Whenever I travel, I always try to fit in a visit to a garden, where I can learn more about landscaping and horticulture.
Last week, during my trip to Arizona for Super Bowl LVII, I stopped at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. Situated on 140-acres in Papago Park, the Desert Botanical Garden features cactus, agave, and other desert plants of the Sonoran Desert and the world. Founded by the Arizona Cactus and Native Flora Society in 1937, the garden has more than 50-thousand plants - one-third of which are native to the area, including 519 species, which are rare, threatened, or endangered. Please visit the Desert Botanical Garden the next time you’re in the area.
Here are some photos.
We visited on such a beautiful day. This is the Ottosen Entry Garden at the Desert Botanical Garden. This space is divided into three different gardens featuring a selection of Sonoran desert plants.
Among them, these barrel cacti – a group of barrel-shaped cacti native to North and South America. Most of these cactus plants grow up to two feet tall and about a foot in diameter.
Here is a closer look at a barrel cactus with its strong, stiff spines and prominent ribs.
The barrel cacti in the foreground is Ferocactus pottsii – a species from Mexico. This rare and distinctive barrel cactus has relatively delicate spines and a lighter green color.
Echinocactus grusonii, popularly known as the golden barrel cactus, golden ball or mother-in-law’s cushion, is a well known species of cactus, and is endemic to east-central Mexico. It is rare and endangered in the wild. It forms a pale green, barrel-shaped stem with prominent ribs adorned with areoles and bright golden spines.
Nearby is a bed of Opuntia engelmannii, prickly pear cactus. This is a bushy succulent shrub with light green or bluish-green, egg-shaped, fleshy pads that grow up to 12-inches across. It is common across the south-central and Southwestern United States and northern Mexico.
All prickly pear cactus plants have flat, fleshy pads that look like large leaves. The pads are actually modified branches or stems that store water, help with photosynthesis, and produce flowers.
This is a Boojum tree, Fouquieria columnaris. The plant’s English name, Boojum, was given by Godfrey Sykes of the Desert Laboratory in Tucson, Arizona and is taken from Lewis Carroll’s poem “The Hunting of the Snark”. The trunk is up to 10 inches thick, with branches sticking out at right angles, all covered with small leaves.
Pachycereus pringlei, Cardon Cactus, also known as Mexican giant cardon or elephant cactus, is the tallest cactus in the world native to northwestern Mexico in the states of Baja California, Baja California Sur, and Sonora. It’s part of the columnar cacti family which also includes the giant Saguaro.
Here is a view looking up. It is slow growing, and grows up to an average 30-feet when mature, but there are some that are known to be as tall as 60-feet.
The cardon cactus has grayish-green stems each featuring 10 to 15 ribs.
The Carnegia gigantea, Saguaro Cactus, is an arborescent or tree-like cactus species in the monotypic genus Carnegiea. Saguaros are found exclusively in the Sonoran Desert and can grow to be more than 40 feet tall.
This iconic cactus has an average life span of about 150 to 175 years. However, biologists believe that some plants may live more than 200 years.
Here is a stunning specimen of a crested saguaro. Saguaros sometimes grow in odd or misshapen forms. This one has a fan-like form at the top. These crested saguaros are rare and biologists are unsure why it develops. Some speculate it is some kind of a genetic mutation, while others say it is the result of a lightning strike or freeze damage.
Along with the saguaro, the Stenocereus thurberi, Organ Pipe Cactus, is one of Arizona’s most distinctive cacti, forming large clusters of 30-foot high stems, branching from the base.
This is Cephalocereus senilis, or Old Man Cactus. It has fluffy white tufts of hair over the surface of the cactus body. The long hair is used to keep itself cool in its natural habitat. As an outdoor plant, these can grow to 45-feet tall, but are generally slow growing as potted specimens. I also have some old man cacti – they’re potted up and growing in my greenhouse.
I love agaves and have many in my personal collection. Agave macroacantha, the Black-Spined Agave is a very distinctive small to medium-sized agave with leaf rosettes that grow on very short stems. The grayish-green leaves grow to more than a foot long ending in sharp black spines.
Agave paryii truncata, Artichoke Agave is an evergreen, perennial succulent forming tight rosettes of broad, short, thick, silvery-blue leaves with conspicuous reddish-brown teeth and terminal spines.
And, while they may also look like rare and beautiful cacti, the bright green plants are desert sculptures by glass artist and entrepreneur, Dale Chihuly. These florescent glass pieces look so similar in shape to the yuccas growing next to them.
Surrounding the garden is Papago Park. This is one of the buttes of Papago Park. The word “butte” comes from a French word meaning “small hill” – not to be confused with mesas or plateaus, which typically have top surfaces that are larger than their vertical faces, while a butte is taller than it is wide.
And here I am with my friend Jane Heller, and Christine Colaco – both from Bank of America. Jane and I go to the Big Game together every year and try to catch some other interesting sites during the weekend. It was great to visit the Desert Botanical Garden. I hope you can make it a stop on your next trip to Arizona.
Do you know... Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon, our time-saving meal-kit delivery service, also offers delicious baking kits?
Our decadent Chocolate Celebration Cake is made with four layers of chocolate cake divided by smooth chocolate pudding and covered in a buttery chocolate frosting. And, just like all our meal-kits, Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon cakes and desserts arrive complete with all the pre-portioned dry ingredients one needs with step-by-step instructions and photos to match. These baking kits can be added to your regular menu boxes to make for those special occasions. We made this cake here at my farm last week to serve at a small dinner party. It was a big hit and so easy to prepare.
