Arizona Cactus Garden facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Arizona Cactus Garden at Stanford University |
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View of Arizona Cactus Garden at Palo Alto, California
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| Type | park, botanical garden, cactus garden |
| Location | Stanford, California, United States |
| Created | 1883 |
| Open | Yes |
The Arizona Cactus Garden is a special kind of garden. It is also called the Arizona Garden or just the Cactus Garden. This garden is home to many different types of cactus and succulent plants. Succulents are plants that store water in their leaves or stems.
The garden is about 17,000 square feet in size. That's like a big sports field! You can find it on the campus of Stanford University in Stanford, California, USA. It is open to everyone every day, and you don't need to pay to visit.
History of the Arizona Cactus Garden
The Arizona Cactus Garden was first planted a long time ago, between 1880 and 1883. It was designed by a landscape architect named Rudolph Ulrich. The garden was made for Jane Stanford and Leland Stanford. They were the founders of Stanford University.
The Stanfords planned to build their home next to this garden. The garden was meant to be part of a bigger set of gardens for their estate. But their house was never built. The garden was taken care of regularly until the 1920s. After that, it was not maintained and became quite overgrown.
Restoring the Garden
People started working to restore the garden in 1997. This work is still going on today. Even after many years of not being cared for, some of the first plants are still there!
Today, the garden has about 500 different cacti and succulents. They are planted in 58 separate areas called beds. The garden is split into two main parts. One part has plants from the Eastern Hemisphere, like aloes and jade plants. These plants come from places like Europe, Asia, and Africa. The other part has cacti from the Western Hemisphere, which means they are native to the Americas.
About 10 to 15 percent of the plants are original ones. These old plants have been left in their first spots. As of 2016, the plants in the garden did not have labels.
See also
In Spanish: Arizona Cactus Garden para niños
