Huntington Botanical Gardens

Saturday (March 05, 2005) I visited Huntington Botanical Gardens with high expectations. Initially I was a bit disappointed by the Desert Garden – the focus seems to be more on gardening than on botanical aspects, i.e. the plants were primarily grouped by appearance instead of by biotopes, many of the plants were unmarked etc. I should have been warned by the welcoming sign saying: The garden before you is hardly a desert ;-) Also a lot of the paths were closed with “do not enter” and “no admittance” signs! That being said, I ended up spending more than 3 hours studying the various species of cacti.


An impressive group of Echinocactus grusonii

Unfortunately very few of the cacti were blooming – I would like to return in a month or two when the flowering is in full swing.


Flowering Ferocactus echidne var. victoriensis

I took a lot of pictures. As time permits I’ll process and upload them to a photo gallery.