Enjoy these photos.
Each baking kit includes the dry ingredients and recipe for the selected sweet treat. These are the ingredients for the Chocolate Celebration Cake.
While the oven is pre-heated to 300-degrees Fahrenheit, Sarah Carey prepares the eight-inch baking pans with parchment rounds. She folds a piece of parchment paper in half, then in half again, folds it into a triangle twice and holds the folded paper over the pan with the center point over the center of the pan. Then she cuts the parchment using the outer edge of the pan as her guide.
Here is the parchment paper unfolded and in the bottom of the baking pan – perfect.
Next, Sarah whisks together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Then, she heats up two teaspoons of espresso powder and the cocoa, included in the kit, to just a little more than 3/4 cup of oil.
She stirs this until fragrant – about a minute.
She adds 1 and a 1/2 cups of water and the chocolate chips and stirs until melted.
Here she adds two cups of sugar and continues to stir.
She whisks in four large eggs – one at a time.
And then adds the flour mixture and stirs until combined.
She pours the batter into the pans carefully – it’s just the right thickness.
Next, they’re placed in the top rack of the oven and baked.
For the frosting, Sarah cobines the remaining chocolate chips, another packet of cocoa, half a teaspoon of espresso powder, and half a cup each of water and sugar. She heats this up over medium-low until it is smooth.
For the pudding, she combines two and a half cups of milk with a gelatin, water, and cocoa pudding mixture.
Once it is all mixed, it is placed into the refrigerator until cold – about an hour.
For the frosting, she beats four sticks of butter, confectioners’ sugar, and the remaining cocoa powder.
Here, she adds a tablespoon of milk and a half teaspoon each of vanilla and salt.
Look at the rich light brown color – so fluffy.
The cakes are done. They are ready when a finger lightly pressed in the center springs back and leaves only a light impression.
The cakes will cool and then everything will be assembled. The cakes are halved, and then spread with pudding between each layer and then frosted. This cake is definitely for chocolate lovers.
Here is the cake after I frosted it for my dinner party.
And look at the inside – so moist and fresh. This cake serves 20. My guests even went back for seconds – simply delicious. Please check out Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon and explore our menu and how it works – there are so many flavorful meals and celebration desserts you can make!
I am so excited to share our latest news - you can now visit "The World of Martha” in Amazon stores!
"The World of Martha" offers all the essentials I love and can’t live without - beautiful products for every room of the home, all in a dedicated brand store. Just go to amazon.com/marthastewart or search “The World of Martha” on your mobile phone or desktop. My Collection includes cookware, bedding, textiles, furniture, gardening items, holiday décor, and so much more - new items and existing favorites. Plus, we offer video content as well as delicious seasonal recipes from my media library. With its reliability and quick delivery service, Amazon makes the perfect retail destination for all my home and lifestyle offerings.
Enjoy these photos showing some of the products you can now find in "The World of Martha."
My new “World of Martha” shop now offers your favorite cooking essentials such as my stainless steel Castelle Cookware Set. All these pieces feature 18/8 stainless steel – perfect for everyday sautéing, simmering, searing – all without any metallic aftertaste.
You’ll love my Oven to Table Stoneware Bakeware. These work with so many dishes, baking both sweet and savory meals evenly.
This is my Eastholm Enamel Cast Iron Dutch Oven in Martha Blue. These distribute and retain heat evenly for slow simmers, braising, making soups and stews, baking casseroles and bread, and more.
If you’re looking for a dependable knife set for your everyday cooking, try my Eastwalk Stainless Steel Cutlery Knife Block Set with ABS Triple Riveted Forged Handles and Acacia Wood Block. They come with high carbon blades and ergonomic handles.
There’s always a need for good, practical storage solutions. These are my Square Glass Containers. They’re great for leftovers, pantry ingredients, and for all those school and office lunches.
My Broadbrook Stoneware Bowl Set comes in this Sharkey Grey and Martha Blue. Use them for everyday mise en place, occasional baking, or for casual entertaining.
In “The World of Martha” we also offer a large variety of sheet sets in a wide range of colors and patterns – all made with high quality cotton for the utmost comfort.
I offer printed and solid colored sheet sets made with 100-percent Egyptian cotton sheets. Plus, my sheets have clean finished hems and a 16-inch deep pocket mattress fit to be sure sheets stay in place.
These are my 400 thread count white down soft Bed Pillows – a must for anyone looking for a good night’s sleep.
Spring will be here before you know it. Order my lightweight cheerful quilts for every bed in your home.
If you’re looking for new flatware, try my Goswell set. It comes with four dinner knives, four dinner forks, four dinner spoons, and four teaspoons. Durable and streamlined in design, buy a set for yourself or give away as a birthday, wedding, or housewarming gift for family and friends who love to host and entertain.
Don’t forget the kids. I offer a selection of furniture for our smallest crafters. Try this Art Center with Stools and Bins.
And of course, one will find lots of gardening essentials in “The World of Martha” on Amazon – weeders, pruners, trowels, my essential Hori-Hori knife, and so much more. Please go to my shop and look around – you’ll find so much, and whatever you choose can be shipped safely, quickly and efficiently through Amazon’s dependable services. Take a look now!
Martha Pins
Martha Tweets
