Auburn University Public Horticulture: Day Four: Exploring the Desert!

It's a day late, but we had a late night, so today's post covers Thursday and Friday.

Thursday (day four), we broke loose from routine and decided to travel back down to Tucson to visit the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. It was only Dr Eakes, Hilary, Jeremiah, Kira and Seth on this adventure. Hanna stayed behind to go to the sessions (see blurb below), Ann wasn't feeling good, and Leah had a flight back home.

The Tucson trip will be told in photos, each person contributing their favorite aspect of the journey.

From Jeremiah's view:

This shows early stages in the life of a saguaro cactus. Clockwise from bottom left shows 1-4 years, 15-20 years, 20-25 years, and 5-10 years. The saguaro is a notoriously slow grower, not blooming until it reaches around eight feet in height. They usually begin branching around 75 years.

A section of the Museum paid homage to geology and the formation of the Earth. This is a display of many beautiful minerals from around Arizona.

Of the animal displays, this bobcat habitat was my favorite. There were actually two in the area and shortly after this picture was taken this one began grooming the other. It was precious.

We got lunch at a little cafe attached to the gift shop before heading back to Phoenix. Like many of the gift shops in Arizona, there were many prickly pear products to choose from. Despite only having chocolate and vanilla listed on the menu, I asked if a prickly pear milkshake was possible. Sure enough, she made me one! It tasted similar to a strawberry shake but a little tangier. I would definitely recommend it!

From Hilary's perspective:

The Saguaro National Park and Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum were quite different from the parks I was use to visiting, especially since I am a southerner. But it wasn't just the difference in plant materials that separated my experience there compared to other parks I have I have visited, it was the design and layout of the park that I personally thought made the experience unique. For example, the diversity and information available to the visitors was quite interesting. I felt like I was learning more than just new plant material; I felt like I was learning about the natural, environmental, and cultural characteristics pertaining to Arizona as well. Besides the beautiful saguaro cacti, I loved being able to see and learn about the native wildlife, geological compositions of rocks and mountains, insects, and more. To me, knowledge about such characteristics within a region, area, or landscape is important to know in the public horticulture because public horticulture gardens or displays are the environments that affect, create, and involve relationships between plants and animals. Here are a few of my favorite photos from the visit. Enjoy!

From Kira's lens:

Saguaro National Park sits inside the Sonoran Desert

The funny little prairie dogs were definitely not camera shy. There were some newborns wandering around, but they kept to the shade.

Along with the land dwelling animals of the Sonoran, they also had an aquarium where you could view the animals from the Gulf of California such as these Garden Eels.

Inside some of the habitats there were little caves with viewing panes so that if by chance the animal climbed in you could have an up close look. Mr Porcupine was unaware of the onlookers, draped across the rock asleep.

From Seth's eyes:

Hi Dr Eakes!

Hanna spent the morning attending sessions and rounded it off with a lunch and impressive keynote
speaker...

I knew that I wanted to stay behind and attend the keynote lunch as soon as I saw that Justice O' Connor was going to be giving the keynote address. As a woman who defied all odds and became the first woman to be appointed to the Supreme Court, I was excited to see what she had to say. As we began eating and they went through the boring hum-drum of most meetings, I was a little apprehensive that I was going to be bored out of my mind. When they finally introduced the Justice everyone in the audience sprang to their feet in a standing ovation just for the mere fact that she was asking onto the stage. I thought it was the cutest thing that she had to be helped on the the stage and realized that she was older than I'd imagined. She began her speech by going over her humble beginnings growing up on a ranch in Arizona. As she told about her achievements, one including graduating from Stanford Law third in her class, I began to see that this woman wasn't just the first woman Supreme Court Justice, but she was the trailblazer for all women in law and in general. She compared her journey's, failures and feats to rainbows, saying "Sometimes it isn't about finding the pot of gold at the end if the rainbow, but the journey getting there; so chase those rainbows and keep working, because it's worth it." I left the lunch inspired to be an innovator and realized that despite what I may face, it will all be worth it in the end.

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor

We were reunited once again as APGA prepared to leave that afternoon to head to the Desert Botanical Garden, located not far from Arizona State University. We had heard so much about it, seen so many volunteers representing it and were ready to see it for ourselves. The plan was to explore the garden for a few hours as well as enjoy the food, drinks and entertainment throughout, then gather back up for one last dinner with APGA. Here's a glimpse at what we saw...

Jeremiah loved Agave and with hundreds of varieties to look at he was overcome with excitement! This garden was home to thousands of species with multiple varieties of each. Every time you turned the corner you'd see something you hadn't before.

Yes, this is one cactus, and what a monster it was!

Not only do they have abundant plant life, they also protect many of the native wildlife species. This is the endangered Desert Tortoise. Other wildlife that crossed our path were rabbits, roadrunners, lizards of all kinds, and even a family of quails.

Some parts of the garden were very manicured, but most of it kept the natural look.

Here are more photo's courtesy of Seth:

We got a chance to see one of the night blooming cactus.

We finished the night off with a delicious dinner, but due to extra time spent wandering in the garden, by the time we arrived all of the tables were mostly full. This was to our advantage because it gave us the opportunity to split from our group and meet other people, which we fully enjoyed! There was also a ballet performance for us afterwards.

That was Thursday, then there was Friday when we were homeward bound. We all took the morning to just enjoy the resort one last time before heading off to the airport. We had a fabulous trip and as for the Fab Five, we plan to return next year, when it is hosted in Colorado being, funded by one of APGA's travel scholarships.