Five (glorious, sunny and warm) days in the desert

I've just returned from a trip to Phoenix, Arizona, to visit my brother and his family. Somehow eight years had gone by since I'd been to Phoenix, ten since I'd visited the Desert Botanical Garden (DBG), which is where this story begins... 

When I started planning my trip I went to the DBG website to see what days they were open, and that's when I saw notice of their plant sale. Believe it or not I remembered seeing them setting up the sale on my last visit and wished I could have attended, this time I was sure to be there on the right day(s). I'll share some pictures from the sale in a future post, but I thought I'd start with our haul. There's my brother Darin carting over his Leucostele terscheckii (Argentinian saguaro).

And here's our whole haul as we were loading it up. You can probably guess which one is mine (more on that at the end of this post).

This blog rarely includes people photos, let alone photos with me in them. But since Darin is a frequent selfie taker there are going to be a couple in this post. Here we are entering the DBG, with the Chihuly "Desert Towers" behind us.

When I mentioned my desire to visit the garden (and the plant sale) I warned Darin that he'd better plan on finding a comfortable spot in the shade to relax, as my garden visits can be rather intense, since I want to see every square inch. 

He was a good sport though, up for seeing it all. However, as we were trekking around in the sun (85F) we passed a group that looked a little tortured. I love collecting overheard quotes and was sure to write this one down... "I’ll tell you what, you better be glad Rachel didn’t come with us or we’d be walking every damn square inch of this f^&%!* place." Poor Darin, I was his Rachel.

The DBG was celebrating the season with pumpkins and gourds. This autumn "tree" was set up as a selfie station.

Pumpkin and gourd filled gabions

As we walked up to this autumnal garland draped across the sign I thought there's no way...

And I was right. That Tillandsia xerographica is not real. Can you imagine a Tillandsia sitting on a cement wall in full Arizona sun? Not a happy ending.

One more shot from the DBG today, but you can be sure there are more to come.

The first nursery we stopped at during my visit was Berridge Nursery. To my eyes October at a nursery in the desert looks a lot like spring in the PNW; vegetable starts, bedding plants, the offerings looked like Portland Nursery in May. The only photo I took was of their potting bench, available for customers to use. I had to wonder what the story was behind the lonely opuntia pad tucked in there.

We also stopped at Dig It Gardens. There will be a future post, but since this vignette looked rather Halloween-ish (bowling balls instead of pumpkins), I thought I'd include it here.

A Little Free (Saguaro) Library!

Love the tile work.

It's not every Little Free Library that has a ginormous Pachycereus schottii var. monstrosus (totem pole cactus) next to it. 

Okay I guess this isn't actually a selfie, my sister-in-law Nellie took this photo of Darin and I at the Jewel of the Creek Preserve—where there were hundreds of Saguaro and Cylindropuntia bigelovii (teddy bear cactus) growing. I was trying to look like I was hugging the teddy bear but I should have stood closer.

A grocery store stop provided this surprise. I've seen cactus pads (nopales) for sale many times, but this is the first I remember seeing Opuntia fruit (tunas) on offer.

We also squeezed in a visit Boyce Thompson Arboretum, where I was thrilled to see the Opuntia I spotted in 2018 still growing in this tree, a Tipuana tipu.

Here's my 2018 photo (from this post)...

It's grown quite a bit.

There will be many future posts with photos from this trip, but for now I'll end with my small haul...

Myrtillocactus geometrizans Crested 'Elite' from the Desert Botanic Garden plant sale. There were SO MANY things I wanted to bring home from the sale, but I've always loved this crested cactus and as a bonus I could fit it in my carry-on. 

We stopped at Desert Foothills Gardens Nursery, in Cave Creek, on our way back from the Jewel of the Creek Preserve—that's where I spotted these Agave victoriae-reginae 'Golden Princess' for just $5.

I'll take two, thank you very much. One of them had variegation leaning towards yellow and the other was a little on the green side.

The final three agave pups came from my brother's garden.

This spot is where, over the years, he's planted pups harvested from agaves in the main garden, it's where we dug mine. 

Unfortunately I don't know for sure what they are, but I couldn't resist the detailed bud imprints on these first two...

The third came from this handsome fellow. No marginal teeth, but still a strong pattern from the overlapping leaves.

Maybe an Agave weberi?

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Anything you want me to pick up for you while I'm in California?

