Learning About the Desert Garden

A hill in a garden. At the base of the hill are rocks, spherical green and yellow succulents, and purple flowers. On the hill are succulents with bright orange flowers. At the top of the hill are tall trees. — View in the Heritage Walk in the Desert Garden, The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens

The Desert Garden is one of the oldest gardens at The Huntington. The garden contributes to the integrity of the landscape because the plants’ roots help hold the soil in place on the hillside.

The Desert Garden was started over a century ago when Henry E. Huntington allowed his head gardener, William Hertrich, to plant a few cactuses on the property. Hertrich held a degree in horticulture and oversaw the operations of Huntington’s garden estate. Over the past 100 years, gardeners have transformed the garden into a 10-acre expanse with over 2000 species of succulents and desert plants.

The Garden as Art

A concrete path winds through two beds of succulents and other low-water plants.

A concrete path forks to either side of a bed with cactus, agave, and rocks.

A concrete path forks in three prongs through three beds of succulents and other low-water plants.

Several spherical succulent plants grow in a bed with other plants in the distanc.e

A path in the Desert Garden, The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens

The entrance to the Heritage Walk in the Desert Garden, The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens

A path in the Desert Garden, The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens

Aloe and other plants in the Desert Garden, The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens

A path in the Desert Garden, The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens

Golden Barrel Cactus and other plants in the Desert Garden, The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens

Questions & Prompts

Choose a place in the photo and imagine you are standing or sitting there. What can you see from your position? What can you smell? Hear? Touch?
Describe the landscape in the photograph using the elements of art or the principles of design [link: elements of art principles of design].
Compare the landscapers’ use of the elements of art and the principles of design in two or more of the photographed landscapes.
Draw the landscape as you see it. Then, draw the landscape as it might look in 10 years if gardeners stopped taking care of the plants.

Write a science fiction story set on another planet. Use one or more of the photographed landscapes as inspiration for your planet.

Features of the Garden

The Desert Garden has over 2000 species of succulents and desert plants in 60 landscaped beds. Despite being an ecosystem-themed garden, the Desert Garden is not intended to replicate a desert landscape. Explore some features of The Huntington’s Desert Garden:

Spherical and conical succulents grow close together in front of a high density of other plants

The garden has a high density of plants. Because deserts get so little rain, plants tend to grow far apart. However, in the Desert Garden, gardeners have developed an irrigation (watering) system to ensure the plants can get the water they need while growing close together.

The garden brings together plants from all over the world. The primary organizing factor in the garden is plant care. Plants are placed where they grow best. In this image, the flowers of Aloes (from the southern deserts of Africa) light up a hillside with golden, spherical Echinocactus (from the deserts of North America) growing nearby.

Succulent stems with blooming pink flowers

The garden is home to many old plants. Several of the succulents in the garden are over 100 years old. Many mature specimens (full-grown plants) were brought to the garden from Mexico in the early 1900s and several of these continue to thrive today.

A greenish reddish lizard rests on a greenish reddish succulent. Yellow flowers are in the background.

The garden is an ecosystem. Many animals rely on the garden for food and shelter, including Sylvilagus (cottontail rabbit), Aphelcoma californica (California scrub jay), and Sceloporus occidentalis (Western fence lizard).

Through the Years

Throughout the past century, the Desert Garden has grown and changed. Explore the photographs below to experience the garden throughout the years:

Black and white photograph of an area with desert plants sparsely spread out.

Black and white photograph of a body of water with waterfowl on it. Behind the water is an expanse of land leading up to a mansion on a hill.

Black and white photograph of several desert plants

Black and white photograph of several low growing desert plants

Desert and palm gardens, circa 1909, photograph, Henry E. Huntington Estate photograph collection, approximately 1900s-approximately 1960s. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. photCL 107.

Huntington residence from the “waterfowl refuge" (reservoir), March 25, 1910, photograph, Henry E. Huntington Estate photograph collection, approximately 1900s-approximately 1960s. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. photCL 285.

Desert garden, general view, circa 1916, photograph, Henry E. Huntington Estate photograph collection, approximately 1900s-approximately 1960s. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. photCL 107.

Expansion of the cactus garden, 1925, photograph, Henry E. Huntington Estate photograph collection, approximately 1900s-approximately 1960s. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. photCL 107.

Desert garden, general view, circa 1932, photograph, Henry E. Huntington Estate photograph collection, approximately 1900s-approximately 1960s. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. photCL 107.

Questions & Prompts

Choose one of the photos. Select a place in the photo and imagine you are standing or sitting there. What can you see from your position? What can you smell? Hear? Touch?
Select two photographs taken in the same year. Identify three similarities and three differences.

