So much more than plants at Phoenix’s leafiest attraction

When my husband and I announced to our kids our decision to visit the Desert Botanical Garden on a recent family vacation to Phoenix, they were less than enthusiastic.  They lobbied hard for the Phoenix Zoo instead.

Now we love zoos just as much as the next parents, but whether you’re in Portland or Pittsburgh, a meerkat is a meerkat—we wanted something uniquely Arizona.  So, with no small amount of backseat grumbling, we set off for the Desert Botanical Garden.

Who can resist a hidden gnome?  Not my kids

The designers of the Desert Botanical Garden must know a thing or two about kids, because no sooner had we crossed the threshold than we encountered a sign inviting us to look for a hidden gnome and text for a clue:  “I’m snuggled in a bed of prickly pear cacti and I’m enjoying watching you walk by.”

The kids were also issued an activity booklet entitled, “The Desert Detective: Case #1″  and told that if they completed the clues and returned the pencils, they’d get prizes.

And that was the end of the whining, foot dragging, and eye rolling.

Amazing desert plants

The Desert Botanical Garden boasts the world’s largest collection of desert plants in a natural setting.  While that’s obviously impressive, it doesn’t begin to describe the whimsical beauty of the place.

There are five easy thematic loop trails to explore (People of the Sonoran Desert, Wildflowers, and so on), each bursting with color and teeming with wildlife.  If you go early enough, you’ll have the place to yourself.  Except for all the chirping, skittering, and fluttering, we felt exactly like we’d stepped into a painting.  Or maybe a Dr. Seuss book.

We saw one plant called a Boojum tree (whose name was taken from a Lewis Carroll poem called, “The Hunting of the Snark”) that was so weird and surreal, I was convinced it was a concealed cell phone tower.

And abundant desert animals

All those cacti and succulents make a nice home for the thousands of desert animals living here too.  We were surprised to see that the place was swarming with quail, doves, lizards, chipmunks, ground squirrels, cottontail rabbits, and hummingbirds.

There are nesting birds everywhere—especially perched on the arms and holes of the spiky, enormous saguaro cacti.  I overheard a docent explaining it to a group of first graders thusly: “If you were a snake, would you be willing to climb up this spiky thing to eat eggs and baby birds?”

Speaking of snakes, we didn’t see any, though they must have been there.  Ditto tarantulas, thankfully.

And even a butterfly pavilion

As if all this weren’t interesting enough, there’s also an enclosed Butterfly Pavilion where hundreds of colorful, fluttering butterflies sip nectar and warm their wings in the sun from March through May.  Sometimes they even land on visitors.

Go early when it’s still cool enough to linger among the Zebra Longwings, Malachites, and Orange-barred Giant Sulfurs, because you’ll definitely want to.

If you go

March through May is the high season for blooming, though the gardens would be majestic any time of year.  Consider scraping yourself out of bed early and arriving at 8am to beat the crowds and the heat—you can have breakfast at the Patio Cafe.

Desert Botanical Garden | 1201 N. Parkway, Phoenix | (480) 941-1225 | www.dbg.org

May 24th, 2010 | by Jamie Pearson 1 comment