day trip to Phoenix’s Desert Botanical Garden

It’s pushing the concept of a day trip to its limit when it takes five hours each way, there and back, but the DBG was having their spring plant sale and, dammit, I needed to go. So the math worked out neatly in multiples of five, including five hours spent at the garden, making it a 15-hour day trip. More math: Phoenix’s average rainfall is about 8 inches a year, while Los Angeles nearly doubles that at 15 or 16 inches, though current LA rainfall totals are below average. Phoenix like Los Angeles was in the middle of a warm spell this past week, and temperatures in the garden were over 90. For whatever reason, the plant sale, the weather, the early spring season, it was a mob scene, and lots of appreciatively awestruck comments were overheard like, “Can you believe this place?!”

Believe it.

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So what five plants did I bring home? There the math broke down, and we traveled light. Most of the smaller plants had been bought, and I can’t in all conscience rip up the headliner in yet another car. Mark your calendars and do the math for a day trip/road trip to Phoenix’s DBG for their next plant sale in October. Oh, and you might want to borrow a friend’s truck.

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11 Responses to day trip to Phoenix’s Desert Botanical Garden

  1. kathy says:

    well hot damn, I am impressed. I would have done this too, but it would have involved a hotel..looks like a trip worth taking.

  2. Is this your first time to the DBG? Heaven on earth!

    So you bought nothing? Wish I would known you were going, there’s a nice little nursery just of the 10 where you might have been able to pick up a couple of things.

  3. Hoov says:

    Place looks nice. Was it worth the trip? Is it better than the one in Tucson? I think they’ve gotten more rain than we have this winter. Grrr!! My favorite photo is the one with the frames of wall for the vertical cacti. Very cool!

  4. i love the small beast. Too cute !

  5. Denise says:

    @Kathy, I think five hours is my max time driving out. But I am checking google to see what places are within those parameters. I need to get out to Palm Springs, Joshua Tree more often too, and they’re much closer.
    @Loree, first time! We wanted to do it in a day so there wasn’t much time for nursery hopping. Ate at the DBG too, at Gertrude’s, so never went into town.
    @Hoov, yes, most definitely worth it, but watch the time of year. It’d be hard to enjoy mid-summer, for me anyway.
    @Delphine, yes, the small beastie! He sat quite calmly for his portrait. We’re guessing he’s a “kangaroo rat” but need confirmation.

  6. Christi says:

    I LOVE your blog and particularly the quality of your photographs. The best of any blog. It’s so nice to be able to see all the things that We don’t get to plant out here in hot, humid, zone 6 Ohio. Do you mind if I ask what type of camera you are using?

  7. Denise says:

    Christi, that’s so nice of you to say! I’ve still got a huge learning curve ahead where cameras are concerned. These photos were taken with my Olympus Pen E-P1 and a 24mm lens. If it’s a post with photos by MB Maher, I think he’s using a Canon 5D.

  8. Pam/Digging says:

    Like Hoov, I’m swooning over that red-wall window picture. Great framing and color and light! Thanks for taking us along on your visit.

  9. I thought I was nuts

  10. Cassidy says:

    These photos are beautiful!

  11. jenn says:

    Your cute little rodent is a round tailed ground squirrel. And that was a bold one, I don’t usually see them so close to the paths.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round-tailed_ground_squirrel

    I’m going to complement you on your photos too! Wonderful job of finding views and framing.

    Did you buy anything? I have a box from this sale that I haven’t gotten around to up-potting and placing yet. (as a renter, everything is in pots!)

    I should take some photos. Hmm.. Maybe tomorrow I will get a post up.

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