Select two photographs of the same (or similar) location taken at least 10 years apart. What has stayed the same? What has changed? Why do you think this change occurred? Do you think people caused this change on purpose?
What can you infer about the development of the Desert Garden by observing these photographs and the dates they were taken? What evidence do you have to support your inferences?

The Labor in the Landscape

Two black and white photographs side by side. The first photograph shows a white man in a suit looking at a cactus. The second photograph shows a Mexican man in working clothes holding tools and standing next to a cactus on a moving cart.

Once Henry E. Huntington approved the Desert Garden project, many people got involved to make the garden a reality. Some of these people were gardeners in Los Angeles, and some of these people were plant experts in Mexico (where Hertrich traveled to purchase many specimens for the Desert Garden).

Between 1910 and 1930, the Mexican Revolution and a series of civil wars resulted in hundreds of thousands of Mexicans fleeing their country and moving to the United States. The largest Mexican population in the country settled in Los Angeles. Many Mexican workers specialized in agriculture. The people who worked in the gardens engaged in skilled labor. This labor included transferring and caring for plants and responding to excess water in the garden by engineering dams and lily ponds.

One way we can find out about the experiences of people in the past, such as the people who worked together to build the Desert Garden, is through examining historical sources. One source that is helpful for finding out about the people who worked together to build the Desert Garden is William Hertrich’s book The Huntington Botanical Gardens, 1905-1949. In his book, he wrote:

“The actual initial planting, which I did personally with the aid of a few Mexican laborers who spoke little English was exceptionally gratifying. In spite of the handicaps experienced, the first day’s work was quite impressive to us all, including the Mexican workers, who were delighted to see so many plants from their own country.” (27-28)

“An incident that amused us occurred in Central Mexico while I was selecting a few very desirable specimens of Echinocactus (i.e., the barrel cactus) for display purposes, selecting them for size, space, and color of their spines. When the Mexicans, who had been engaged to transport them from the desert by burros, found it difficult to handle the specimens because of their sharp spines, they put their machetes to use in cutting off the spines. Mr. Huntington was greatly pleased with the results of my Mexican trip and watched the planting of the specimens in the garden. I found later that the personal contacts I had made while in Mexico were very gratifying, in that they led to additional acquisitions, this augmenting the collection to such an extent that it became an exceptionally fine representation of North American cactus and other plants known as succulents.” (28)

We do not have access to historical sources created by other workers, such as the Mexican laborers (both those living in Los Angeles and those living in Mexico). Because of this, we do not know what they might have said about their experiences building the garden. Historian Natalia Molina is currently doing research by examining historical sources to uncover information about the Mexican workers’ experiences at The Huntington (including in the Desert Garden). She intends to publish her findings in an upcoming book titled The Silent Hands that Shaped the Huntington: A History of Its Mexican Workers.

Mindful Moment

Experience a mindful moment under a towering cactus (Cereus comarapanus) at sunset. Share this time with the animals in the garden.

Create a Postcard from the Garden

People send postcards while on trips to interesting places. By mailing these postcards, people can share their experiences with other people. Postcards have two sides. On one side, artwork visually represents a place. On the other side, a short letter can be written to describe experiences. Now that you have (virtually) visited the Desert Garden, create a postcard to share the experience with a loved one.

Choose the person you want to make your postcard for. Do you want to make a postcard for a parent? A sibling? A grandparent? A friend? A cousin? A classmate or a teacher? Maybe your class can all make postcards for each other!

Create artwork of the garden on the front of your postcard. What will you include? Why? How can your art help the person receiving your postcard understand the garden?

Write your message on the back of your postcard (if you’re planning to mail your postcard, remember to leave space on the back for the person’s address). What will you write about? Did you have a favorite part of the garden? What do you wish your loved one knew about the garden?

References and Resources

Hertrich, William. 1988. The Huntington Botanical Gardens, 1905-1949: Personal Recollections of William Hertrich. San Marino, CA: The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

Houk, Walter, and Don Normark. 1996. The Botanical Gardens at the Huntington. San Marino, CA: New York: The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens; Abrams.

The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. n.d. “Desert Garden.” Accessed March 9, 2022. https://www.huntington.org/desert-garden.

The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. 2019. “Natalia Molina, Silent Hands That Shaped The Huntington: A History of Its Mexican Gardeners.” SoundCloud file of conference proceedings. October 18, 2019. https://soundcloud.com/thehuntington/natalia-molina-silent-hands.

Molina, Natalia and William Deverell. 2021. “Labor and Laborers at The Huntington: A Work in Progress Discussion with Distinguished Professor Natalia Molina.” Filmed May 12, 2021. Video. https://www.huntington.org/videos-recorded-programs/labor-and-laborers-huntington.

Learning About the Desert Garden

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