Hello and Welcome back to Ozzy’s garden, here is another post of a garden I visited in Tucson. Back before the U.S. settlers arrived, there lived a native American tribe called the Tohono tribe. This tribe lived around the gardens, so the botanic garden was name after them – Tohono Chul.
We went there a couple of times, so we know a lot about it, here is what we discovered.
Bistro
When you go in you have the popular bistro beside you, where there are lots of option to eat! If you get a membership you get 10% off of the bill once you’ve paid! You can pick an indoors or an outdoors seating area in the desert sun.
Frost in the desert
When we went there it was their winter, so they had frost protection out, and the gardeners put cups on the cactus arms, so that they don’t get cold!
Play area
Once examining the gardens, if your travelling with little ones, why not head to the play area? There’s painting, and a marble run, a slide inside, and lots more for the little ones! While the children are playing, perhaps you could look at the the plant and bushes, and have a search for butterflies and bees?
Plants
There are lots of cactuses dotted around Tohono, see if you can spot any of these:
Saguaro
Of all the south Arizona plants, the Saguaro cactus is the most common, growing only in the Sonoran desert, a cactus with a unique way of surviving in the desert, with water held like a camel, and red flowers, full of seeds.
Giant dinner plate
Accompanying the saguaro, this cactus also fills most of the desert, but unlike the saguaro, the giant diner plate can survive 4000+ft in altitude, but this cacti trails along the floor, getting more “plates”.
Barrel cactus
The barrel cactus isn’t as common as the Saguaro or dinner plate, but you find it frequently, and it often grows in clumps, but sometime they fall over. They have sometimes got a circle of colour on top though.
Agave
The agave is not a cacti, but a succulent, and you see it as much in the Sonoran desert as a Dinner Plate. This plant has long, spiky, pointed stems, and can grow up to 1-2m in height when in a really good growing spot.
Jumping Chola
The Jumping Cholla doesn’t actually jump, but when you get close to it a bit of it clings on to you, and thats how’s it reproduces! The cholla seeds (which looks a tiny bit grown) just hang of, almost like there about to drop off!
Trails
The trails are the best way to spot all the Arizonian plants, the one we went on goes out into the wild desert, or it seems so, and there is a couple of Saguaro cactuses with hundreds of arms on them! If you want to explore what it is like in the desert, the trails are for you!
Events
When we went there was a couple of events, and here is what the gardens did for it:
Halloween
Tohono Chul had decorated their gardens with massive glowing pumpkins, you can walk through the gardens in the dark, and find pumpkins displaying things you recognise!
Day of the dead
Walk through the gardens or listen to music outside the art gallery, and in the gallery there is day of the dead celebration things, and get some food under the sheltered spot!
Christmas
Enjoy all the pretty lights as you stroll round the botanic gardens, and go down a lit up garden path full of christmasy things! Enjoy fun Christmas music with fairy lights.
Every Month
Pop in for a lovely movie night! Snuggle up indoors and have delicious evening snacks like popcorn and candy floss.
I hope you enjoy Tohono Chul if ever have the chance to go there, I hope that if you do, you can do everything this park has to offer!
