, are one of those things that make life worth living. Here’s a link to the nursery: http://www.lithops.net/

The motel had just changed hands when I last visited, about five years ago. As it was, there ws a pool and a hot tub and lovely grounds and a very humble, yet pleasant, little restaurant. The rooms were all a little worn, well-loved you might say, but the prices were very reasonable. For family travel in particular, it was a wonderful spot. You could get rooms with kitchens, suites of rooms, rooms that came with their own little courtyards. It was all adorable.

I’m crossing my fingers that it hasn’t changed much. Here’s a link to the motel: http://www.ghostranchlodge.com/

From the ghost ranch, you’d get up early and drive to the desert museum. Just the ride was a joy, over a gorgeous mountain path through thick stands of saguaro. So much life in such a fierce desert climate, so much beauty. It was all a total jaw-dropper.