Last month, while I was in Seattle visiting friends, my phone lit up with texts from my friend Eric. He was in Southern California, and sending images of his extreme plant adventures. First up, digging this two-headed Cycad. I'd think he was crazy, had I not spent a day with him rescuing five large Yucca rostrata, or another day when he moved an agave weighing several hundred pounds. If anyone could make this work, it's Eric.

"I'm driving around LA with my tailgate down and the root ball hanging out the back end because it's too heavy to move anywhere. A very kind stranger helped me heave it into the back of my truck. I was working in it until 10 pm, in the dark."

Not stopping with just a ginormous Cycad (and never mind that the Cycad and most of the rest of these plants are not hardy back in Portland, where Eric gardens), I continued receiving photos of plants he was be bringing home...

Be still my heart, Bismarckia nobilis.

In the truck! Don't you think this should be ad for Toyota Tacoma? 

Fully loaded and paying the price at the pump. I believe the Cycad and Bismarckia nobilis are on the lower level.

So back to the title of this post. Eric had visited my garden a couple weeks prior to his trip and asked if there was anything I wanted him to be on the look out for, anything I wanted him to pick up for me. I wasn't able to think of anything right off the bat, but then he mentioned maybe a large Asplenium nidus (bird's nest fern)? Like at Marbott's? I remember thinking that was kinda random (below my Instagram post from when I saw their fabulous specimen last November) but sure, I'd love one. 

And of course, because he's amazing, he found one! Or rather two, one for him and one for me. Here's the photo he sent me telling me that my very own, 3ft tall bird's nest fern was waiting for me at his place. It had gotten a little burnt and torn at its previous home in San Diego, but I'm confident I can have it looking happy and healthy again. Yay!

Last weekend I went over to pick it up, which led to watching as Eric hoisted his older Cycad into a custom built planter box.

I didn't just watch, I had a job. I needed to keep an eye on the bracket supporting that shelf of potted succulents—which was also bearing the weight of the Cycad—and make sure it didn't start to bend while the electric hoist winch lifted the heavy plant high enough that Eric could work it into the container.

It was a test. I was supposed to keep my eyes on the metal bracket and not let them wander to the other plants already up in the rafters (the Great Migration is under way). I passed. Well, that is the metal bracket didn't bend. I may have let my eyes wander a bit.

Wowsa.

All in! There's Eric, behind the plant. for scale.

Here's the Cycad he brought back from CA, already in it's fancy planter box (which will be lifted via a pallet jack and pulled out of the greenhouse for a summer vacation). Note the trays of Aeonium being rooted...

The dreamy Bismarckia nobilis is settling into its new home in Portland.

There was also a flawless Agave ovatifolia 'Orca' in the haul.

Which, in a simply shocking turn of events, meant that he passed this Agave ovatifolia 'Orca' on to me.

I fell quite fortunate to unload this beautiful specimen in my garden.

But what about the Asplenium nidus!? Well, I thought I took a photo when I unpacked my car that afternoon. Sadly I did not. This is the first photo I took, after I threw it up on my potting table to get a closer look and make sure there weren't any slugs or other critters hiding in there (I did find one large snail). 

Such a small (6") container for a 3-ft tall plant! I think it had been placed in a taller nursery pot at some point, allowing the roots to grow as they were.

I absolutely LOVE those dark midribs, and the lines on the fronds.

As well as the sori pattern.

Time to take off that ridiculously small pot.

And once that was done guess what I could see through the roots? Not soil, but another plastic pot!

I had to pull away all the roots at the bottom, outlined in orange.

Which lead to finding this.

Was there even any soil in there? That's a good question. I'd already torn up so many roots I didn't want to do more damage by cutting into them to find out.

Before potting it with a little new soil I went to work cleaning it up a bit more. What's that in there?

Plastic! What the heck?

After potting it, I cut off the yellowing fonds and loosely tied up the ones that remained. Afterall it has to spend winter in the basement and there's not a lot of extra room down there. 

It's going to have to get moved around as space is needed, like on laundry day.

Funny it wasn't until recently that I even decided liked this fern and added a couple small ones to my collection (via Little Prince). I really want to fertilize the rescue fern, but everything I've read tells me to hold off until spring. I'm going to try...

The Bit at the End

I like big ferns, rich people like big trees; The Latest Wealth Flex: Big Trees. A gift article from the the NY Times.

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All material © 2009-2026 by Loree L Bohl, photos from Eric Peterson used with permission. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.